The great casualty of female foot fashion is the foot itself. High-heeled shoes and toe-compressing styles cause a variety of foot ailments that can lead to severe and permanent discomfort. None of this means anything to a lot of women, who continue to buy the latest trends regardless of the potential for damage or injury.

In the YoLG survey, a staggering 81% of respondents reported some form of shoe-related injury. These ranged from descriptions of blisters, corns, temporary loss of feeling and twisted ankles to jarring statements like, “my feet are always in pain.” And yet the overwhelming majority of these respondents listed style as the main or one of the main factors they consider when selecting new shoes. Less than half of respondents listed comfort as a primary consideration.

Now I don’t want to make it sound as if only stylish women injure themselves in shoes. Indeed, the respondents who described themselves as most pragmatic shoe-wise also listed their fair share of dislocated metatarsals, bleeding blisters and partial foot paralysis. Heck, I don’t even have to be wearing a shoe to injure myself with it. I do think it’s interesting, though, that such a large proportion of the women I surveyed seemed resigned to, or even excited about, a certain amount of ritualistic foot abuse in the name of fashion. What’s up with that?

The cult of damaging women’s footwear has been around for centuries. In fact, we’re lucky to be able to pick our poison in this regard. You would think with such negative history, women would look forward to choosing less restrictive footwear. Obviously, the shoes that hurt must make their wearer feel good in some other way. For a clue to how this works, consider the response of my co-worker Lisa B.
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