ShoeSense

You know high heels are overrated...

...when a seasoned transsexual complains:

So why do we torture our feet? I, like many a transgender, have been wearing heels up to 5" for years, and many a night I have gone home with sore feet. My soles are sore sometimes, but toes take the most abuse, being crammed in that small pointed toe box and having nearly all my body weight on them. I sometimes wonder if I have some masochistic tendencies, or maybe I just tolerate the discomfort because it is a constant reminder of something sexy on my foot.

S/he goes on to recommend open-toe, sandals, and round-toe pumps, without forsaking the spike heel, though (which, as we know, is bound to create that burning, excruciating sensation in the balls of your feet, pain only slightly diminished by Botox-injections and fat-pad surgery so popular among Hollywood starlets). Why? I would argue that the high-heel is NOT what makes her feminine, it's the attitude, the whole look put together, a certain naturalness and ease and comfort of being in your own skin. When you are constantly tortured, where, oh where is the fun in being a woman?

You, stiletto-lovers, can you answer me that? Shouldn't we give transsexuals a more humane, more comfortable model of femininity, or do you insist they they suffer as you did, since a woman's destiny is, after all, suffering into perpetuity for the privilege of being sexy, i.e. an immediately available toy in the perverse hands of the patriarchy?

If you don't care about your comfort but care about being desired, just like Cinderella's unfortunate sisters, can you at least find it in your heart to ease the pain of the transgender community who aspires to be like you? You've heard them: they do suffer, captives in the sharp-heeled accoutrements that have come to define sex-appeal. Start a revolution! Wear comfortable footwear! Do it for our transgender friends!

[Sponsored by the Front for Feet Liberation, a non-profit radical group based in Footopia, PA]

posted by Cristina Hanganu-Bresch @ 2:44 PM