6 Myths About High Heels

27Oct

Pick a side, team heels or team flats, show us where your shoe loyalty lies?

I was surprised and amused to learn a few interesting things about high heels recently, and it got me thinking about the attitudes people have toward high heels today. My scales are tipped heavily toward team heels, always have and I think they always will be. I love the feeling I get from wearing heels, the bounce, the rhythm in my walk, the extra height, and just a ‘hard to put into words’ girly feeling.

High heels were made for women

No they weren’t.

It seems to be widely documented that high heels were first created for european aristocratic men and royals. Not your every day sassy woman. From what I’ve gathered, women later started wearing heels as a point of making themselves more equal to men. Crikey, you’d never think it!

High heels are also thought to have been invented to keep men’s heels in stirrups whilst on horseback – back in the day.

There’s nothing criminal about wearing high heels

Well maybe not these days, but back in the seventeenth century there were european laws in place to prohibit pregnant women from wearing heels beyond a certain height in case they fell and caused damaged to their unborn child. Laws were later brought in to increase the heel height, in order to (brace yourself) prevent women wondering too freely, and therefore less able/likely to have affairs. Ponder on that…

Over in Greece however, laws are still in existence that make it a crime to walk on certain historic sites wearing high heels – in the interests of preservation.

You’ll never find a butcher wearing heels on the job

Well you would have done back around 3500BC, when Egyptian butchers used to wear high heels to avoid walking in the blood of the dead animals they’d killed. With the exception of butchers, high heels were reserved for the upper classes.

Heels are bad, flats are good

Not necessarily. We hear so much about the damage high heels can do, but flats are no angels either. Why do some people assume it’s some kind of miracle to be able to walk in heels? If I had a penny every time a woman asks ‘how do you walk in those heels’…….

We’re all different, and our muscles adapt to different things depending on our habits, I’ve been wearing heels without any back problems, leg aches, bunions or corns for as long as I can remember. Heels are not the evil enemy. Just choose your heels wisely – pick heels that feel comfortable, they don’t all fit the same. Be sensible about choices – i.e. don’t wear your highest, thinest pair of stilettos for a day of shopping, or a night at a stand up concert for goodness sake!

Take Heed

Don’t buy heels (or any footwear for that matter) if they feel uncomfortable or hurt when you try them on in the shop – no matter how fabulous and beautiful they are. Been there, done that and regretted it every time. Ladies I know this is a hard pill to swallow….. #damagelimitation

Team Heels

So to all my fellow team heels members, lets continue to strut in the heels of our choice, enjoy the lift and boost they give us and offer encouragement and reassurance to those trying to make the move over from team flats. Cheers to heels!! You can do it…..

You know your size

Well, technically you can’t be sure because our feet continue to grow throughout our lifetime – allegedly. This has nothing to do with wearing heels, just an interesting thought.