I’ve seen this image going around, and I feel compelled to point out that it’s only half-right. It’s true that high heels were originally a masculine fashion, but they weren’t originally worn by butchers – nor for any other utilitarian purpose, for that matter.
High heels were worn by men for exactly the same reason they’re worn by women today: to display one’s legs to best effect. Until quite recently, shapely, well-toned calves and thighs were regarded as an absolute prerequisite for male attractiveness. That’s why you see so many paintings of famous men framed to show off their legs – like this one of George Washington displaying his fantastic calves:
… or this one of Louis XIV of France rocking a fabulous pair of red platform heels (check out those thighs!):
… or even this one of Charles I of England showing off his high-heeled riding boots – note, again, the visual emphasis on his well-formed calves:
In summary: were high heels originally worn by men? Yes. Were they worn to keep blood off their feet? No at all – they were worn for the same reason they’re worn today: to look fabulous.
so then how did they become a solo feminine item of attire?
A variety of reasons. In France, for example, high heels fell out out of favour in the court of Napoleon due to their association with aristocratic decadence, while in England, the more conservative fashions of the Victorian era regarded it as indecent for a man to openly display his calves.
But then, fashions come and go. The real question is why heels never came back into fashion for men – and that can be laid squarely at the feet of institutionalised homophobia. Essentially, heels for men were never revived because, by the early 20th Century, sexually provocative attire for men had come to be associated with homosexuality; the resulting moral panic ushered in an era of drab, blocky, fully concealing menswear in which a well-turned calf simply had no place – a setback from which men’s fashion has yet to fully recover.
FASHION HISTORY IS HUMAN HISTORY OK
Thank you, history side of tumblr. That “stay out of blood” thing has been driving me mad.
Wait. So, you’re telling me that the reason straight boys dress horribly is because they’re not over a 100 year old gay panic?
You’re telling me that the gross, baggy, shapeless menswear that has been almost singlehandedly ruining my life is the result of a bunch of dudes in the 1900’s collectively going ‘AAAAH WHAT IF THEY THINK WE’RE GAY’
Fuck that shit. BRING BACK MENS HEELS
BRING BACK MENS TIGHTS
MAKE MEN SEXY AGAIN
Actually the original image and the commentary are both right! Ancient Egyptian butchers wore high heels to avoid the blood and carcasses of slaughtered animals.
In ancient Rome, prostitutes would wear high heels to show that they were, well, prostitutes. In Greece, actors would use heels of varying sizes in costuming to show the social class of characters (the higher the heel, the higher the social ranking of those who wear them, with peasants and the proletariat being barefoot)
In Persia, high heeled shoes were worn by cavalry to help with riding and fighting on horses. In medieval Europe, people would attach heels to their shoes to protect them from dirty, muddy roads. Knights and aristocrats would wear high heeled shoes to prove their nobility.
In round about the 1400′s in Turkey, women started wearing a type of high heeled shoe for no particular reason other than fashion. By the 16th century, men and women were both wearing heels for fashion which is right about where the original commentary starts in.
Putting a heel on a shoe wasn’t something that happened once and got traded around. Different cultures and civilizations innovate and create things concurrently.
i’m sorry but there is no way you could have stopped me from standing on my chair and screeching like a banshee if i saw this live…
What
how
HOW
“ballet isn’t a sport”
The thing about this is, you can barely see their muscles straining from effort. The effort to keep each other and themselves balanced, definitely, but that guy’s hand is barely shaking. The amount of training and strength and balance to go into this is fucking insane.
okay but please please tell me someone sat down and wrote after-mulan fic where some days li shang wakes up and rolls over and murmurs mulan’s name and reaches out for her only to hear “call me ping today” whispered back
and how everyone else not in the know thinks he has a wife and a secret army boyfriend and that he’s hiding one from the other
and someone tries to tell mulan and she just collapses laughing because they’re close but totally wrong
and li shang all the time just deals with it because he loves ping and he loves mulan and he doesn’t care what name he’s using or what gender he’s kissing as long as he can sneak one kiss a day
the dragon kind of creeps him out sometimes but it’s all cool
it’s all cool
someone: the classics are so refined
diogenes: i’m gonna throw a chicken at plato and then i’m gonna reward myself by whacking it in public
vase painters: how many dicks do you think are enough? at least 5
aristophanes: you need 3 fart soundboards to perform this play properly
lucian: the moon is full of gay people, anyway let’s argue about whether sleeping with girls or boys is better
catullus: i want to make out infinity times with my girlfriend
the entire roman senate: ostensibly we are a respectable body but actually we are a preschool full of man-sized babies
ovid: haha then what 😉
horace: i fucking hate this goddamn tree also hey wanna hear about a wet dream i had
martial: you’re hot but you queef too much so i don’t want to have sex with you
someone: such elegance
When Jane Foster is on a date and doesn’t want to be on the date anymore, she gets flustered and repeats the name of one of the menu items until her date tells her to go away
okay, so, autistic Jane.
this post presupposes autistic Jane.
and there was another post going around a while ago that said Jane was like 300% better at handling an infinity stone than anyone else, like every other time we see an infinity stone it wrecks shit and she just carries it around for awhile and gets a little floopy. remember that post?
theory: DD people are better at handling Massive Cosmic Forces.
just because our brains are already bags of cats and we have Level Twelve Weird Shit Licenses just from navigating Weird Health and getting our shit done. so this massive cosmic force comes in and we’re like “okay Timothy, sit in the corner with the other cats and I’ll grit my teeth and work around you” and it’s like FEAR ME and we’re like “oh I fear plenty of shit, I have hella practice”
Okay and what I love about this is how it interacts with the idea that like of course we would be better, we’re so Innocent and Pure Of Heart.
No. No. We have to go on a quest every morning just to get a bowl of cereal. That’s why.
Kimchi and Justice 