It's A Shoe Thang...You Wouldn't Understand

One of my biowomen friends on another Internet list I'm a member of posted that she'd just received a pair of shoes she ordered online. Sadge tried them on and discovered they were a little tight but declared she was keeping them. She admitted that she has a weakness for shoes and then asked the question to the group as to why that is so after we chimed in with how large our various shoe collections were.

If there is one thing that we share in common with our genetic sisters, it's a weakness for shoes. Whether it's Imelda Marcos' infamous collection of 7000 plus shoes, various celebrities like Patti LaBelle's large collections or the average woman's shoe closet of ten to twenty-five pairs or more, we gotta have 'em. Sometimes we'll risk raising the ire of our podiatrists and go to the torturous lengths of cramming our foot into a shoe that's a half to a full size too small in the name of fashion to do so.

Guys may shake their heads, joke or grouse to their friends about the amount of closet space taken up by a woman's shoe collection, but get them in a room and they'll freely admit that they're turned on by a woman that's wearing hose and a pair of sexy heels that complements their outfit.

So why do we have so many shoes? I think it comes down to six basic reasons:

*The shoe matches an outfit we have in our closet.

*We buy the shoe to potentially match a future clothing purchase.

*We bought it because it was cute.

*We bought it becase it made us feel sexy and powerful when we put it on.

*We bought it on sale.

*We bought it off the clearance rack and can't take it back.

I'll cosign on Point 4. I love heels. My six foot plus behind doesn't like them any shorter than 2.5 inches or taller than three. When I slip on any of my numerous pairs of three inch heels along with my fly clothes, then combine it with trips to the nail and beauty shops I feel like the sexiest woman alive.

Heels also are a distinctive gender thing that scream 'female'. Yeah, there are cute flat and feminine shoes that I own to wear with my suits. But when I want to look my feminine best and feel the estrogen coursing through my body heels are a must have-must wear accessory.

On that note, time to go shopping and see if those pumps I was checking out last week are on sale.