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That may be true but we invented shoes with support. I guess humans realized that they could cover a lot more ground in comfort by wearing shoes.
You have a lot of ideas that you try and sell off as facts.
I am not trying to sell anything. No one here is going to pay me for my ideas. It's supposed to be a discussion. This is my idea, and my experience of several decades.
I don't need any joint replacements, unlike so many others my age. It would make sense to at least consider the possibility that shoes can be bad for health.
No, American women do not "have narrow feet from constricting shoes and from not walking a lot."
I doubt you would find a single woman in this country who would tolerate wearing shoes so narrow that they permanently change the width of the entire foot. That would have to be done from birth, too. Those of us with narrow feet were born that way.
I'm surprised that you say this. Narrow feet are a beauty standard for women and many, many women have permanently damaged their feet by wearing tight, ill-fitting shoes.
Have you not seen older women with toes that are permanently twisted and compressed from wearing heels over their entire career? I certainly have, and it's not pretty. My mother was one. She spent much of her life in pumps, and in old age only orthopedic shoes could relieve her pain. My mother-in-law is another. She now has mobility issues and if you saw her feet, you'd understand why her ankles, knees, and hips are all out of alignment. Her feet are narrow all right; they're also severely distorted and the toes are twisted sideways.
My feet are wide and no doubt that is at least partially due to my lifelong habit of going barefoot or wearing flip-flops as much as possible. But at least they function perfectly and don't hurt.
They make those shoes that are supposed to be basically like going barefoot (just there to give you added protection basically).I watched a documentary about barefoot running once and I did find it interesting.
I have always loved going barefoot over shoes
That's what I have, the Earth Runners. I was interested in them because of the natural grounding benefits, but then my son in law, who is a fitness trainer, started wearing them to work out.
You are making it up as you go along. Making things up to fit your theories.
Wide feet are normal? Narrow feet are from wearing shoes?
Just as I was born with bad arches (the way the feet are shaped before you even wore a shoe for the first time) I was also born with narrow feet. Yes, as a baby my feet were narrow. The first shoes I ever got were NARROW. Throughout childhood I took a NARROW shoe--because that's what FIT.
As an adult I took a double A (AA) shoe. That's a narrow. I'm built narrow--there's nothing I could do about it if I wanted to. I'm probably older than you now and after all these decades of walking, I can now take a MEDIUM in a shoe. So, if anything, your feet get WIDER the more you walk, shoes or no shoes.
Those of us with narrow feet are not some aberration and we did not bind our feet or cram them into shoes so we could get narrow feet and appear "feminine" or "upper class." You need to start at the beginning and accept the fact that everyone is born different. (My dog has narrow feet.)
I had narrow feet as a young adult, until I had some children, gained some weight and my foot got a little wider- it's a medium to wide now, but I still have high arches.
I never did wear those "pretty lady shoes" with the very high heels and pointed toes. I broke bones in my foot too early in my life, I guess ( metatarsals once in my teens, and again in my late 20's) and those kinds of shoes were agony for me to wear, and I always valued comfort over looks when it came to my feet.
My husband, on the other hand, has always had wide, kind of flat feet ( his feet remind me of Fred Flintstone's, LOL) and has needed orthotic support in his shoes to be comfortable. It didn't keep him out of the military, however.
I'm surprised that you say this. Narrow feet are a beauty standard for women and many, many women have permanently damaged their feet by wearing tight, ill-fitting shoes.
Have you not seen older women with toes that are permanently twisted and compressed from wearing heels over their entire career? I certainly have, and it's not pretty. My mother was one. She spent much of her life in pumps, and in old age only orthopedic shoes could relieve her pain. My mother-in-law is another. She now has mobility issues and if you saw her feet, you'd understand why her ankles, knees, and hips are all out of alignment. Her feet are narrow all right; they're also severely distorted and the toes are twisted sideways.
My feet are wide and no doubt that is at least partially due to my lifelong habit of going barefoot or wearing flip-flops as much as possible. But at least they function perfectly and don't hurt.
Never have I heard that narrow feet are a beauty standard. At one point in time, the upper classes in China did bind the feet of women so that the woman couldn't walk and needed to be waited on, a sign that she was rich enough to hire servants. But this is modern day America, not China.
I'm 99% sure your mother and MIL were not trying to make their feet narrow or to reshape their feet in anyway. They were simply following a particular style of footwear that is known to damage the foot. Very high heels and pointy toed shoes will definitely damage a foot. That's why many of us have always tried to wear lower heels and more rounded toed shoes no matter what the style dictates.
The women you mention probably thought the high heels made their legs look better. The pointy toes thing is a style that comes and goes too--but people wear those shoes so they can be in style, not to reshape their feet.
No one tries to reshape their feet. But just as someone can be born with one leg shorter than the other, they might need some help to be able to walk more easily and to not cause more damage. So they might wear a built up shoe. An arch support in a shoe will support a foot that lacks enough natural support. I bet even the cavemen had to improvise at times if they weren't born perfect. Maybe some of them even walked with a stick for support. (Yes, this is getting ridiculous.)
I'm surprised that you say this. Narrow feet are a beauty standard for women and many, many women have permanently damaged their feet by wearing tight, ill-fitting shoes.
Have you not seen older women with toes that are permanently twisted and compressed from wearing heels over their entire career? I certainly have, and it's not pretty. My mother was one. She spent much of her life in pumps, and in old age only orthopedic shoes could relieve her pain. My mother-in-law is another. She now has mobility issues and if you saw her feet, you'd understand why her ankles, knees, and hips are all out of alignment. Her feet are narrow all right; they're also severely distorted and the toes are twisted sideways.
My feet are wide and no doubt that is at least partially due to my lifelong habit of going barefoot or wearing flip-flops as much as possible. But at least they function perfectly and don't hurt.
Sure....my mom's badge of honor (ONE of them!) was that she was a AAA with narrow heels, to boot! Of course in recent years they all but stopped making anything narrower than A's and even that seemed pretty rare. Somehow, she managed to get along okay, regardless. She did have super-high arches though but I got my dad's flat feet - never caused me any issues.
People find weird things to brag about - ANYTHING they think that sets them apart is not just different, but obviously BETTER. Best to just humor them and let them have their little thing.... bless their hearts!
Oh -shoes haven't always been pointy - remember for a while the big thing was the square toed "pilgrim's shoes"?
Never have I heard that narrow feet are a beauty standard.
It's actually very common to hear narrow feet described as elegant, aristocratic, etc., and wide feet disparaged as unsightly and rustic. Just google "narrow, aristocratic feet" and you will come up with all kinds of fun stuff.
This quote comes from a podiatrist!
Quote:
Do you have perfect feet? No, they are very functional. I have to wear wider shoes because I come from peasant stock, I hate to tell you. No blue-blood aristocracy in my background.
I'm surprised that you say this. Narrow feet are a beauty standard for women and many, many women have permanently damaged their feet by wearing tight, ill-fitting shoes.
Have you not seen older women with toes that are permanently twisted and compressed from wearing heels over their entire career? I certainly have, and it's not pretty. My mother was one. She spent much of her life in pumps, and in old age only orthopedic shoes could relieve her pain. My mother-in-law is another. She now has mobility issues and if you saw her feet, you'd understand why her ankles, knees, and hips are all out of alignment. Her feet are narrow all right; they're also severely distorted and the toes are twisted sideways.
My feet are wide and no doubt that is at least partially due to my lifelong habit of going barefoot or wearing flip-flops as much as possible. But at least they function perfectly and don't hurt.
Yes, I have seen women with deformed toes from wearing high heeled shoes with pointed toe boxes. The point I was making is that it would be very difficult to permanently change the width of the foot with shoes.
I'm surprised that you say this. Narrow feet are a beauty standard for women and many, many women have permanently damaged their feet by wearing tight, ill-fitting shoes.
Have you not seen older women with toes that are permanently twisted and compressed from wearing heels over their entire career? I certainly have, and it's not pretty. My mother was one. She spent much of her life in pumps, and in old age only orthopedic shoes could relieve her pain. My mother-in-law is another. She now has mobility issues and if you saw her feet, you'd understand why her ankles, knees, and hips are all out of alignment. Her feet are narrow all right; they're also severely distorted and the toes are twisted sideways.
My feet are wide and no doubt that is at least partially due to my lifelong habit of going barefoot or wearing flip-flops as much as possible. But at least they function perfectly and don't hurt.
Yes, that was my point. I think the number of people, especially women, who have been damaged by shoes is probably more than people here realize.
Lady's shoes are obviously damaging, and lots of women don't care. I think the style does go back to when upper class females wanted to show they don't need to walk.
But what most do not realize is that supportive shoes and sneakers may also be damaging. Men can be damaged by their shoes, even though their shoes are flat and much better than lady's high heels.
I already knew that flip flops are controversial when I posted this. And there are flip flops that are uncomfortable and hard to walk in.
But if you get the right ones, you may find that they are almost like not wearing any shoes at all. The toes are free to spread out as they are supposed to, which keeps the foot in its correct alignment.
I don't think modern women wear narrow pointy shoes to make their feet narrow. It's to give the impression of narrowness, of having graceful feminine feet. No, we are not in ancient China now, but that kind of thinking has lingered at least subconsciously.
Women who wear comfortable clothes and try to be natural can be looked down at by some. We don't seem to make any effort to show that we aren't poor. Ironically, it is more likely for educated women to dress this way. No makeup, no hair dye, yoga clothes, flip flops, etc. But our subconscious attitude about feminine beauty remains, to some extent.
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Of course in recent years they all but stopped making anything narrower than A's and even that seemed pretty rare. Somehow, she managed to get along okay, regardless. She did have super-high arches though but I got my dad's flat feet - never caused me any issues.
