The Danger of Girly Shoes

Cheaply made shoes are not only bad for your pocketbook, but for your heath.

A website posits that the shoes above are good for dancing in.  It hurts my feet to even look at them!

The next time you are at the hospital, or on an airplane, or at the airline ticket counter, check to see what kind of shoes the people working there are wearing.   People who have to be on their feet all day long don't screw around with crappy shoes.  They know from experience that good shoes means good posture, good health, and a good back.

Sadly, many people, particularly women, fall into the crappy shoe trap.   They view shoes as a style accessory and not something that is supporting all of your body weight.  Men tend to view shoes more pragmatically - and value the technical aspects more, the wear characteristics, and so forth.   Men tend to have fewer shoes, but higher quality ones.  Men spend more per shoe than women, even if women spend more on shoes overall.

Women's shoes are often a travesty.   Trendy looking shoes that often have parts made of little more than cardboard and split leather.   Sandals that have no cushioning and barely attach to the feet.  Shoes that are little more than a piece of colored split leather and a fancy bow.   And of course, the worst offender - heels that destroy your posture and health.

Many women buy literally dozens of these kinds of shoes - getting new shoes more often than men buy underwear.   They buy them for a color that matches their purse, or for some other perceived style reason, but never for practicality and health.   In fact, the latter are eschewed as being only for ugly Lesbians or something.

Recently, it was revealed that our politically-correct friends in the former UK (I guess we can call it that now) were forcing women to wear heels to the office.   I feel no compunction about criticizing the country formerly known as "Great Britain" as they stuck us with Greek-Born UK citizen Yanni Yanniyapalalous, who came over here to tell us dumb Americans how to do things right, which apparently includes molesting children.   If the Brits feel free to tell us how we're doing it wrong, well, right back atcha!

It was appalling to me that in this century, a so-called progressive country with nationalized health care would still be objectifying women this way.   But it illustrates the hypocrisy of political correctness - or should we really call it political smugness - claiming the moral high ground when they are really no different than the rest of the human race.

But getting back to shoes, heels and cheaply made "designer" shoes are just bad for you feet, your ankles, your knees, your hips, your back, your neck, your body.   When you slam down your feet on a hard concrete floor, you send a shock wave up your spine that literally causes damage and pain.   If you are barefoot or wearing shoes with little or no support, well, you are damaging your body.

Athletes have known about this for years.  One reason we always favored wood floors historically, is that they "gave" when you walked on them.   Runners discovered that the old wooden board tracks of yesteryear resulted in increased speeds and lowered lap-times, as the flexible wood absorbed the shock and then fed it right back in the upstroke of the foot, resulting in less energy being absorbed by the body and more put into forward motion.

Since the good old days, we have more and more buildings, including houses, being built on concrete slabs.   They don't "give" at all, so any shock from walking is absorbed by your body, that is unless....

...unless you wear some practical shoes.   Many running shoes or walking shoes have elastomeric materials, usually expanded polyurethane foam, which absorbs shock when you walk and then returns the energy into your stride.   The result is the shock wave from your foot impacting the floor is returned in the form of energy and motion and not merely sent up your spine where it causes compression and pain.

Practical shoes might not be trendy or stylish, and for many people, style is more important than health or even comfort.  But if you have back problems and can't even walk, what is the point of being stylish?  No one will notice your pumps when you are in a wheelchair or bedridden!