Monday, October 22, 2012

Says it all, really


And some links for you, Alex, cause you're not on facebook (and anyone else interested in chatting about these things. I admit I'm starting to move on):

Be interested to see what you make of Anne Summers on Gillard's (and other women's) choice of footwear

Another Summers article published on a New York blog, on the Gillard/sexism/misogyny thing

A link to Gillard's speech re the UN, note at the beginning how carefully she ascends the stage. Poor thing. Get rid of the fucking heels. Go the Stott Despoja Doc!

And finally, something recycled from years ago. Still love it:



And if you like shoes you might like muffins:

11 comments:

suze2000 said...

Julia's speech was so energising. A turning point (I hope) for her govt. I was horrified to read Anne Summers' original article detailing the sexist drawings and emails that have been going around. Clearly, none of my friends were stupid enough to send one to me, I had no idea, I thought it was all limited to Tony Abbott and a few shock jocks (and the Australian, of course - though I never expected them to actually be tolerant of her PMship).

I don't know why women choose to wear heels. I have refused for the last 10 years to even put a pair on. Sure I like the way women look in them, but I'm not going to risk injury or pain just to look a little sexy. And the modern ones are insane - girls can't even walk in them, they do not look good!

What I don't understand is why she doesn't wear small heels with an instep strap, to keep them on firmly at least. If she must wear them. I think women should follow Carli Bruni's example and stick to ballet flats. If we all refused to wear them except on special occasions, some sanity might return.

Anonymous said...

Cheers for the links Melbs. And I love that Alan Jones graphic. Sums up the insane hypocrisy of the man beautifully.

I couldn't agree more on the heels. I don't wear them, I don't understand them and I don't even like the way they look. And apart from the height, one thing I'm noticing more now is shoes with incredibly thin heels. I saw a lass who looked about twenty nearly break her ankle in them on a paved footpath a couple of weeks ago. Madness. I've been wearing Blundstones for as long as I can remember and I wouldn't be at all sad to see women collectively ditch the bloody things. Men can throw away their stupid bloody neck ties while we're at it, too.

Melba said...

I don't really care what women choose to wear etc, I think feminism should have brought us to a place where we are beyond this even mattering, and that women should be able to mix and match and pick and choose whatever they want to wear, and not feel they have to stick to a certain look or style BUT if we are falling over because of footwear, then the person needs to reassess?

I don't know. I'm a flat heel/bare foot person but don't mind a solid heel on a boot and don't mind a very high glamour heel for tottering out to a restaurant once or twice a year (taxi/being driven, and with Clokes next to me who I can hang onto so I can walk.)

Anonymous said...

Certainly I'm not interested in telling women not to wear heels. I hate them passionately and people like Puss don't feel comfortable in anything else. That's fair enough. My feelings on this are about on par with head scarves, I guess. I'm all for women being able to wear them if they want to, but I'm dead against any kind of social or cultural pressure that makes women feel like there's a reason they should wear them. And that's predominantly what I got out of that article, too.

I guess there's a danger that if you're not careful about how you oppose cultural pressure, you can end up causing cultural pressure in the opposite direction (counter-cultural pressure?). Which is something we've discussed before.

Melba said...

I think the reason people like Puss don't feel comfortable in anything else can often be that the muscles have shortened in the calf so to wear flats stretches them and is painful.

This is what I've heard. Believe it or nut.

Anonymous said...

I was watching (mostly listening to) the 'murikan election on Fox the other day, and there was this little bit where the female anchor (Megan?) had to walk to the back area to talk to the political analysts (why, I dunno) and because of the skirt and heels she was wearing, she had to have the male anchor (don't remember his name) help her get off the little raised platform thing that the news desk was sitting on.

This caught my attention and got me thinking.

So, like, yeah, still with the free choice and everything, but seriously; this is silly, right? I mean, she didn't fall over like Gillard, but, like, it's just another example of what a bloody impediment that type of garb is and makes me wonder how much this goes on. If the generally accepted standard dress for smart, classy, professional women is stopping them from moving around properly, within their own normal workplace, maybe, just maybe, there needs to be a collective rethink of fashion standards, eh?

Melba said...

Chinese foot-binding - this is just the Western equivalent? I've said this before I'm sure.

You can't run in high heels, you can't walk properly but because they slim and lengthen the leg and push the bum out, they are desirable.

Who cares if they do all that? Oh, women care. Why do they care? Because they want to be attractive. Why do they want to be attractive? Ah, to attract people. Why do they want to attract people?

...

Not saying I never wear them and yeah, free choice and all that. But when you can't walk in them and want to wear them all the time. Yeah free choice... I can't say anything. Each to their own but then I can think a person looks like a dickhead can't I? Right? Just like they can me.

Anonymous said...

Each to their own but then I can think a person looks like a dickhead can't I? Right? Just like they can me.

See, this is the line of thinking that I think I'm going down. I mean, I think people should be able to eat Macca's if they want, but I should still be able to rail against the inherent folly in gorging on it for every single meal -- and the irresponsibility of shovelling it into your kids with the same frequency.

Surely restrictive fashion is the same, no?

And I like the foot-binding analogy. When you say that women want to look attractive in this sense, do you mean specifically attractive to men, or do you reckon there's something more or different to it?

Melba said...

Hey just found this comment, I don't have any comment alert thingies so sometimes I just stumble across them. I came here to see what I put about Alan Jones, then I watched Shoes, and then I came down here. Random.

Women want to look attractive probably primarily as competition to other women, and what they're competing for is male attention. Not all women, obvs.

Anonymous said...

That reminds me, I saw a girl of about ten, twist her ankle very badly, toppling over in a set of ridiculously narrow heals, in the supermarket, about six weeks ago. No doubt, as soon as she could walk again she would've had them back on.

That thing about women competing with each other though, I think that's what I was getting at earlier; do you reckon it gets to a point where the competition -- the idea of attractiveness -- takes on a life of its own -- I dunno, like becomes a cultural thing just amongst women -- and what men might actually notice or care about becomes irrelevant (I dunno, like blokes wanting giant penises or something)*? Like, do you reckon shoes actually make a difference in that regard?

*A woman's penis size is her entire appearance, maybe? (This line of thinking is getting a bit weird and I'm not even sure it's making sense anymore.)

As far as keeping track of new comments goes, apparently you can set Blogger to email you every time one is posted. If that seems like too much of a pain in the arse, you can bookmark your blog's comment feed. And since you're using Firefox(5), you can set it as a live bookmark and you'll be able to see in the bookmarks' bar when there's something new.

Melba said...

No I get what you're saying Alex but I would say it's more like this: [many] women define themselves [or feel defined by society] by their appearance; [many] men define themselves [or feel defined by society] by their career/job.

And then they also want a big penis. (Or do they? I really don't know.)

About tracking comments, I always have email notifications turned off cause they just shit me. I'll look at the bookmarking idea but to be honest, I probably won't bother. But thanks!