At Least If I Put My Foot In Your Ass, the Heel Won't Split Your Cute Little Skirt
Dear Claire Coleman,
People like you make it harder for people like me to be people like me. You see, there's no way I could be "on trend" when the trend is five, six, seven-inch stilletto heels. I can't walk in heels. I mean, can't. (This is one of the downsides of having cerebral palsy; look it up.)
On top of that, people like you being so enthusiastic to embrace sartorial trends that sacrifice functionality for some warped bizarre version of "looks" (have you ever really sat down to think about why, for women, "vulnerable" is synonymous with "sexy" in many people's minds?) raises the bar for the rest of us, increasing the cultural demands on all of us to perform more and more extreme iterations of conventional femininity.
While I actually am a man-hating, hairy-legged radical feminist, I'm not telling you to give up your fashion-forward ways, or even throw your conspicuous-consumption limo shoes in the wheelie-bin (although I might strongly urge you to do so for reasons having more to do with your health than anything else). But for the love of all that's non-patriarchal, think a little bit. You don't have to be a stereotype, even if you do write for the Mail. Embrace your inner Birkenstock-wearing flannel-shirted lesbian, and let it go a little bit. Shoes are not power, contrary to what you might believe. (Then again, what do I know? I'm probably taller than you are when you're in heels and I'm in flats.)
Earning your own money, having your own place, being able to kick the asshole to the curb when you need to -- that's power, and it's an awful lot easier to accomplish in sensible shoes than when you feel like you're trying to "climb Everest on stilts."
Just a thought.
Love,
Interrobang
People like you make it harder for people like me to be people like me. You see, there's no way I could be "on trend" when the trend is five, six, seven-inch stilletto heels. I can't walk in heels. I mean, can't. (This is one of the downsides of having cerebral palsy; look it up.)
On top of that, people like you being so enthusiastic to embrace sartorial trends that sacrifice functionality for some warped bizarre version of "looks" (have you ever really sat down to think about why, for women, "vulnerable" is synonymous with "sexy" in many people's minds?) raises the bar for the rest of us, increasing the cultural demands on all of us to perform more and more extreme iterations of conventional femininity.
While I actually am a man-hating, hairy-legged radical feminist, I'm not telling you to give up your fashion-forward ways, or even throw your conspicuous-consumption limo shoes in the wheelie-bin (although I might strongly urge you to do so for reasons having more to do with your health than anything else). But for the love of all that's non-patriarchal, think a little bit. You don't have to be a stereotype, even if you do write for the Mail. Embrace your inner Birkenstock-wearing flannel-shirted lesbian, and let it go a little bit. Shoes are not power, contrary to what you might believe. (Then again, what do I know? I'm probably taller than you are when you're in heels and I'm in flats.)
Earning your own money, having your own place, being able to kick the asshole to the curb when you need to -- that's power, and it's an awful lot easier to accomplish in sensible shoes than when you feel like you're trying to "climb Everest on stilts."
Just a thought.
Love,
Interrobang
posted by Interrobang at 11:37 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Interrobang,
Your thought-provoking posts over at First Draft (the responses to "Show Me Something") induced me to come over here, finally. And what do I find? Not only more of the same, but...oy! Canadian (dare I even guess, Torontonian), tech, reading, writing, interested in French, Spanish, Japanese, linguistics? That's a nice constellation of common interests (and I'm not counting the politics, even), and a complete surprise. Think I'll be heading over here a bit more often from now on.
Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to put this, I just couldn't find an email address or something else I could use to say hello.
A la prochaine,
Michael
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