When I was in college I took a class on semiology. Semiology is the study of signs and symbols in society and culture. For example when a writer writes. "A woman in a red dress stood on the sidewalk". The study of signs and symbols isolates the image of the red dress and asks what does a red dress mean to the culture in which it exists? In this case in our culture red dresses are associated with women of the evening, they infer sexy and sex and a woman who is looking for the same.
Recently, I asked myself what is the semiology of high heels? Well, besides shrinking the Achilles tendon, pushing the hips forward so the back is forced to arch unnaturally, and cause excruciating pain when worn at work, what do high heels mean?
According to "Sex in the City" high heels are sexy which was celebrated by the photographer Helmut Newton in the seventies. So assuming that high heels are a sign to men that the woman wearing them wants sex what else do they inter.
Well a woman who is wearing high heels cannot run from a pursuing male. And even if she does run she is likely to trip and fall or hurt herself. Therefore a woman is high heels immobilizes herself and becomes easy prey for a male pursuer. She cannot run from a man. She has rendered herself helpless of her own free will. She is powerless, she has become an easy target to be victimized.
Ladies... I ask you, "Is this image what you want your husbands and sons find sexy?"
