Average British woman spends 54,000 dollars on shoes during

[Wookie]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050718/323/fnlep.html

The average woman in Britain spends more than 31,000 pounds (54,000 dollars, 45,000 euros) on shoes during her lifetime and almost 16,000 pounds on belts and other accessories.

One third of women say they have 25 pairs of shoes in their wardrobe, and around 1.3 million women claim to have well over 30 pairs, according to research carried out by the Churchill Home Insurance group.

The oppressed have it so hard :twisted:

Wookie

[Sir Percy]

Shoes wear out fast when you are kicking men all the time.

[woof]

LOL....what can you say about this......she buys......he pays for.... :shock:
A good argument for tracking how those child support payments are spent.

[Awakened]

How much of that $54k is a mans money?

[Awakened]

Unsurprisingly, one in five women say they hide their purchases from their partner, while 22 percent lie about how much they have spent.

[MacKenzie]

LOL....what can you say about this......she buys......he pays for.... :shock:
A good argument for tracking how those child support payments are spent.

It should be noted that the resale value of these shoes drops enormously after a few months... which isn't surprising at all.

What was "High Fashion" - becomes more wasted cowskin - and seriously wasted "child support".

[Buddy-Rey]

Hehe...I wouldn't know what to DO with 25 pairs of shoes.  I have three...my athletic/street shoes, my formal shoes (two-tone spectators, 40's style), and bedroom slippers.  That's all I need, want, or have room for!  

[Double Jeopardy]

Bedroom slippers?

Ward, is that you?

[Roy]

Whatever you do, DO NOT Google "women's shoe fetishes."

I think my spam filter just melted down ....

Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, coeditors of Footnotes: On Shoes write,

"The high heel elongates the leg and increases the arch of the foot, making it appear smaller. It raises the buttocks (as much as 25 percent, according to Harper's Index) and curves the back, pushing the chest forward."

In other words, high heels lend curves, length and muscle definition (especially in the calves which are in a perpetual flexed state) in all the right ways to accentuate constructed feminine sexuality.

Many second wave feminists adamantly condemned high heels for this very reason of constructed sexuality and conformance to male dominated ideals of beauty. (Gamman)

However, at the end of the eighties, reclamation of female sexuality and desire swept through feminism. Suddenly women were, if not taking a stand in the name of feminism, seemed to be taking a stand for themselves. They wanted to wear stilettos, they wanted to feel sexy, and they enjoyed their stilettos and all the nuances that went along with them.

Along with this physical aspect of sexual power and autonomy, high heels can create feelings of authority. When wearing high heels, one cannot slouch or hang back.

Linda O' Keefe, author of Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers and More writes, "Physically, it is impossible for a woman to cower in high heels. She is forced to take a stand, to strike a pose, because anatomically her center of gravity has been displaced forward."
(p71)

This, along with the added height, can automatically function as a psychological boost. Suddenly a woman is no longer walking; she is upright and strutting, wearing an accessory which physically seems to propel her forward in life.

Simon Doonan, creative director of Barney's in New York says "High heels create a level of authority."

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/courses/knowbody/f04/web2/aabeyta.html

I have not yet read enough Freud to understand just how twisted women may be over shoes, but there's something really dark and scary going on here.

My ex-wife had over 40 pairs when we divorced, and she was agoraphobic --  extreme fear of being out in public.

I guess shoes are some kind of fantasy prop for a woman's fictional identity?

Can't you achieve the same reassurance a whole lot cheaper by making a really big ball of yarn?   :rolling_eyes:

[SacredNaCl]

Well, if we are counting house shoes... Ward is in pretty good company, I have 2 pairs, and a night robe. ;-)

I have about 9-10 pairs; 2 different pairs of house shoes, one for when its really really cold and one for when it isn't (concrete and hardwood floors!). A nice pair of dress shoes I almost never wear, a different color of dress shoes I wear a lot more often as they match the few still fitting suits I have, two pairs of rugged boots - 1 steel toe - 1 without, 1 pair of shoes specially for the boat (they have extra sticky rubber and a pattern that grips even when wet), and a pair of hitop tennis shoes.  I probably still have a pair of sneakers somewhere too, so maybe 9 and 10 if you count my waders for fishing...  

I think putting those together I've probably spent $600-700 on those shoes and probably another 60 in stuff to take care of them.  I tend to get several years out of the boots,   two years out of good dress shoes unless I'm selling something then its a lot less, tennis shoes don't last but the ones I buy are cheap as sin anyway.  

I tend to buy more high end stuff.  The last pair of boots I got were in the 100 range, and they will probably last 7-10 years.  So it pays to get the hard rubber, high quality stuff.  I had a pair of cheaper ones from Brazil that were gone in a year or two, very disappointing.   I spend ages shopping for them, and if I ever get shoes as a gift the first thing I do is return them.   So I'm picky about it.  Its nearly impossible to find quality items these days, everyone is focused on cheap cheap cheap and that is all most of the stores carry.    

I can sort of understand it, they want something to match their outfits...all of them...  Its the same reason I have two pairs of dress shoes, so they match whatever suit I pick out.  If I had a red suit, other than black, what would I match it with? Or worse, a white suit!  Not that I would ever see myself buying one, but I'm sure some of have need of one.  Even being picky about it, I doubt I'll ever spend more than 16-18K on shoes.  Now if I could just find suits I like for under $300...

[Buddy-Rey]

Bedroom slippers?

Ward, is that you?

LOL!!!  Well, if you saw my house, you'd understand.  Right before my mom wigged out and left, she had hard floors installed throughout the entire place, due to a complete aversion to carpet (kinda funny, since my dad was a carpet store owner, and continues to sell some as a freelancer from time to time).  Anyway, I HATE hard floors.  Laminate, tile, watever.  I HATE it!  It's so cold.  I have to have something warm, soft, and fuzzy to walk on.  So, if I'm lounging at home, I always have slippers on.  I just couldn't stand it any other way.  Plus, with a dog and a cat constantly making messes, it's kind of a nice insurance policy.  If I'm going to step in a steaming dog pile, I'd rather have a few millimeters of rubber and fleece between the pile and my feet.  Can ya dig it?

[Roy]

Well, you start a thread about female shoe fetishes and you eventually end up with a quirky male's obsessions about having his toes only feel soft 'n fluffy floorings in the home.

All I can conclude is ----

The idea of rational discourse is a very, very suspect illusion in this day and age.

Does anyone recall theory?

You know, the rational thought behind opinions?

Our country was founded upon a radical opinion ---

"We hold these truths to be self-evident...."

What a bunch of cock-sure egotists!

They actually thought their ideas could withstand the de-evolution of progress and civilization.

Sad to see honorable men so forgotten.

Though, as we would say today, they were not truly wrong, they merely "mis-spoke."

[contrarymary]

There must be something seriously wrong with me.  (No shit - you have all long suspected this; of course I am the last to catch on.)  I have 10 pairs of shoes; five were given to me by my daughter and the other five, I brag about how LITTLE I spent on them.  I can't afford much at "regular" prices - I wait for sales and max out at $20.00 for leather.  

I have two handbags and three belts, two of which I purchased at the dollar store (and they were real leather too!) I did spent $150 (discount) on the Coach handbag, but only because I knew it would last at least five years. It has.

[angelssk7]

Let's see... I've got my hiking boots, tennis shoes (which I need to replace; the rubber has worn completely of in a couple of spots), sandles, shower sandles to prevent disease transmission when I use the dorm showers, my dress shoes, and I can technically count my old work shoes because I can still wear them... by the way, Shoes for Crews makes very good shoes, I can run across an oily kitchen floor and make sharp turns without slipping and falling, wheras I can't even walk on the same floor with normal tennis shoes.

So yeah, 6 pairs of shoes, each shoe being 2-4 years old (oldest being the work shoes, seconded by the hiking boots). At this time I also have a Case pocket knife, my Wal-Mart camp knife, a sheath knife given to me by my grandpa, a new pocket kinfe I bought at the flea market today, as well as three throwing knives. And when I go back to the flea market to get that cool dagger I saw, (only 10 bucks! And the swords were only $50, so check out the flea market in Murphy, NC that's across the street from the Texaco on 64 :wink: ), I will have a total of 8 knives. So yes, more knives than shoes... whatever tha amounts to.

[Roy]

angelssk7 -

So yes, more knives than shoes... whatever that amounts to.

Some feminist graduate students (yes, Women's Studies now produce Masters and even Ph.D. degrees!) would observe that your penchant for knives is an obvious compensation for an emasculated sense of identity, and perhaps a faux-Electra complex.

Other feminist gender experts would suggest you are expressing masculine anger by collecting phallic symbols that allow you to suppress your actual misogynist rage.

The majority of feminists who love shoes would think you're just wasting your money on knives, when you could be buying shoes.

I hear that Kim Gandy (N.O.W.'s lesbian President) is really into Italian 5-inch heels that lift and separate the wearer's buttocks.

When she's not busy endorsing anti-male legislation like VAWA, that wench is such a tease.....