Helping Heels

These stories, of colleges sponsoring "walk in her shoes" events, come up all the time. This one, as it happens, was local to me.

A grimaced look on the faces of the men who gritted through four laps around Memorial Field at Widener University Thursday represented a painful reality for women who undergo societal pressures to look and act in a particular fashion.

Dozens of male students aimed to send a powerful message in response.

“Women do this every day for the aesthetic,” said Steve Finocchiaro, 21, a chemical engineering student of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity who some help from his friends to slip into 3-inch red stilettos. “We wanted to send a message saying, ‘We don’t want you to worry about your appearance,’ and to raise awareness of domestic abuse and sexual assault.”

Mike Costello, 22, of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, said the pain of walking in heels represented a microcosm of greater issues.

“The heels hurt, but that doesn’t mean we know what women go through,” Costello said. “It’s important to have community service here at Widener ... you see athletes and every fraternity participating.”

Completing the full mile brought the sweet release of flat ground once they slipped the stilettos from their swollen feet.

“It was hell,” Finocchiaro said, but said it was well worth it....

And his advice for those intending to wear heels the first time?

“Be careful with the ankles.”

Oddly enough, my experience is different. Even in my earliest days of dressing, I never found high heels--and especially not ones as low as three inches--terribly uncomfortable.

Should somebody tell the guy in front he'd look better if he shaved those legs?

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