Feminist Attitudes Towards High Heels
The high heel has been a central battleground of sexual politics ever since the emergence of the women's liberation movement of the 1970s. Many second-wave feminists rejected what they regarded as constricting standards of female beauty, created for the subordination and objectifying of women and self-perpetuated by reproductive competition and women's own aesthetics. Some feminists argue that the high heels were designed to make women helpless and vulnerable, perpetuating the gender role of males as protectors of the slowly staggering women. High heels have also been blamed for reducing the woman to a sex object by sacrificing practical comfort in favour of an alleged increase in sex appeal. Some second-wave feminists, such as Judy Grahn, have tied high heels to menstruation rituals that various cultures have used.
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Famous quotes containing the words feminist, attitudes, high and/or heels:
“A good part—and definitely the most fun part—of being a feminist is about frightening men.”
—Julie Burchill (b. 1960)
“I think what everybody calls a miracle is just common sense.... You can look at the attitudes when people come in. That’s why they call it a miracle. These are black kids and they’re not supposed to know the things they know and achieve the way they are achieving.”
—Marva Nettles Collins (b. 1936)
“Nor aught availed him now
To have built in heav’n high tow’rs; nor did he scape
By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure:
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.”
—William Congreve (1670–1729)