 Once upon a time, men commonly wore high-heeled shoes. Not necessarily like those pictured here, but definitely big, chunky, elevating heels. This interesting BBC story asks: why did men stop wearing them? (As a rule, that is. In certain contexts, of course, some men still do.)
Participation! Read the story and consider the stated reasons for this change. Put this into conversation with Judith Butler's ideas about gender performativity. What is it about the structure of a shoe that signals gender? How do other elements of fashion contribute to gender construction?
7 Comments
kapostol@ucsd.edu
1/24/2016 05:54:07 pm
Heels used to represent how powerful and elite a person was. Men used to wear high heels because it allowed them to secure their stance. Women were viewed as weak. They believed that incorporating the heel would add masculinity to their outfits. Soon after, hegemonic beliefs changed and heels started to look foolish on men.
Thomas Conner
2/19/2016 11:20:41 am
Indeed! So what changed the hegemony? What does it take to make the counter-hegemonic the new hegemony?
Jason Ma
2/27/2016 12:58:50 am
Within Ancient Egypt, high heels were used as a symbol of status. I also remember from an art history class that the Egyptians used a technique in their art called "hierarchy of scale" where taller figures were more important/had more status, just thought that might have something to do with the way it was viewed.
Clayre
1/27/2016 12:40:29 am
Participation :
Xinyi Zhan
2/17/2016 03:41:51 pm
Women are regarded as delicate and in need of protection, so the heels designed for them are thinner and more delicate although at first women tried high-heel shoes in want of men's power or strength. Many elememts like color, style and acssesories in modern fashion show basic difference between gender. For example, men prefer dark color like black and dark blue while women have much more choices of light colors.
Thomas Conner
2/19/2016 11:23:54 am
I understand from speaking to women about the experience that wearing high heels is not for the weak. It's difficult, it takes training, it can hurt! How does that square with what you're describing here? Why do strong men get the comfy shoes and women have to totter about on spikes?
Melissa Supsup
2/24/2016 03:33:42 pm
I actually had a conversation about this with my mom's friend who is a business woman. I'm an international business major and I was curious about this. I asked why business women are expected to wear heels to work? She replied, "Because it represent femininity. Women are supposed to look sophisticated, pretty, and professional." I replied, "But why high heels? They're a pain." And she ended the conversation by saying, "Because it's what society created." This conversation was more than a year ago before I did my college applications. To realize that even adults are aware of these "social norms," I feel that people conform to these things because this is the society we live in. Leave a Reply. |
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