Battling My Inner Feminist

Fact #1: Today I wore the gold shoes to my classes (see previous post).

Fact #2: Uncomfortable shoes make for uncomfortable feet.

So I start thinking (oh geez...not again...) about the feminist idea that fashion trends are a way to keep women oppressed--think Chinese foot-binding, corsetting, etc. Perhaps my shoes are oppressing me! I mean...I definitely can't walk very fast. I'm taking two steps for my usual one (for those of you who've never worn intense heels before, they help with posture because you have to stand up strait, but the downside is that you have to take much shorter steps), and I think I feel a monster of a blister developing on the pads of my feet because of the pressure focused on them. They are keeping me from functioning in life and that can't be good. Then my next question becomes, "Ok Mere, would you rather be physically attractive--yes, I know that fashion has nothing to do with real beauty, but go with me for a second--or useful?" My Inner Feminist instantly responds:

"Useful, of course!"

Then the other 93.8% of me takes a thoughtful pause. Useful? Word associations fly through my brain. Useful, in a physical sense, implies sex toy, cook, cleaning lady, and so on. So if that is my alternative to looking cute in great gold platforms, then I actually do prefer being physically attractive to physically useful. Well...maybe excepting the whole sex toy thing...but that's for a whole other post, my friends ;)

So my hypothesis: fashion is not directly correlated to women's oppression because it doesn't really oppress us. That is to say, we choose physical attractiveness because we are not as much concerned about being useful in a physical sense--we don't care about plowing a field or changing the oil in our cars. And if we do, we won't let the shoes get in the way. That's why we have old grubby tennis shoes...and workboots...and rain golashes...and sort of decent tennis shoes...and...yeah. Point is--women don't let clothing oppress them because we prefer to be considered valuable emotionally and intellectually, not for our brute strength. Plus, the uncomfortable but hot shoes are especially powerful for getting what we want because, let's be honest, using what your mama gave you is often the quickest route to success and power. Of course if you personally accuse me of this, you realize that I'm going to deny all charges...

Feminist Fashion Theory-0
Inner Feminist-0
The Rest of Me-2 (c'mon this was a good one...so I get double points)

I think I'm going to wear the purples shoes tomorrow.



*I just noticed that I'm obsessed with the parenthetical, elliptical, and dash-ical interjections. A gold star goes to whoever can tell me how many times I interrupt myself during my own story. I swear...I've got like eight people running around in my brain....uh...don't tell that to my doctor...