A few weeks ago, I went shopping with Ranya and her sister Manal. As we were walking to
Manal’s car, I was very aware of the sound of my heels striking the pavement.
“Hee hee, I like wearing high heels.”
Ranya asked why (I don’t think
I’ve ever seen her willingly wear high heels), and I said that I feel
confident in them, partly because they make me taller and partly because I like
the noise they make when I walk.
By the time we made it
to the store, I’d had some time to reflect and let the conversation soak in…and
it occurred to me that high heels are only appropriate and reasonable in an
environment with many paved surfaces. You don’t wear heels when you know you’re
going to walk through a lot of grass or mud because a) it’s going to ruin the
shoe and b) you won’t be able to walk effectively anyway because the heel will
keep sinking into the soft surface. In that way, my shoe choice is linked to
things like the heat island effect and human separation from nature! (Not to
mention the ways that they probably perpetuate sexist principles…but that’s not
my area of expertise, and it’s off-topic, so forget it.) I’m probably not going
to stop wearing those types of shoes anytime soon, but I definitely did change
the way that I think about them.
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