“why can’t female heroes kick arse in heels” because it’s not practical and will literally snap your damn ankle you can scream weaponised femininity all you want but first off, you need to admit that they’re not an almighty symbol of empowerment, and secondly that if you do a job with a lot of physical activity in heels you’re risking your own safety. all these women fighting in heels on tv are going to end up seriously injuring themselves.
weaponised femininity is a concept made up in an attempt to get us to embrace the industries created to hold us back/profit from our insecurities so that we can continue to fit into the male expectation of what a woman should be and not question why we are forced to spend thousands on our appearance every year
just a small anecdote. I had a friend who worked in theater; she was the stage manager and an actress came to her in tears one day because the director absolutely refused to let her do a choreographed fight scene in less than 3 inch heels because “they’re platforms so you’ll be okay.” My friend, who is a woman’s size 10, brought her own heels in the next day and DEMANDED the director put them on and try the choreography before the actress did it. He finally agreed to change it, without putting the heels on.
so like I know you might think of “all those women on tv fighting in heels” as fictional woman who WOULD hurt themselves in real life, but its fiction so its okay…except those women are portrayed by real actresses who are actually fighting in actual heels, being directed by dudes who have never worn a pair of heels in their lives, alongside men who aren’t expected to constantly wear things that make their stunts 2x more dangerous than they have to be. Just a thought.
Men take “let’s see feminine women being badass” to mean “let’s see women impractically focused on their appearance in combat situations.“
That’s why I loved Black Panther even more Nakia took off her heels and used them as weapons and was running and driving around barefoot in that one scene
A number of stuntwomen have spoken out about getting injured on sets because the character is wearing heels and skimpy clothing that provide no protection or padding. It literally harms rl women.
https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/29/why-stuntwomen-are-in-more-danger-than-men
I think a lot of men, and some women too, have the misconception that heels aren’t painful and are easy to walk in.
This is not true. They are painful. And they’re only easy to walk in if they fit and you know how to do it (and even then, some are easier than others). And they’re easy to do NOTHING ELSE in. Go upstairs? Not easy. Go downstairs? Not easy.
I decided a while ago that I wanted to wear heels, so I learned how to do it and I learned what I could and could not do in them. As far as pain went, I just…dealt with it. I have a desk job; even then, kicking off my shoes under my desk was integral to making it through the day. But standing in heels is uncomfortable, and walking in heels is uncomfortable, and NONE of it is comfortable, and you learn to make do because that is the trade-off for looking the way you want to look (if that’s how you want to look, and for me, it was).
One time, a younger female coworker told me she didn’t know how I could wear shoes like that without my feet hurting.
(kind of like these ones from jjshouse.)
I told her, no, they do hurt. You just…get used to it. And you don’t push it, don’t try to walk long distances or stand up for long periods of time without taking a break. She asked why I would do that to myself. I shrugged. “It’s how I want to look, and I can do it right now.”
But the thing is, the only reason I could wear shoes like that is because I sit on my ass all day. Even our office wasn’t very big (we were located in a big old stone house). If I’d worked in a big office building? Those shoes might not have been an option anymore, even with me sitting on my butt most of the time. I cannot emphasize the extent to which distance is not a thing in shoes like those. Even in shorter heels, you’re not going to be going far.
Heels hurt. Even the most comfortable pairs hurt; they just hurt less. People who want to wear heels (and can do so) either put up with the pain or decide they don’t actually want to wear heels that badly after all.
So, fighting? Fighting in heels? Not if there’s any other choice available. And I will run barefoot over anything but broken glass before I will run in heels if I have to run quickly. Seeing people in heels in roles where they’re a liability is one of the easiest ways to pull me out of immersion. And it’s dangerous af for the people acting those roles. It needs to stop, is what I’m saying, and I think part of why it hasn’t stopped yet is because Men Don’t Get It.
Your character can look plenty badass in a pair of flat shoes or boots.
ifgenderisareddress