you're good people.

[keryx]

I like you, gentle readers. I like that nearly everyone on my friends list actively questions their own thoughts and actions in terms of the culture vs. our ideals.

Today the Wilderness Office Park is much less icy, but still not safe for shoes of any heel or slippyness. So I wore my light sneakery shoes and carried in a pair of heels. I tried to wear casual shoes yesterday (it is casual dress week, after all) and felt awkward and unprofessional all day.

So today I'm wearing heels and jeans, which is about as casual as I'm okay with for work.

How did I come to think that sneakers weren't work shoes (even for jeans days)? How did I come to not feel fully dressed without my feet at an odd angle to the ground (even if it strangely benefits my knees)?

I'm pretty sure it's not strictly a matter of personal choice. I'm not sure this is a habit worth breaking, but I loathe that I can't trace all my seeming "choices" back to root causes of some sort.

Comments

Re: aesthetics...

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I am totally with you on this one. But then, I have never worked anywhere where shoes were an issue. Acutally, when I was in customer support, my male coworker showed me his grip-fast 20 hole boots and I ran right out and got some of those.

What really stops me is the "angle to the ground" issue. I don't see how I can ever accept an aesthetic that causes me to be more vulnerable and possibly mis-shape my own feet. (My grandmother's feet were ultimately bent permanently into high-heel shape and could never wear flat shoes again. This makes me slightly biased, having seen this firsthand.)

Re: aesthetics...

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow, I've never seen that happen - owwwwww!! Though I will say that the clunky platform heel thing did wonders for me after a knee injury (sustained while wearing flat shoes). But my idea of an attractive heeled shoe and your grandmother's are probably quite different.

Still. It bothers me to think that I'm contributing to an ideal that damages people's feet, even if I'm not personally injured by it. I'm not sure what I'm prepared to do about it, though.

Re: aesthetics...

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't know if she had chronic pain b/c of the bent foot thing or not. She wasn't one to talk about it. I will note that she worked in retail and sales and real estate much of her life. She was always on her feet. Maybe it wouldn't happen to someone in a sedentary profession. BUT STILL. We do lots of things that ain't natural in the name of aesthetics, but this one is just so danged sexist I can't abide it. (Hypocrite alert: I do own several pairs of heels. I wear them to weddings.)

Re: aesthetics...

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

My dad's wife used to feel physically more comfortable in heels b/c that's what she always wore to work (as a schoolteacher). She had the highest arches I'd ever seen. But she is retired now and has happily made the transition to bare feet... I should check out her arches and see if they have gotten lower.

Re: aesthetics...

[keryx.livejournal.com]

She probably didn't have chronic pain, because the body adapts by halting pain signals and keeping tension in weird places. But ow, from the perspective of not being able to change shoes or walk barefoot or whatever.

And ditto what you said on the sexism front.

Though I will on principle argue the statement that walking at an angle is unnatural - done barefoot, it's actually pretty fast to run on your toes.

Re: running on your toes

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

But the whole body is at a different angle when running, as opposed to standing or walking.

It interests me that you find wearing heels more comfortable for your knees -- they tend to make one arch the back more, which I personally find uncomfortable for my lower back, but I never pondered the effect on the knees.

Re: running on your toes

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Valid point - running is a very different thing, as is dancing and... well, most other things you do on your toes. And being in heels isn't exactly the same as on the balls of your feet anyhow.

The knee thing is that a solid, platformy heel gave me foot support while engaging my knees, so it built my tendons and muscles back up after a major dislocation. The platform sole, combined with ages of dancery training, also tends to push your weight evenly on your feet, so less back arch. I find it more comfortable for short bursts of walking, but hellacious for standing still.

Re: running on your toes

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I definitely find chunky, platformy heels more comfortable than the spindly kind... I am honestly stunned when I see women wearing spike heels to commute to work. They must have *way* better balance than I!

Re: aesthetics...

[swartzdk.livejournal.com]

Both of your Grandmothers had the same problem Seems that 50 or 50 years of heels permenantly shortens the tendons in your legs. My mother even had to have high heeled (wedge) slippers.