Whose Shoes?

A quick-step through some shoe symbolism in art and culture along the path from innocence to experience…

Shoes are part of language: Going toe to toe. Being well-heeled. The shoe’s on the other foot, now! Hoist yourself up by your own bootstraps. Put the boot in. Before you judge another, walk a mile in their shoes... and in common parlance the phrase, “too strait-laced by far,” has evolved from referencing women’s corsetry to shoelaces.

Wouldn’t it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn’t it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
- Nik Kershaw

Perhaps the most widely known symbolic shoe would be Cinderella’s glass slipper. A delicate, fragile thing that the prince must slip gently onto the foot of his beloved. Cinderella fled the ball when things were likely to get a little more ‘serious’ after midnight. The forlorn prince must then search for her among many candidates… When he finally finds ‘the one’, it’s imperative that he treat her gently and with respect. For if the foot is inserted too forcefully, it could break the delicate vessel.

illustrations for ‘Cinderella’: ‘The Prince Ponders the Slipper Left Behind’ by Harry Clarke for the 1922 edition of ‘The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault’ and the 1905 poster ‘Finding that the Slipper Fits’ by Hans Printz [view license 1 and 2 ]

Like many fairy stories and folk tales, there’s an underlying theme of sexual awakening and the transition from childhood into the scary adult world — the point when experience begins to outweigh innocence. In…