They wait like coltish little thoroughbreds in the bedroom. Spindly and strappy and scrawny, bejewelled and bedecked, they’re not wanted in these Covid-warped times and like Cinderella will not be going to the ball; I’m not sure they’ll ever be wanted again. They’re my high heels, and how faintly ridiculous they all seem now. Instruments of torture, so many of them.
The Goddess Nigella said recently that Birkenstocks are the only shoes she’s worn for months during her (multiple) lockdowns. And now that our feet have softened and spread into more comfortable shapes, will we women ever go back to the shoes that pinch and exhaust, that have us tottering and teetering and wobbly and weakened? I’m no longer interested in deforming my toes, no longer interested in something that saps my natural God-given female strength. And high heels do.
Sales of heels have flatlined over the past year – trainers are the go-to shoe now. UK brand Kurt Geiger used to be synonymous with its vertiginous heels, but it isn’t creating a single one for its upcoming spring-summer collection. It’s focusing entirely on flats and trainers in what it says is a reflection of a complete reversal in trends over the past five years. US Vice President Kamala Harris was recently photographed for the cover of Vogue in trainers; Serena Williams wore them to the evening reception of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. It’s now acceptable to go somewhere more formal in runners, and they’re blinging up in response.
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Our feet say thank you. Because cultures the world over have pushed women – working women – towards an aesthetic that results in blisters and bloodied feet, corns and calluses. The wearing of high highs has even been written into employment contracts. The politics of female footwear is fraught, and Covid has given our feet a blessed rest. Why choose to walk on tippy toes when there’s an empowering alternative?
In 2019, Japanese women dug in their heels, literally. An anti high-heeled movement was led by Yumi Ishikawa, who’d been forced to wear the shoes when she worked in a funeral parlour. Her stance led to Japanese women demanding employers be banned from making women wear heels as an enforced dress code.
High heels hurt. Personally, they exhaust after about half an hour. Emma Supple, a vice-president of the UK’s College of Podiatry, explains: “It’s a form of subjugation when a woman is being made to wear a three-inch stiletto and not allowed to choose a more comfortable alternative. These shoes can … cause long-term damage, from crippling blisters, corns and calluses to knee, back and more musculoskeletal damage. It’s just not fair to expect a woman to do a day’s work in a vice: it will impact on her performance.”
Six years ago a London receptionist was sent home for wearing flat shoes at Price Waterhouse Cooper. The subsequent outcry triggered a UK government investigation into sexist work dress codes. Helen Jones, chair of the Commons Petition Committee, found attitudes that belonged more in the 1850s: “Threatened with dismissal if they complained, [women] were forced to bear pain all day, or to wear clothing that was totally unsuitable for the tasks they were asked to perform, or to dress in a way that they felt sexualised their appearance and was demeaning.”
A few years back actress Kristen Stewart removed her high heels for the Cannes red carpet. “If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you cannot ask me either,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter. Quite. Here’s hoping that any compulsory high-heeled requirements for women in workplaces will be a blessed casualty of Covid – and good riddance to them.
Columnist
Sydney
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February 12, 2021 at 08:00PM
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Will the pandemic sound the death knell for high heels? Here’s hoping - The Australian
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