Upon entering my room the other day my brother made a rather logical comment after observing the vast collection of shoes shelved in my room. “Why are girls so obsessed with shoes?” he asked, a fairly simple question, yet the answer I attempted was far from being simple. I began to answer in due fashion yet found myself unsuccessful, “let me get back to you on that one,” I stated, at which point he lost interest in me and left the room promptly.
The comment remained in my mind for several minutes afterwards, which considering I have the attention span of a goldfish was a considerable amount of consideration, contemplation of this intrigued me, why are we obsessed?
There is of course the obvious answer I receive from most girls I have come into conversation with about this particular topic in the past; which is of course, “because they’re pretty,” but lets attempt a thought process that requires an IQ of at least 50. Certainly shoes are pretty, often they could be described as gorgeous, yet at the same time so are kittens but that does not cause the vast majority of females in this world to be obsessed with owning 100’s of them. Now don’t get me wrong there are those odd “crazy cat ladies” who do in fact gain such an obsession but that is an entirely different topic, for an entirely different day.
Aside from the fact that shoes are pretty what else is there that attracts us to them so deeply. A few years ago I recall watching an entire 30 minute episode, on some sleazy late night television show, about the sexual attraction to shoes, which I found wildly entertaining, but was quite doubtful that this was in fact where our attraction stems from. Yet it did have some intriguing point that should definitely be taken into consideration when considering this obsession.
For example foot fetishes need to be taken into account; sadly as I do not have any sort of foot fetish myself I may not be the most reputable source in this regard, but I can at least attempt it. In grade twelve a friend of mine told me a story of the happenings of the previous weekend, which amused me enough at the time that I still remember the details vividly years later, and I know wish to pass this tale on to you.
A group of four acquaintances of mine had decided to purchase the absolute worst, and cheapest porn video they could find for our friends 18th birthday; as in Canada 18 is the legal age at which individuals are able to purchase and own pornography, for this reason my group of friends had made it a tradition to search out the absolute worst example of pornography possible and gift it to the birthday person.
Now this particular birthday porn was to be viewed by the guests attending the gifting as it makes the gift that much more amusing. In this particular case the film started out like most other films in this genre, super cheesy and chalked full of terrible acting. Yet what made this example of pornography just that much more memorable was the fact that not more than a minute into the film the rather large male actor, viciously and swiftly inserted the entirety of his foot into the females vagina. Now if that thought wasn’t unpleasant enough for you the fact that this man had gigantic feet must also be taken into consideration.
Now for myself at least, this very thought makes me a little bit queasy, for that reason I am truly happy I was not there to witness this spectacle, but the fact that there are people in this world who find sexual satisfaction or arousal from something of this nature is totally beyond my understanding. Yet with that in mind we can imply the connection between foot fetish and shoe fetish. By metaphorically replacing the foot in the above scenario with a penis and then imagining that being inserted into the vagina instead we can see that some could connect the visual aspect of inserting a foot inside a shoe to the visual appearance of sexual intercourse. Hence the obsession or sexual draw towards shoes.
On the other hand there is one major point which must be considered in the case of numerous females around the world, low self esteem. For many of us being unhappy with ourselves sends us searching for love, or gratification in other places by other means. We may turn to eating, others may turn to sex, others may turn to suicidal and unhealthy tendencies; but there are a number of us, myself included, who turn to material objects in order to make us feel better about ourselves.
In a world in which the media makes us feel as though we are not thin enough, as though we are not pretty enough, and as though we are not good enough, we are very often unhappy with at least some part of ourselves. For this reason shoes become our oasis, they are perfect in every way shape and form and make us feel perfect in owning something so beautiful. In wearing them we can feel sexy when the world tells us we are not, we can feel beautiful when the media’s image says otherwise and we can conquer anything the world throws our way, because for some a pair of shoes can give us the courage that we need to get through a day.
A pair of shoes is not just purchased to sit on a shelf looking pretty, a pair of shoes is bought to make the owner feel better about themselves, to brighten their hopes, raise their spirits, open their eyes that there is good in this world when everything seems meaningless and most importantly to make them feel good about themselves. So the next time a girlfriend of yours wants to buy shoes allow her to do so, because although it may be a small boost in self esteem she needs, and a large poke at her pocketbook, shoes are a far healthier means of gratification than the alternatives.
The comment remained in my mind for several minutes afterwards, which considering I have the attention span of a goldfish was a considerable amount of consideration, contemplation of this intrigued me, why are we obsessed?
There is of course the obvious answer I receive from most girls I have come into conversation with about this particular topic in the past; which is of course, “because they’re pretty,” but lets attempt a thought process that requires an IQ of at least 50. Certainly shoes are pretty, often they could be described as gorgeous, yet at the same time so are kittens but that does not cause the vast majority of females in this world to be obsessed with owning 100’s of them. Now don’t get me wrong there are those odd “crazy cat ladies” who do in fact gain such an obsession but that is an entirely different topic, for an entirely different day.
Aside from the fact that shoes are pretty what else is there that attracts us to them so deeply. A few years ago I recall watching an entire 30 minute episode, on some sleazy late night television show, about the sexual attraction to shoes, which I found wildly entertaining, but was quite doubtful that this was in fact where our attraction stems from. Yet it did have some intriguing point that should definitely be taken into consideration when considering this obsession.
For example foot fetishes need to be taken into account; sadly as I do not have any sort of foot fetish myself I may not be the most reputable source in this regard, but I can at least attempt it. In grade twelve a friend of mine told me a story of the happenings of the previous weekend, which amused me enough at the time that I still remember the details vividly years later, and I know wish to pass this tale on to you.
A group of four acquaintances of mine had decided to purchase the absolute worst, and cheapest porn video they could find for our friends 18th birthday; as in Canada 18 is the legal age at which individuals are able to purchase and own pornography, for this reason my group of friends had made it a tradition to search out the absolute worst example of pornography possible and gift it to the birthday person.
Now this particular birthday porn was to be viewed by the guests attending the gifting as it makes the gift that much more amusing. In this particular case the film started out like most other films in this genre, super cheesy and chalked full of terrible acting. Yet what made this example of pornography just that much more memorable was the fact that not more than a minute into the film the rather large male actor, viciously and swiftly inserted the entirety of his foot into the females vagina. Now if that thought wasn’t unpleasant enough for you the fact that this man had gigantic feet must also be taken into consideration.
Now for myself at least, this very thought makes me a little bit queasy, for that reason I am truly happy I was not there to witness this spectacle, but the fact that there are people in this world who find sexual satisfaction or arousal from something of this nature is totally beyond my understanding. Yet with that in mind we can imply the connection between foot fetish and shoe fetish. By metaphorically replacing the foot in the above scenario with a penis and then imagining that being inserted into the vagina instead we can see that some could connect the visual aspect of inserting a foot inside a shoe to the visual appearance of sexual intercourse. Hence the obsession or sexual draw towards shoes.
On the other hand there is one major point which must be considered in the case of numerous females around the world, low self esteem. For many of us being unhappy with ourselves sends us searching for love, or gratification in other places by other means. We may turn to eating, others may turn to sex, others may turn to suicidal and unhealthy tendencies; but there are a number of us, myself included, who turn to material objects in order to make us feel better about ourselves.
In a world in which the media makes us feel as though we are not thin enough, as though we are not pretty enough, and as though we are not good enough, we are very often unhappy with at least some part of ourselves. For this reason shoes become our oasis, they are perfect in every way shape and form and make us feel perfect in owning something so beautiful. In wearing them we can feel sexy when the world tells us we are not, we can feel beautiful when the media’s image says otherwise and we can conquer anything the world throws our way, because for some a pair of shoes can give us the courage that we need to get through a day.
A pair of shoes is not just purchased to sit on a shelf looking pretty, a pair of shoes is bought to make the owner feel better about themselves, to brighten their hopes, raise their spirits, open their eyes that there is good in this world when everything seems meaningless and most importantly to make them feel good about themselves. So the next time a girlfriend of yours wants to buy shoes allow her to do so, because although it may be a small boost in self esteem she needs, and a large poke at her pocketbook, shoes are a far healthier means of gratification than the alternatives.
