High Heel

By: Summer Brennan

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Fetishized, demonized, celebrated, and outlawed, the high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them?

Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity and the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairytale, from foot binding to feminism, and from the golden ratio to glam rock. Summer Brennan considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire and struggle, sex and society, violence and self expression, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes.

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things, published in partnership with an essay series in the Atlantic.

©2019 Summer Brennan (P)2019 Tantor

So good, my feet hurt LOL!

I am a heterosexual male, married with two grown Daughters and have always had an appreciation for women who wear heels. My wife used to, but gave them up long ago. After listening to this audio book, I will never again see a woman in heels the same. It put the simple idea into a completely different perspective. I should say several different perspectives really. and as the author shows, it's really not so simple. If you are a guy who likes to see your wife, girlfriend, significant other in heels, I recommend listening to this audio book. I feel like a " heel" for asking my wife to wear them ( pun intended) years ago.