That hadn’t occurred to me while reading but I think you’re right, just as young people are more likely to have some degree of free time and disposable income to devote to other forms of constructed beauty like hair styling that as you get older you are less likely to prioritise. Aging also ties in to fashionable clothing styles, as revealing styles become less socially acceptable or just less comfortable (I recently debated whether I was too old for short shorts). So the older you get, the fewer options there are for adopting the conventions of attractiveness and sexiness, making it harder for the unenlightened around you to recognise your personal attractiveness and sexiness.

L Dub, I’m not sure I understand your point. The author quite clearly outlines some of the reasons individuals choose to wear heels, including herself. This is contextualised within societal pressures, not blamed on them outright.

Your post seems to imply that socially constructed notions of beauty and gender don’t matter and don’t oppress people. That would be a quite radically conservative, even anti-feminist stace to take, but I don’t think it’s what you mean. I’m just not sure what you do mean. Apologies if I’m just missing the point.

I’m genderqueer, and some of the time, I love rocking a pair of heels. Other times, not. But this whole bit just smacks of an air of superiority. Only teetering to equality while wearing heels? Oppressed by societal standards of beauty and gender? Certainly it couldn’t possibly be because a woman or female identified person had their own reasons or motivations for wearing heels. Of course not! Silly women just can’t think for themselves, can they?

So judgmental and gross.

Or rather, that have about the same (comfortable) amount of heel as the usual men’s shoes. (Totally flat shoes are far too often the main alternatives one sees in shoe shops, and they’re just not as comfortable as ones with about a half-inch heel like a man’s dress shoe, so women decide flats aren’t that great.)

However, I think something similar could have been written about any of a number of socially generated mechanisms for sexiness. What appealed most was the well-articulated dismantling of the reasons behind such constructs and the appeal to resist them. Such things need to be said loudly and often.

Many thanks for a well-written and well-argued post.

It’s my understanding that the bras in question were longline bras i.e. corsetry.

I’m familiar with the image. Actually, let me dig it up for anybody who isn’t.

Burning bras would smell awful, since most of them have a lot of synthetic material.

It really is a great lede, though.