Why Women Like to Wear High Heels

The way you wear shoes will impose how you are going to move. There’s a love-hate relationship with wearing heels. And if you’re a woman, I would guess that no matter what you feel about heels, you’ve probably worn them too.

High heels are fashionable, but it can be an unpleasant habit too. If wearing heels has become your habit, you are aware of the pain it can also bring you. Some of the results of wearing heels are Lumbar spine flattening, posterior displacement of the head, and unwanted increased pressure on the foot. A woman who has gone for a long period of time of standing, walking, and dancing, through an evening or a bar knows how numbing and constricting heels can be. But why do we still love wearing them? Keep on reading.

Culturally Established

Women who live in Los Angeles only have two choices, heels or flats isn’t one of them. It’s sling backs or stilettos. Heels in LA are a way to amp up a more casual look on the fly. LA is a very event-driven town where flats are not really your go-to shoes if you need to attend a formal lunch or major party (except if going to the beach). For LA, heels are the style etiquette and women who wear heels express their esteem and flattering support for one another. 

Pleasing and Appealing Walk

There is a scientific explanation why heels increase a woman’s attractiveness. Psychologist Paul Morris and his colleagues conducted a test where they recorded females walking in flat shoes versus in high heels. One by one, these 12 women of varying ages and sizes were designed with glow in the dark dots at specific points along their body. They were asked to walk a treadmill in entire darkness so only visible to be seen are the glowing dots attached to their bodies. The others wore 2 1/2-inch heels and the other were dressed in flats.

The observers couldn’t see the women, how they look, how old they were, and their weight. The only thing that they can see is the way they moved when they walked. The results showed that there is change in gait. Women walking in heels have lesser and reduced steps, greater rotation and tilt of the hips. Using only the glowing dots without any other usual indicators of attractiveness, the change in gait alone made the observers find women in heels more attractive.

Women Are Women

The test that Morris and his colleagues were altered and this time took a step further. They gathered new participants and showed them the same videos of the women walking in treadmill in complete darkness with glowing dots attached to their bodies. This time, the participants were to identify which subjects were females, and which were males. Remember that all of the walkers are females, the only difference is some are in heels, some are in flats. The results are not surprising, the women in flats are mistaken for a man. Women who are in heels move their hips more and exaggerates a cat walk. Wearing heels remind women that they are women.

More Attractive to Men

Here’s another experiment you would want to hear. A series of experiments conducted by researcher and professor, Nicolas Gueguen, were he used the old fashioned “I dropped my glove” practice using 19-year-old women in skin tight tops and heels or flats. He timed how long it would take a man to approach a woman sitting at a bar. Women in flats got approached within 14 minutes while women in heels were approached half of the time. In just seven minutes, women were thrown out pickup lines.

Powerful and Assertive

Did you know that way back to 3500 BC, aristocratic men and women wore heels for ceremonial purposes. It has been said that added height separates them from the others, or above– from the social classes. Today that doesn’t apply but it made a contribution to why women feel empowered when they wear heels. That is evident with business women, you can see them in heels always.

Heels are an instant confidence boost. Women feel more intelligent, independent, and ambitious in heels. They feel a gain of power when they are heightened. Heels make a woman feel in charge because she always want to be taller than her opponent. When in heels, you tend to look down to someone instead of looking up at someone.

However, flats today have definitely been widely accepted, women today buy more flats than heels according to a study from a consumer analyst Mintel. More and more women feel the need to switch to something comfortable. The choice is yours!

Ivandrea Ollero

Ivandrea Ollero is a beauty fan and a makeup lover herself, she provides useful makeup techniques and skincare tips for enhancing the natural beauty of everyone. She is a daytime writer for Napoleon Perdis Makeup Academy, one of Australia’s leading makeup and skincare brand.

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