Jezebel
heel the world
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Police in Torbay, Devon (a resort town in England) will soon begin to hand out flip-flops (printed with a safety message) to high-heel loving women out for an alcohol-soaked evening. Inspector Adrian Leisk says, "Sometimes people get drunk and you see them carrying footwear which is inappropriate." In a town where there's also concerted effort to make the many men caught urinating in public wipe up their own piss, women walking around barefoot is probably more "unsafe" and "unsanitary" than inappropriate. [Telegraph]
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Sexual Heeling
Look, no one wears 4" heels cause she thinks they are good for her health! We know heels fuck with knees and backs and tendons, create hammer toes and bunions and basically cripple you for life. The problem is, for some of us, that moment when you slip on your first pair of pumps is a watershed: damn the torpedoes, there's no going back. the Daily Mail gives a very dreary rundown of all the dire consequences of our glamor — apparently they're especially awful for the developing feet of teens — but then at the end, this familiar-sounding gem: "Italian research suggests women who wear up to a 2in heel may enjoy a better sex life. That's because holding the foot at a 15-degree angle - as with a 2in heel - increases electrical activity in the pelvic muscles that play a vital role in sexual performance and satisfaction." 2"? Maybe we can cut down to that. [Daily Mail]
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Leftovers
Trade Union Speaks Out Against "Sexist" Heels • Iraq War Limits Iraqi Women's Freedoms
The Trades Union Congress in England is urging employers to stop making high-heels compulsory for female employees on grounds that it is sexist and can lead to health problems. • Comedian Kristen Schaal reveals that not only is she well-read in British dramatists, she used to practice stand-up in front of cows as a child. • In England a man has been banned from visiting his girlfriend's home after neighbors complained about their noisy sex and the girlfriend's general "nightmare neighbor" behavior. • Another plucky-grandma-fighting-a-thief story? Oh, yes. • More » -
what it feels like for a girl
We Challenge A Man To Walk A Mile In Our Heels, Part 2
Previously, we challenged Street Carnage's Gavin McInnes to walk a mile in a pair of high heels. He quit after about a block. But later that day, we were able to convince him to meet us at a park in Brooklyn to see if he could do four laps—equaling one mile—around the track. And he did! (And he bitched and moaned the entire time.) Check out his victory in the clip above. More » -
what it feels like for a girl
We Challenge A Man To Walk A Mile In Our Heels
To continue our series of "What it Feels Like for a Girl" — in which we make men do some of the more unpleasant accessories of "femininity" — we decided to challenge a man to walk a mile in our shoes... three-inch heels to be exact. We took Street Carnage's Gavin McInnes — a man known for his unyielding insistence on women wearing stilettos and model for our instructional makeup videos — shopping for shoes and walked around in downtown NYC. So was he able to do the full mile? Check the clip above. More » -
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Shoe in
The Dollar May Be Low, But Heels Are High, And Getting Higher
Yesterday's Independent featured a story by Harriet Walker about skyscraper heels. Prompted, of course, by Victoria Beckham making an appearance in spindly 5 inch stilettos. Writes Walker: "Just when you thought heels couldn't get any higher, guess what: they have." This season, Prada, Louboutin and Dior all have towering heels. And the Giambattista Valli shoes for fall (pictured) have a retro feel, but with platforms and heels so high they almost seem designed for toppling over. The Daily Mail points out that high heels have been around since 3500BC, when Ancient Egyptian noble women picked their way through the pyramids. Hundreds of years, billions of aching feet, twisted ankles, throbbing bunions and crusty corns. Why do we do it? More » -
Islamic authorities in Kota Bharu, a city in northern Malaysia, have distributed pamphlets urging women to forsake bright makeup and high heels to avoid being raped. The authorities (mocked by Malaysian liberals as "Taliban lite") justify their actions by saying they are simply making suggestions for women who want to lead a "100% Islamic" way of life. However, women who want to follow the suggestion against high heels but still want to channel their inner Carrie Bradshaws can do so as long as they pad their heels to mute the sound. Bright red lipstick is still strongly discouraged, because it is so Fall/Winter 2007. [Guardian]
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dubious studies
Some Women Will Do Anything To Justify A Shoe-Obsession
My name is Megan, and this is but a portion of my collection of high heels. I recognize that this might be a problem, but I'm 5'4", and I have short muscle fibers (i.e., stumpy legs) which kept me from being in the front row at ballet recitals and now prevent me from looking cute in flats. This, you see, is how I justify my purchase of stiletto-heeled shoes, despite the fact that they sometimes hurt my feet, back or hips. But now I have another excuse: Sex! According to reports today, Dr. Maria Cerruto, an Italian urologist who felt it necessary to medically justify her high heel obsession, has found that wearing heels can improve a woman's sex life. More » -
English high-end retailer Harvey Nicks is doing, uh, absolutely nothing to reverse gender stereotypes. Their latest advert (as they call it on that side of the pond) features a graph that makes a connection between the height of a woman's heels and the attractiveness of the sort of man she can land. Let us say from personal experience that wearing spiky shoes has never once landed us a man. A straight one, that is. [Copyranter]
