Lemondrop

Leora Tanenbaum, a native New Yorker and icon of the third-wave feminist movement, wrote the book on sexual double standards with "Slut! Growing Up With a Bad Reputation," now a mainstay in women's studies classes.

Since then, she's written on female in-fighting ("Catfight! Women and Competition") and religion ("Taking Back God: American Woman Rising Up for Religious Equality"), but it's her fourth book, on women and the shoes we choose, that is bound to start a conversation.

In "Bad Shoes & the Women Who Love Them," which hits bookstores this week, Tanenbaum examines our footwear fetish -- just why we love shopping for shoes so much and the bold irony that smart, self-aware women wear painful shoes they know damage their feet. But don't distress if you have a pair (or seven) in your closet; she also has a solution that allows you to wear heels without hobbling. We caught up with her -- while wearing flats -- last week.

Lemondrop: Why did you, a third-wave feminist author, choose to take on shoes?
Leora Tanenbaum: There is a famous book called "Fat Is a Feminist Issue." Well, I think feet are a feminist issue. I find it frightening and troubling that so many women wear bad shoes in the name of fashion. Not many women realize that if they wear shoes that deviate from the shape of their feet, they are going to end up with foot deformities.

Besides, all of my books are personal in some way, which is a product of being a feminist writer, and I became interested in this topic as my feet started to hurt, even when I was wearing flats or sneakers. So I made an appointment with a podiatrist, and he took one look at my feet and said, "You have bunions." I'm a pronator, which means walking with your feet turned inward, on the sides of the feet. This is a problem that affects 70 percent of people, especially women. If a man overpronates, it's not a big deal because men's shoes will either correct the problem or won't cause discomfort. Women's shoes worsen the problem.

You write about the rapture, in women and men, over high heels. Can you discuss why high heels are so sexy to both sexes?
On a very elementary level, you notice your posture instantly changes when you wear heels. Your tush goes out, your bust goes forward, the arch of your back becomes more pronounced; this posture and this gait is associated in our culture with sexiness. Actually, when a woman is sexually aroused, the arch of her foot becomes pronounced -- the Kinseys wrote about this. When a woman is wearing high heels, she looks as though she is aroused, or at least it's the same posture; on an unconscious level, men are making that association to sex.

So what can a woman do if she wants the posture but not the pain?
There are shoes that are not 4 inches high that give you that lift, that make you feel fantastic. Go as low as you can get away with. I'm not saying that you should go flat. Kitten heels and wedges are very sexy and those shoes are quite beautiful. If you wear a 1- to 1-1/2-inch heel, you'll walk better and feel better and give off that sexy vibe better.

So which shoes are "bad shoes," and what should women do with the ones in their wardrobe?
Anything with a pointy toe is actually really bad. You're cramping your toes in a space that's too small for them. Ballet flats are very, very cute, and I understand why one might intuitively assume that flats are better than heels, but you do need a little bit of a lift or a contouring; there is nothing in ballet flats that will stop your foot from rolling. Either limit the amount that you wear them or look for a pair with a little bit of arch support. You want a little bit of padding. There are a lot of companies that make well-made ballet flats.

If you want to wear these shoes for a few hours, once or a twice a week, that's fine, you just can't wear them every day. You are going to cause problems for your toes, like bunions, corns, and hammertoes -- and you may change the shape of your feet. A lot of women are lulled into complacency, because the deformity doesn't happen so quickly.

So what will eventually ail us if we don't break the bad shoe habit?
A bunion, which is a misalignment of the joint of the big toe. The joint of the big toe starts to point outward and the big toe itself starts to go inward. The pointer toe angles further and further toward the neighboring toe and it starts to overlap. If you look around this time of year at women in their sandals, you will see bunions. A bunion in and of itself doesn't hurt, but when you wear shoes that are too narrow, the joint, which is angling outward, hits the side of the shoe. A hammertoe is a deformity, and it's called a hammertoe because the toes resemble the little hammers inside a piano, kind of clawed in a way. A corn looks like a little kernel of corn; it's a hard little patch of skin on top of toes or in between them and also caused by wearing the wrong kinds of shoes. A corn will rub against the inside of the shoe and be painful.

Ick. So what surprised you the most as you were writing and researching this book in particular?
As I was speaking with women for my research, I would educate them and say, 'Guess, what? If you wear a high-heeled shoe on a regular basis, over and over and over again, you're going to change the shape of your feet and be likely to have serious foot pain later. '

And occasionally women would say, 'Oh, I don't care, it's worth it. When it happens, I'll just have the surgery.'

There was one woman in New York City whom I interviewed who told me that she wore these heels that weren't even that high but they were too narrow and too tight so she literally had to take them off and she didn't have money to take a cab home. She had to walk around the city barefoot. And I said, 'Oh, that's awful. So now you've learned a lesson, right? Next time, if you wear those shoes, you'll carry a second pair of comfortable shoes to change into.' She looked as me as though I was crazy.

It was as though she felt, I must wear these shoes, even if it is unhealthy, because I look great. If you stand back and examine this, it's oppressive. She's a savvy, sophisticated woman but in her mind, she must wear a certain shoe in order to look attractive. We are pressured to fit into this narrow beauty ideal, and we feel that we must wear a certain kind of shoe. Well, A) it's not true, and B) you're only hurting yourself here. The irony is so many of us wear these shoes to look good, but we're causing ugliness.

How do you feel about heels on the heels of having finished the book?
I wear high heels myself. I look great in them. But I limit how I wear them and where I wear them. I don't do serious walking in them. I'll change into my heels. I would never tell anyone to throw away all your heels. I just try to be careful with them. I also have my walking shoes.

Right. There is no shame in carrying a second pair of more comfortable shoes in your purse.
Absolutely. Although some women do feel that it's unfashionable. In the '80s, there was the woman in her power suit wearing nylons and sneakers, with her high heels sticking out of her tote bag. Because women in the workforce became the butt of jokes in that era, that visual became the shorthand for mocking working women. So we need to really forget that negative connotation.

What I found striking about the book is that it encouraged women to close the gap between their values and their actions -- that it's time for strong, empowered women to stop wearing shoes that they know really hurt them. Other than reading your book, what do you think it's going to take for women to wear more sensible shoes?
I'm pretty hopeful because the shoe industry is changing. There is this expanding wellness market. There are a lot of really cute shoes out there that have arch support and are better made. They're more attractive than they used to be. The industry is responding to this need. Every season, there are more and more cute choices that are good for your feet.

What sort of shoes are you wearing right now?
They're European-looking sneaker shoes. They are not high-fashion by any sense, but they are so comfortable.


Liz Funk is a New York–based author, freelance writer and speaker. Her first book, "Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls" was published last year by Simon and Schuster.