Number Six — Wonderment of Heels
This Might Suck Writing Challenge Inspired by Gail Boenning
Twenty Minutes of Flash Writing Every Day
I am not, and never have been, a fashionista. Having worked in professional offices most of my adult life, I was, and am, required to dress with a certain amount of decorum and style. Fortunately, I have limited contact with my client’s clients so can dress more casually and with less scrutiny than those on the front lines.
I was never a heel-wearer. Well, never is incorrect. In my younger years, I might wear 2-inch heels to a fancy wedding or a funeral but never to work. Work warranted heels in the 1.5 inch range and no higher. Since I turned 50 more than a decade ago, I don’t own a pair shoes with a heel higher than one inch.
Turning 50 tends to affect women in two major ways (that I have noticed):
We take a long hard look at the man lying next to us in bed and the years that went before and decide it we want to wake up next to him and experience the same sort of years, or worse, for the next ten, twenty, or thirty years ahead (many, like me, decide, NO);
And, we choose comfort over fashion.
Living in Florida has been helpful to my more informal approach to clothing. Everything here is laid-back and breezy. My husband came here from New Jersey and was appalled at what he considered to be extremely casual attire at offices, churches, funerals, weddings, and every other function evolving groups of people not seated at picnic tables. He has adjusted. He was the only man in a suit, other than the minister, at the first funeral he attended here. Last one, he wore nice trousers and a pull-over shirt with a collar. He was internally embarrassed while outwardly looking like a natural-born Floridian. I was so proud!
Yet, even I frown at the beach hum attire worn by those seeking services in my clients’ offices. People come in wearing flip-flops, raggedy shorts, tank tops, holey jeans — and we are 75 miles from the beach. This is not a beach community, people!
Still, my true amazement is reserved for the women I work with who insist on dressing — well, maybe not their complete attire but definitely, their shoes — like they are corporate attorneys in Manhattan.
When I first began working for a law firm in the early 80’s, everyone was more formal than they are now. A local judge would not allow a woman in his courtroom or chambers wearing pants — not even a classy pantsuit — and if wearing a dress or skirt, he demanded a woman wear hose, even in 100-degree heat. More than once he had the court reporter touch a woman’s legs to confirm that stockings were in place. He’s dead now, bless his soul. Many female attorneys wore pants at his funeral.
Times have changed. Most the of the female attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries are commonly spotted in pants or pantsuits rather than dresses or skirts. But, still, a determined group insist on donning two or three inch heels, even when wearing jeans on the occasional dress-down day when clients aren’t expected. Some of these women are older and fighting to retain a small piece of the fashion culture of their time. Some are young and think teetering on heels is sexy or classy or sophisticated.
One woman I work with says she’ll never vacation in NYC because she’d feel compelled to dress up to the standards of working women there — 3-inch heels and all — even though she would not be going to work and even though no one on the streets of Manhattan would care that she was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and athletic shoes just like all the other tourists.
All of these heel-wearers complain about their feet — every day. These are intelligent, accomplished women. What has our society done to make them feel so inferior when not balancing on stilts? I am sure there have been studies made, and if I would Google “woman wearing heels” I could spend hours reading those studies. But, I won’t. I will just write here for 20 minutes and wonder why this is a thing to even wonder about.
