This post will be mostly inspired by other blog posts I've read.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/05/20/bad-shoes-and-the-author-who-takes-them-on/I own very few pairs and wear them infrequently. Job interviews and deaths. And if I can avoid them for even those occasions.... I will. That being said, I've known women who only wear heels. When I was a sophomore in college, I worked at a coffee bar. My boss was this little Russian thing who never wore anything but crazy heels. Leopard print stilletos and things like that. And man, she got around. She was constantly having to run back and forth between the restaurant and the coffee bar, both of which she managed in the student union. She clearly loved heels and got around easily in them.
Is she less of a woman because she was fashionable? Am I less of a woman because I've already stated that I will refuse to wear heels on my wedding day? This is the type of bullshit that shouldn't even enter the conversation. The equation. What really got me thinking were the comments on the blog post. One person wrote about "Women are colonized. Some women may be convinced there is nothing wrong with the accoutrements of that colonization, but that just speaks to the power of social conditioning. There is nothing innocuous about societal expectations of women. They are meant to keep women subservient, our health and well-being be damned."
My question is then, what happens when social conditioning changes? The norm becomes to not wear heels. Women are telling other women it is wrong to wear heels because men WANT us to. Heel oppression! Does the opposite then become true?
Another interesting article about the option to have or not to have children:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/contrary-to-the-myth-abor_b_569544.htmlI guess my point is... wanting or not wanting to wear high heels.... wanting or not wanting to have children... IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON. People who want those things are not necessarily socially conditioned to want them. People who don't want to fuck with either of those things, well so be it. People have the freedom to choose, and some women just want to wear leopard print stilletos while working 10 hour shifts. Some women want to have a baby for reasons not advertised in a diaper commercial. Personally I hope all high heels spontaneously catch on fire, and then I give birth to 5 babies all at once.Everyone is different. All WOMEN are different. We've been encouraged to be that way in this country (Lady Gaga is proof. The link for an article titled "Come Party with Lady Gaga" is no longer working. But in the article, the author suggests that a whole new type of girl exists now that pop stars shoot fire out of their tits on stage).
Feminism was born from women who wanted to love one another, commiserate, and relate in a world run by and catering to men. Love your fellow sister. It's now become this like... man-hating, judgmental, cliquey, bullshit idea. A club of a certain type of women. And I think all of it is a load of shit.
It is very hard as a woman myself to not fall prey to this. I judge people, especially other women, who I don't think behave how they should or act like I want. A book that completely made me realize that I even did this was
Cunt by Inga Muscio. It was an amazing read. I didn't get a judgmental vibe from her. She complained about how so many women, especially feminists, are. How cliquey some have become as feminists.
I think it is important to love ALL people, especially women. I don't know that I'd call myself a feminist. Maybe a humanist... trying to live the best possible life and love as many people as possible in the process.
I don't know that I could ever love Sarah Palin, though...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052802263.html