The Effect of Shoe Heel Height And Floor Incline - Research Paper Example

High Heels Shoes Women and high heeled shoes have taken in a close rapport with one another for hundreds of years. Way back from hunting in knitted grass and animal hide footwear in the boondocks to swaggering in Yves Saint Laurent’s six and a half inch heels in broad-based metropolises, women have fought back to keep up a sense of balance in the middle of fashion and purpose. Most seem to have a good turn to fashion over well-being with approximately forty percent of women persistent on wearing heels in spite of the fiery uneasiness in their feet. The bearing of deciding on to wear up-to-the-minute high heels has favorable and damaging outcomes that are irreparable. Even though human beings have been walking straight far extended than stilettos have been in being, high heels came into being over 5,000 years ago and have continued to reinvent themselves all through history. Discovered on Egyptian wall paintings dating back to 3500 B.C., high heels were owned by the privileged people and were made by fastening together leather parts, which were set to characterize the emblem for life. The prehistoric citizens of Renaissance, Rome and Greece would put on (kothorni) or buskins shoes with wood or cork soles. These shoes inferred social prominence and significance on the stage of a theater and on the streets of a civilization. Roman women were straightforwardly acknowledged as prostitutes by their high heels. The middle Ages saw the entrance of designs, or wooden soles, which kept both sexes’ costly shoes from being stained by street rubbish. In the 1400s, chopines were massively prevalent among European women. Venetian women, in particular, made these seven or even thirty inch high heels conspicuous on the perilous Italian streets. For the reason that promenading requisite canes or servants for sustenance, escape from the harem was unmanageable. Chopines were sooner or later banned for being too hazardous. Fashion dominated functions upon the official invention of high heels by the diminutive imminent Queen of France, Catherine de Medici. So as to appear more astounding and bewitching than her fiancé’s concubine, Diana de Poitiers, Catherine dressed on a pair of 2 inch high heels for her wedding to the Duke of Orleans. She thrived with monarch after monarch ensuing her high heel tendency. High heels turned out to be so well-liked that the word well-heeled acknowledged a person of power or wealth. After Catherine de Medici put on her heels, high heels instigated their strenuous journey through history. In the early 1700s, the Sun King Louis XIV put on heels named after him and acknowledged numerous heel laws: red heels were earmarked for nobleness, heels had to be lower than the 5 inch “Louis heels,” and anyone who defied these decrees received the death penalty .The Massachusetts Bay Colony also had a similar restrictive law; women were banned from wearing seductive high heels to entice men or were tried as witches. Napoleon and the French Revolution sought to remove the symbol of inequality by banishing high heels; however, Marie Antoinette still wore them to her execution. Heels decreased in height until the Victorian age when sewing machines created a larger selection. More symbolism emerged during this time period. Large feet represented a spinster’s pains, and the instep arch represented a woman’s curve and aristocracy. Heels were associated with sexual aggressiveness for unsuspecting men who were captured by the poison. The dangers of foot fetishism and foot compression were taught in the classic fairytale Cinderella. As high heels entered the twentieth century, flat-soled shoes gave way to Louis heels due to the roaring twenties’ high hemlines. Heels became lower and wider during the Great Depression but were higher and thicker due to the luxurious item shortage of World War II. On September 10, 1953, the Daily Telegram introduced London readers to a shoe with a narrow heel and toe imbued with phallic-erectile symbolism. Named for the Italian word for a small dagger with a receding blade, the stiletto was a collaboration between French designer Christian Dior and Roger Vivier. Bare legs were enhanced once stilettos were attached to boots. Feminists, on the other hand, did not embrace these heels suggestive of weakness and sexual stereotyping. Although the stiletto decreased in heel height and thickness, this did not stop the return of chopines during the 1970s. Different from their predecessor, platform shoes brought attention to themselves with their height and colorful, swirly designs. A decade later, some feminists soften their viewpoint of stilettos with concepts of wearing heels for preference, supremacy and authority. Hollywood greats and fashion designers, such as Jimmy Choo and Manolo and made popular high-heeled shoes to the general public. Regardless of these resurgences, high heels deteriorated in reputation by the late 1990s. Even though deliberating which heel height is at this time in craze is arguable, high heels have turned out to be an everlasting feature in women’s lives. Women today can choose from a large variety of heels, and they have proven so by buying six new pairs a year. Those pairs are indeed being worn since one in ten women wear high heels three days a week. With major hit films such as Sex in the City and The Devil Wears Prada, women are willing to bear the pain and even go under the knife to slip their feet into a pair of heels. History has seen heels rise and fall both in height and popularity; but so far, these shoes are here to stay for as long as time will allow. Heels have been credited with visual and physical benefits both in the past and present. Their ability to transform the body’s appearance for the better is the reason they have been timeless pieces of fashion. Women appear taller and slimmer. Shapely calves, longer legs, smaller feet, and gracefully arched curves are the illusions high heels can cast. The female form is embellished with the bottom pushed backward and the chest forward. Some women wear high heels on special occasions to look elegant and confidant. However, others are addicted to it. All women know that high heels have a dark side, which affect their body in a negative way. Wearing high heels for a long period of time may cause a long-term damage such as distorting womens natural posture, body balance and feet and toes shape. High heel shoes not only damaging the woman who wears it, they are damaging the floors they walk on by leaving pock marks. Women think they look more attractive in high heels, forgetting that kind of shoes may cause them a lot of embarrassment. Shoes are meant to safeguard their feet not to cause severe and permanent foot problems. Doctors and scientists have argued about the physical and cultural effect, both positive and negative. Elegant now will not be elegant later. High heels have been known to have an effect on male libido. Men find the wavering walk and sway of women’s hip for the most part appealing, necessitating to be protective of the susceptible women in heels. Since the Victorian period, high heels were claimed by sales persons to have assured health benefits such as letting off go backaches and stooping and decreasing exhausting. Studies have reported a different kind of physical benefit. Several in depth research and studies have suggested that the abdomen and pelvic floor of a woman can be toned by high heel posture, improving sex life. One such research put into consideration a total of 96 women under the age of 40, it evidenced that muscles were more relaxed in higher heels. By standing at a 15-degree angle or in a pair of 4 inch heels, there is less electrical activity in the pelvic muscles. Relaxed muscles result in improved strength and contraction ability. Pelvic floor muscles can be weaken by factors such as weight gain, pregnancy, and age. Wearing heels exercises those muscles and can be helpful to those wanting to improve sexual indulgence. Behind heels’ appealing portico, women should be mindful of the positives and negatives of putting on footwear that has stayed alive for over 5,000 years of reinvention. Heels do give women exquisiteness, grace, and appeal; on the other hand, these gifts are at an expense. Once women uninterruptedly wear heels, they cannot turn reverse time to avoid disorders such as osteoarthritis. Women do not have to stop wearing heels; but they can choose to wear footwear that is both fashionable and functional. As high and low heels proceed into the future, perhaps innovators will improve these stylish heels for the better. Finally, high heels are a very wonderful and exciting thing for two explanations which are its history and great stylishness. High heels have had not only on women, but also on society as a whole, a great form of ambience and attraction petite.  Knowing the High heel shoes as a representation of class and sex whatever their influences. From the past until that time designers compete in designing different style of high heels with using best materials such as high grade leather and exquisite metals like gold, platinum and at times customizing them to the owner’s needs and requirements. Works cited Kent, Paula Rachel. 2007. Think pink and high heels: women and beauty as represented in chick lit novels. Stephenville, Tex: Tarleton State University. Lee, Chang-Min, Eun-Hee Jeong, and Andris Freivalds. "Biomechanical effects of wearing high- heeled shoes." International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 28, no. 6 (2001): 321-326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-8141 (01)00038-5 (accessed February 19, 2014). Leganeur, J. J... All about wearing high heels: (for girls/women). Olde City Philadelphia, Pa.: Xlibris, 2000. Linder M, and CL Saltzman. 1998. "A history of medical scientists on high heels". International Journal of Health Services: Planning, Administration, Evaluation. 28 (2): 201-25. 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