The everyWoman Blog: Here Is What Wearing High Heels At Work All Day Will Do To Your Body

Here Is What Wearing High Heels At Work All Day Will Do To Your Body

We knew heels weren’t great for your feet but this is really scary. According to this new infographic from Live Science! your feet are only part of the problem. Wearing heels all the time also causes joint degeneration, shortened calf muscles and hips and spine degeneration.

“Flat shoes are for quitters,” 30 Rock’s Avery Jessup — Jack Donaghy’s Type A successful newscaster wife— once quipped. But obviously, other women may feel this way too. But perhaps women wear them because they make them feel more confident. Nancy Irwin, an L.A.-based doctor of clinical psychology, says it depends. While different women feel different when wearing heels — “Some feel sexy, powerful, more effective, able to be an equal to/compete with men. Others feel completely cramped, uncomfortable, and objectified” — they were invented, she says, to “slow women down. So they cannot move as quickly as men, so men can catch them, and also so women cannot surpass them. To put women at a disadvantage, sexually, professionally, and psychologically.” Hmm, so we are destroying our legs and our self-confidence. Excellent.

Answering a 2009 TODAY Show poll that asked “Do high heels empower or oppress women in the workplace?” 32% of respondents said, “High heels oppress women. They objectify women as mere sex objects while causing lasting damage to their feet and ankles but nearly half (49%) of the women said they empower them. I will admit when I see a woman that is wearing a great ensemble with heels to match I am intimidated and impressed. On the other hand,, feet are awesome when they work properly.