Just a day before, I surprised myself by buying a comfy pair of flats. For the last 25 years, I have been wittingly (or unwittingly) investing in heels. From pumps to peep-toes to slingbacks, my shoe-rack, no, my shoe-racks are overstuffed with spiky heels and wedges. The only pair of flats I owned up until now were bathroom slippers, and perhaps one hush puppy slingback sandal for occasional visits to the salon and a pair of sneakers for workouts.
All these years, never for once had I ever had an inclination of buying a flat pair that was comfortable, yet classy. Why it took me so long to slip into flat sandals, is beyond my comprehension.
My short stature or perhaps my unease with it could be blamed for it. But who is responsible for creating this anxiety, for not being enough just as I am. Not my parents for sure, as I can vividly recall my mum constantly assuring me how beautiful I was despite not making to the base line of average height. Of course, being taller in height, she did not understand my plight of being on the wrong side of the scale. Often consoling and reminding me time and again that height is genetic–over which one has no control–and because my father’s family comprised of people with shorter frames, I had acquired this, it did little to placate my apprehensions.
At 15, I began pointing at beautiful 4-inch heels (sometimes higher) displayed in showroom windows to my mum. By 16, she had realized that I was not an easy one to back down, and gave in to my desire to substitute for the missing inches. Ever since, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my footwear.
The moment I put on my heels, I felt taller, smarter and more confident to face any challenging situation that could be handled from behind a desk. But if you asked me to hop around cubicles or buildings to sell ideas or things, I’ll cringe at the very first moment, and pass the offer. Yet, the picture presented to us by romcoms like Bridget Jones Diary or Sex and the City, and girly series such as ‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Gossip Girls,’ ‘Mindy Project,’ and the most recent one ‘The Bold Type’ go on to indicate that women have no problem running from pillar to post to get things done in pointy stilettos, even when they go grocery shopping; in fact, they thrive in it. And I believed in the idea long after my heavy body started complaining and feet howling. Despite the grudge my toes held against me, I remained unmoved and carried on wobbling through streets and malls and parties like it was piece of cake.
Now that I’ve gotten a little more comfortable with my contours and folds, the idea of trying flats is settling in.
But I wanted to dig a little deeper into why I believed ‘heels’ carried such massive power. It turns out, it wasn’t years and years of conditioning, not even decades of it, but centuries old accustoming that had me prioritize it the way I did.
Heels were first invented in Persia in the 10th century for wealthy men, to give them additional height, and when their heels clicked into stirrups while riding horses, it made them feel powerful, important but most of all signaled their ‘social standing,’ much like thrusting the gas pedal of a sports car causing a “whirring” sound to announce one’s arrival. Heels were indeed a status symbol, because they indicated that the wearer didn’t have to walk where they needed to go, and neither did they have to perform any hard labour. When Persian royalty travelled to France in the 17th century, the trend took off immediately. Eventually, wealthy women, too, took to them to avail some social benefits. However, women’s shoes had taller, thinner heels than those of their male counterparts as it made their feet and bodies look more feminine and attractive. Heels accentuated her figure, which men began to find irresistible, so they became synonymous with women’s sexuality. So much so that it began to be associated with female eroticism. At this time, and perhaps because women had already taken the burden of being sexually evocative, men abandoned the heels for more practical reasons and replaced them with flat boots. Since women are genetically constructed to carry all the heavy burden on their shoulders, they latched on to it.
Heels, in particular, are not designed for movement, but they form a significant part of social acceptance. Owing to which, by 18th century, women of all social classes began wearing them. Even the poor, working in the fields or as housemaids, felt the pressure to adhere to these new norms of femininity. Though, they were often an impediment, making it difficult to move about comfortably, yet, we chose to conform to the new dictates of looking elegant at the cost of discomfort.
Can anyone ever walk in them?… I’m certain that no woman would ever be able to stand in it for more than two seconds before tripping over, let alone trot in those sparkly treasures. The designer has pushed women’s enduring capacity way too far. But if you look at it from an aesthetic point, they’d make for a good collector’s item to adorn your mantelpiece.
