Is it just ME?

Are power heels utterly ridiculous?

CLIPPITY clop, clippity clop . . . like a pair of show ponies the first ladies of the U.S. and France walked on to the White House lawn last week, each on six-inch spindles little wider than liquorice laces.

Oh Melania, Brigitte, why did you do it? Top stylists to hand and you commit the rookie error: stilettos on grass, heels piercing soil like knives through butter. These distinguished women (one in her 40s, one her 60s) were rendered as gauche as teenage dolly birds.

We know why they wore them, of course. Since Sex And The City’s Carrie Bradshaw skittered around Manhattan in Manolo Blahniks, women have fallen for the lie that ridiculous heels are ‘power heels’.

Don those towering pumps and you’ll be a cross between Barbie and Boudicea, stopping traffic,

Women wearing them walk with all the confidence of a newborn deer on an ice rink

storming the office and slaying men. If only that were true! Most women wearing them walk with all the confidence of a newborn deer on an ice rink.

Something in me baulks at women virtually disabled by their footwear, not to mention the aching arches, blisters and bunions that come with skyscraper heels.

As Christian Louboutin admitted, ‘my work is dedicated not to pleasing women but to pleasing men’. What is empowering about hobbling yourself to appeal to men?

Truly powerful women are wise to this. Theresa May, Nicola Sturgeon, Michelle Obama — all favour the spectrum between flat pump and kitten heel.

The rest of us should follow. All those women struggling six inches above the ground, arming themselves with plasters for a night out — burn your ‘power’ heels!

Give in to the low heel, the comfortable wedge or the flat! You will look far more confident and in control — and your tootsies will thank you.