Can you believe the above pic is a cake?!
Sex and the City brought it out of the (erm) closet, but I’m sick to death of hearing the stereotype that women love shoes, specifically expensive ones. OK, I get it: we’re the fair sex, and looking good is important to us, and we appreciate beauty in objects, but I think this shoe stereotype is particularly offensive. It perpetuates the idea that females are shallow and materialistic, and furthers the idea that we are gold-diggers so that we can use men’s money for material pursuits such as shopping. People seem to have the idea that women and girls are silly and do silly, useless things. The amassing of designer shoes seems to epitomize this.
I was more than once criticized as a writer trying to get more money: “You just want it to buy shoes.” I’ve heard the same thing about abortion: women just want to abort their pregnancies so that they can afford to buy shoes. I’m sure.
Girls are encouraged at a very early age to be into this stuff. I have seen at least one children’s book teaching girls how to love shopping for shoes. Just what we need, right? 
Not all women are shoe-obsessed, or even shopping-obsessed. True, many are, and many of you might say, “Well, if the shoe fits…” True enough, maybe this is one of those times when the stereotype is accurate, but I’m still sick of seeing it everywhere. I’ve seen the shoe fetish (fetish in every sense of the word) in the form of cookies, umbrellas, Christmas tree ornaments, and tzotzkes. All hail the high heel!
Tangentially, I’ve heard of rich women getting surgery on their feet so that they can wear designer shoes better. Hello, Darwin Award in the making!
2 users responded " And don’t call me a shoe fetishist! "
October 5 2011
You could argue that guys spending their money on electronics are equally shallow. “But electronics do things!” they might argue. But that’s the problem: toys that do things are marketed to boys and men, and toys that just sit there looking pretty are marketed toward girls and women, and then girls and women are mocked for having “useless” toys or not being as tech savvy.
As for another thing considered a frivolous female pursuit – gossip and gossip magazines – I think sports serves the same purpose for boys and men who can’t get caught dead talking about “girl” stuff. I’ve known at least one man whose interest in sports seemed to be little more than for gossip (small talk) purposes. And I would argue that for any man that doesn’t actually *play* sports, interest in sports is no less frivolous than interest in celebrities and gossip.
October 7 2011
Hi Space, a good point in that men stereotypically don’t have “deep” interests either– watching sports, for example. I guess it’s fair to say that both sexes love their toys, at least in the US. I myself have never understood the appeal of celebrity gossip and resent that such a fluffy thing is mostly for the ladies. It’s interesting that men sometimes talk about sports as “gossip.” Good to know!
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