Gorillas in the Mist with Vertigo: The high heels experiment
Obviously wearing heels makes you taller, but it also forces you to pay attention to your posture. If you want to be comfortable in high heels, you have to listen to your mother’s (or drill sergeant’s, or maybe it’s just schizophrenia) voice in your head: “Stomach in, chest out, shoulders back, butt out.”
Ignore the voice/s and you get a backache and leg cramps.
Good posture makes you more elegant and aerodynamic. Also, walking around like this gives you the urge to toss your hair and laugh archly, as if you were at a cocktail party and you have just spotted your miserable ex with noticeable male pattern baldness.
No wonder femmes fatales (and the kings of France before they were divested of their heads) wear heels high enough to cause vertigo. High heels change your perspective, literally. Being able to see the tops of people’s heads gives you new confidence (and if you did not lack for confidence to begin with, elevates it into megalomania). You feel that you are equal (or superior) to anyone.
Also, if you should accidentally-on-purpose walk into someone you are not fond of, you can quote Bambi Arambulo in the original Temptation Island and say, “Sorry, hindi kita napansin. Dahil siguro sa aking towering height.”
No matter how brilliantly-engineered the high-heeled shoes, after some time in them your feet will hurt. When your feet are in pain, the tendency is to forget your Grace Kelly posture impression and start slouching. Do not give in!
This is why those cute girly girls who run around in six-inch Stella Luna killer stilettoes have boyfriends. When they feel tired from traipsing around in heels, they can hang on their boyfriend’s arm or drape themselves around their boyfriend’s shoulders.
It’s supposed to make the boyfriend feel manly and protective, but the real point is to take the load off your suffering feet. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Conclusion: Walking in high heels is a behavior-altering experience. This will require more research. Translation: We’re buying more shoes.
A mile in someone else’s heels in Emotional Weather Report, last week in the Philippine Star.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 17th, 2011 at 19:12
Ms. Zafra, we’re super excited to see you in heels!
Btw, may we know what is the brand that you bought from Adora? Thanks!
October 17th, 2011 at 19:29
Don’t stand too close, we might keel over.
What For (heels), Pretty Ballerina (flats), Toms (wedges)
October 17th, 2011 at 21:54
May Toms sa Adora? *checks credit limit*
Reading this article makes me smile. I still have my purple-suede stiletto pumps from Payless (Festival Supermall), which I bought on impulse because I thought they would never be available again in my size. Highly impractical, drives my parents crazy… and yet, for some reason, wearing them makes me feel sexy and smart at the same time. They’re magical.
October 18th, 2011 at 04:48
Pix pls. :)
October 18th, 2011 at 20:03
I love Stella Luna! Their heels are an architectural feat!
Mantra: Tiis-ganda.
As they say, the higher the heel, the closer to God. :)