Spring Break
Shoes prove to be highly sexualized objects in society
Lydia Hryshchyshyn
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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More specifically, Steele focused on the fetish aspect of shoes, a subject covered in her book "Fetish: Fashion, Sex, and Power."
As director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Steele is considered a key player in the scholarly aspect of the fashion industry.
Steele's lecture, while occasionally raunchy, was also incredibly insightful as she mixed humor and intelligent research to comment and prove the sexual aspect of shoes. Her suggestion that we are all to some degree fetishists was at first shocking and vaguely insulting.
Luckily, she clarified that the first and second levels were completely normative and that her research focused on those third and fourth levels, which indicate an obsession.
Citing examples from fetish, pornographic, and high fashion magazines, Steele established that the stiletto specifically has become a highly sexualized object for modern society.
The reaction to the shoes straddles two opposite ideas-that a woman is rendered helpless and that a woman is empowered vis a vis dominatrix.
As Steele accurately pointed out, in heels "girls can't run away" and much like corsets, the high heel can be viewed as a form of patriarchal control. The scenario more often linked to fetishism is the power a woman gains in a stiletto that not only makes her taller, but also changes the way she holds her body. The heel of the shoes is also very weapon like which is inherent to the sadomasochism aspect of the fetish.
Throughout Steele's lecture, other interesting points were brought up such as the comparison of the foot to the female torso and the scientific discovery that the feet are neurologically collected to many sexual reactions.
Steele touched on other aspects of footwear, including boots, sneakers, and sandals. Boots, especially those worn by men, are often viewed as a phallic symbol bringing in a very Freudian connection. Regardless of this connection, Steele pointed out that men are still more likely to have a fetish for a body part or article of clothing than woman are.
Sneakers, a relatively new innovation in footwear, are simply young and casual and without strong sexual connotations.
In comparison, the sandal, which displays the naked foot, is its own aspect of fetishism. Steele referenced the gladiator sandals many women have been wearing for the last few seasons and how they are really nothing more than foot bondage.
It would seem that choosing a pair of shoes has never been simply a choice of fit or style but carries more than a little sexual connation.
Steele gave everyone in the audience a new perspective on their own shoes choices and those of their acquaintances.
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