Here is why women wear high heels

Find out the real history of high heels and why men stopped wearing them

As much as we love heels, sometimes they are outright painful. But the confidence and attention we get from those extra five inches is what makes every bit of it worthwhile.

But did you ever wonder how this iconic fashion trend came into existence?

Lisa Wade, an associate professor of sociology at Occidental College and a visiting professor at Loyola University New Orleans, revealed that the founders of this footwear were actually men.



"Scholars trace the emergence of high heels as a form of footwear to the military," Lisa revealed in an interview with ATTN.

"In the 1500s, the Persian army innovated the heel as a way to keep their feet in the stirrups. The European aristocracy very much admired the Persian army and started wearing heels to make connections to the men they admired," she added.

She continued, "As with all fashion, once the elite adopt it, it tends to filter down. So both women and men, just your average middle-class laborers, they all start wearing heels."



"This, of course, was no good for the aristocracy. A main point of fashion is to draw distinctions between the rich and the not so rich. King Louis XIV started making laws that no one could wear heels as high as him.

Portrait of Louis XIV (detail), after 1701, Workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud. The J. Paul Getty Museum. PHOTO: TUMBLR

In at least one of the American colonies, women who wore high heels were accused of being witches. Ultimately, the elite men of European society lost control of high heels and stopped wearing them altogether, she added.



Further revealing the end of this era, Lisa said, "This was about the same time as the Enlightenment, so they redefined high heels as irrational and used their popularity among women and less elite men to make fun of them. They’ve been in and out of fashion ever since."

"At least one scholar thinks that the contemporary popularity of high heels among women can be traced to pornography and the eroticism of high heels," she added.



But that was all a part of the history. Lisa says today "high heels are of the many things women can do to try to make themselves attractive to the hypothetical heterosexual man -- makeup, doing something to their hair, outfits that are flattering -- all of this sends a message to men that women care about men’s opinion of their appearance."

"It’s saying, you still get to have the power to approve or disapprove of me."

PHOTO: TELEGRAPH

She also revealed why women still choose to wear heels. "I think high heels make women feel empowered in two ways," she said.

"One is through powerful men’s sponsorship, endorsement, and approval. That is power. It’s kind of a power by association. This is a patriarchal bargain. Instead of having power directly, she aligns herself with powerful men. It’s power, but it’s a fragile power because it can be taken away at any time."

PHOTO: DAILY STAR

"The other thing high heels represent is a way of trying to get masculine power. Women today have learned, and are told from the time they are in diapers, that if they want to be equal with men, they should do what men do. They should play sports, be assertive, have a good career, maybe a career that’s associated with men," she said.