4
Hello lover: Women and their shoes
A dramatic pair of heels by French shoes designer Christian Louboutin.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
Here's another sound of money: The clickety clack of a pair of Christian Louboutins walking down a hallway. Just one pair of that red-soled gorgeousness will set you back close to a grand. For shoes.
But you know what, plenty of women spend a lot of time and money on shoes. Rachelle Bergstein took note of that and wrote the new book "Women from the Ankle Down: The Story of Shoes and How They Define Us." She studied why women prize shoes so much and are willing to shell out of the big bucks for them. There are obvious reasons like they're beautiful, but Bergstein found some other more complex reasons.
"They have come to represent all of these really subtle, but improtant social cues, like status, like economic mobility, like independence, like power, like strength," Bergstein said. "And these thigns are such a potent brew that they contribute to making shoes so popular to this day."
Up until the 20th century, shoes made to last were limited to the very wealthy. But with new technologies and industrialization, shoes were more easily produced, driving costs down and increasing the variety of styles available. No longer are there just one or two styles in fashion during a season; there are now at least 20 different styles trending at any given time.
But why are they so expensive? Take a listen to the interview the Bergstein above to learn the answer and more about the history of shoes and women.
I could hardly contain my lunch as I listened to this interview. OK, I hated the facts of the story - that so many women are majorly obsessed with shoes, but to have an interviewer (Tess Vigeland), a woman and broadcast professional schmoozing this author and offering girlfriendly approval to this practice was appalling. This is not a benign behavior. The behavior has moral, financial, social, health, and ethical consequences. Your interview did not report this phenomenon it endorsed it. Women deserve better.
"Independence", "power", and "strength"? How about "dependent" and "easy mark"? An intelligent woman would never waste money on such gaudy displays of financial irresponsibility.
And thank goodness for that. As an unmarried 30-something male in the "1%", nothing excites my predatory instincts as much as seeing these on a woman's feet. They broadcast shallowness, obsession with status, even a willingness to endure physical pain (!) for the approval of others.
It's the new cigarette-smoking: "Wow, she's dumb enough to buy those? I wonder what else she's dumb enough to do ..."
As long as women allow themselves to be stampeded by the dictates of something as shallow and unimportant as "fashion," they will continue to waste money on frivolous, expensive, and insubstantial shoes (some of them dangerous since they have such high heels that they strain the joints and will lead to health problems). I don't understand the fascination for ridiculous looking shoes and paying high prices, but be sure I have no sympathy for someone who complains they don't have enough money if they throwing it out the windows for nonsense shoes. I'm a woman and hear this exception to the herd mentality: I wear shoes for comfort and durability and not because some starlet shoves her foot in my face. If you got the money and you want to waste it on silly shoes rather than doing good works or saving it for something slightly more important (which would be nearly anything), that's fine; but if you have a strained budget and you are teaching your daughters the wasteful ways of useless fashion, then don't come to me for a handout. I am also alarmed by the disgusting news that there is a rise in foot surgery so that women can mutilate their feet to get in these absurd shoes. I thought we made more progress than that but instead of being customers, women have decided to become slaves to the dictates of designers who apparently hate them (and probably laugh their heads off every time someone is dumb enough to buy their products).
I found this story - about shoes costing upwards of $1000 to be a jarring contrast to hearing about foreclosed homes and the rebuilding of New Orleans. A sad story that highlights the stark differences between the wealthy and the rest of us. And as a woman I find it even more sad.
