Scientist who proved high heels cripple you — but can’t give them up
AS i STrOdE down the road in my favourite black, high-heeled ankle boots, i felt like i had the world at my feet. i adored the ‘ clack clack clack’ they made on the pavement and the extra height and confidence they gave me.
Seconds later there was a terrible crack and i collapsed in a crumpled heap — my right heel had caught in a pothole, twisting my ankle and shattering it in four places.
You’re probably wincing reading this but it gets worse. When a paramedic tried to remove my boot in the ambulance, i looked down to see my foot dangling, like the toggle on a skipping rope.
after two operations, three months in bed and a year of physiotherapy, i learned to walk again. however, i was left with nerve damage and two metal plates in my ankle, held in place by 11 screws. Worse, i was told that i wouldn’t, indeed shouldn’t, wear high heels again.
You wouldn’t think i’d need persuading but look in my wardrobe and the heels are still there. Not platforms or skyscraper stilettos, admittedly, but there are heels, some of them 4 in high.
WhY? Women’s fascination with heels is a professional interest of mine, in my work as a social scientist at aberdeen University. Six years after my agonising fall, i have completed, with my colleague max Barnish, the first major systematic research into the impact of heels (anything from 2 in to 4 in) reviewing all the studies done on the subject.
The conclusion of our paper, published in the BmC Public health Journal this month, was clear — heels are terrible and beautiful things and they have a hold on women (and men) that no one can fathom.
Snapped ankles aside, there’s a strong link between high heels and musculoskeletal conditions; back pain, bunions and sprains. The longer and more frequently heels are worn, and the higher and narrower they are, the worse they are for your health. Some injuries caused by them, like mine, require hospital treatment.
Yet i, and millions like me, can’t give them up. at 5 ft 9 in it’s not that i need them, i just love the way they make me feel. Women put up with the risk and discomfort because they make us feel more confident, more beautiful.
There is a fetishisation of feet, shoes and high heels. men shown photos of women can say if they are wearing heels, even if their feet are not in the frame. They also think these women are more attractive.
Some studies have found that men are twice as likely to smile at a woman in heels and are also more likely to help her if, for example, she asks a question, or drops something.
Some suggest that is because they perceive women in heels to be more vulnerable, arguing that by wearing heels, women are controlled by men and male desires, and are rendered constrained, less mobile, more vulnerable to attack.
however, heels are both controlling and empowering. Not convinced? historically, it was men who wore heels.They were a symbol of power, of wealth. men eventually stopped wearing them because they simply weren’t comfortable. Women adopted them in an attempt to gain this power.
Before my accident, i loved the feeling that wearing vertiginous heels gave me. i remember one pair of black, patent, 3½ in peep toes. i felt invincible in them; they were smart and sexy, my going-out shoes. i no longer have them because, after my fall, i couldn’t bear to keep them and not wear them.
The doctors who had rebuilt my ankle said they didn’t know if i’d walk properly again, or be able to drive. They weren’t sure how much nerve damage there would be either. But i’ve been lucky. i did the physiotherapy religiously and, apart from some loss of sensation, i am fully mobile again.
i can feel some of the screws and a couple of them actually protrude, but nobody can tell unless they look very closely. it was four years before i had the confidence to think about trying anything other than flats but slowly, over the past two years, i have begun to rebuild my collection of high heels.
i started with a pair of kneehigh boots because they seemed ‘sensible’ and then some black patents with a pointed toe and a block heel.
MOrE recently i’ve bought 3 in wedges and strappy, 2½ inch heels. Experimenting again makes me feel happy. i’m lucky that block heels, which offer more stability with their height, are so fashionable.
high heels inspire impassioned debate. i am amazed at how much attention our research has attracted. i think it is because we associate heels with sex, and sex sells. When i went into the office the day after the research was published, all my colleagues, unsurprisingly, were looking at my feet. i was wearing heels and people asked: ‘ how can you wear those when you’ve just said they’re bad for you?’
i can only explain that i know the risks — better than most, i should say — and i’m making an informed choice. and i’ve just bought a really lovely new black suede pair, and i am not going to give them up!