High-heeled shoes and evolution theory.

I always thought that one of the main reasons is the sound they make when walking. I speak for myself, it works, I always look when I hear the sound of high heels.

Some masculinists argue that the neckties were designed to make men helpless and vulnerable, perpetuating the gender role of females as liberators of the slowly suffocating men. Neckties have also been blamed for reducing the men to a sex object by sacrificing practical comfort in favor of an alleged increase in sex appeal.

The necktie has been a central battleground of sexual politics ever since the emergence of the men's liberation movement of the 1970s BC. Many second-wave masculinists rejected what they regarded as constricting standards of male beauty, created for the subordination and objectifying of men and self-perpetuated by reproductive competition and men's own aesthetics. Some masculinists argue that the neckties were designed to make men helpless and vulnerable, perpetuating the gender role of females as liberators of the slowly suffocating men. Neckties have also been blamed for reducing the men to a sex object by sacrificing practical comfort in favor of an alleged increase in sex appeal.

Rule 1 of applying the theory of evolution to cultural practices: be extremely careful and hesitant when applying the theory of evolution to cultural practices because 99.99% of the time your ad hoc rationalisation will not only be wrong, it will completely miss the point.

This is especially true when you are trying to discuss items of fashion that are transient and culture specific.

Especially really cool tie clips like these:

I believe more in zooby's view: they want to look pretty, they want to be appreciated... for the power it brings them.

My personal opinion regarding a girl wearing high heels is about the same as a man who wears expensive but tasteful clothing. It's nothing to do with the specifics of the clothing and way more about the fact that this is what our current culture deems as "put together." It's a social differentiator; its ends are its own means; it's a confidence booster in its own right.

That's not exactly what I was trying to say (although the average Dominitrix costume does seem to include spiked high heels).

As the feminist movement gained momentum, however, stilettos went out of favor with the cry: “Liberate the captive foot of womanhood!” For many feminists, high heels indicated subservience and sexual stereotyping by men. High heels were titillating “man-made” objects, literally involved in crippling women, or at least slowing them down when the need to run away from male violence and oppressors arose. Heels were seen as a comparable successor to foot binding and the tight-laced corset as perverse regulatory objects for molding the feminine. Consequently, heels dropped and thickened, and soon low-heeled shoes with square toes replaced the stiletto (Gamman 1993).

Perhaps influenced in part by successful TV and film hits as Sex in the City and The Devil Wears Prada, some women are even going under the knife to shorten their toes or inject padding into the balls of their feet to allow their feet to fit more comfortably into a pair of stilettos

Sick. I worked with a woman that broke her foot trying to wear ridiculous high heels. It's not possibe to squeeze your toes into that tiny space at such a severe angle. She was very skinny too, so it wasn't her weight.

http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html

Formal Invention of High Heels as Fashion

The formal invention of high heels as fashion is typically attributed to the rather short-statured Catherine de Medici (1519-1589). At the age of 14, Catherine de Medici was engaged to the powerful Duke of Orleans, later the King of France. She was small (not quite five feet) relative to the Duke and hardly considered a beauty. She felt insecure in the arranged marriage knowing she would be the Queen of the French Court and in competition with the Duke’s favorite (and significantly taller) mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Looking for a way to dazzle the French nation and compensate for her perceived lack of aesthetic appeal, she donned heels two inches high that gave her a more towering physique and an alluring sway when she walked. Her heels were a wild success and soon high heels were associated with privilege. Mary Tudor, or “Bloody Mary,” another monarch seeking to appear larger than life, wore heels as high possible (McDowell 1989). By 1580, fashionable heels were popular for both sexes, and a person who had authority or wealth was often referred to as “well-heeled.”

King Louis XIV
In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV decreed that only nobility could wear heels that were colored red and that no one's heels could be higher than his own

In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV (The Sun King) would often wear intricate heels decorated with miniature battle scenes. Called “Louis heels,” they were often as tall as five inches. The king decreed that only nobility could wear heels that were colored red (les talons rogue) and that no one's heels could be higher than his own..

I was hoping to keep this in our lifetime so it mattered (as in relevant) to us. High heeled shoes don't go back very far in history.

Pushing on in years, I may be, but Catherine de Medici was not one of my contemporaries. At least, I don't think she was ...

It is possible to interpret the feminist movement "subservience" model of high heels as just a post-facto reaction against the prevailing standards. The same article that you quoted makes statements that are not consistent with your hypothesis. Please provide me with a reference to a peer-reviewed psychological study, in an accepted journal, that validates the hypothesis that wearing high heels makes women feel subservient.

LOL, you expect a peer reviewed scientific journal to have research on high heels?

Scientists don't do research on fashion, AFAIK.

Scientists don't do research on fashion, AFAIK.