To some women, looking cute is all that matters. However, some women may eventually feel back pains, neck pains and sore feet from trying to do so.
Some women are willing to pay a painful price to look good these days. The cost of looking good, though, may not be wanted in the future.
Brandee Baker, a business administration student, goes to her classes and modeling practice in heels.
When Baker prepares her outfit for the day, she carefully chooses her favorite pair of stylish high-heeled shoes.
Baker, who owns mostly high-heeled shoes, has two or three shades of the same color. Being a model, Baker wears high-heeled shoes quite often, and often has to deal with the pains.
“My pinky toe kills me at the end of the day and the balls of my feet hurt too,” said the 19-year-old from Jacksonville.
Baker said she does know the effects of high-heeled shoes on women’s feet. However, there are some positive reasons for wearing them.
“Wearing heels for long periods of time is supposed to give you back pains, but it improves my posture,” Baker explained.
Being a model, Baker said she thinks it’s easier to walk in heels because she practices in them all the time.
Baker, and a lot of other women don’t discriminate against tennis shoes, but look at the positive aspects of wearing heels.
Toinette Addison, 18, a public management student from Fort Myers, wears heels during most of the week.
Addison said that sometimes she did worry about the effects that heels would have on her feet. Still, she has not seen any negative effects.
“I have a natural arch in my feet, and girls who don’t have an arch should probably not wear heels,” she said.
A number of women said they believe that the structure of your foot may decrease the pain in their feet.
It seems to be popular for women on campus adopt the routine of wearing high-heeled shoes almost every day.
However, experts say wearing high-heeled shoes for long periods of time can lead to long-term health problems.
“Wearing high-heeled shoes redistributes the weight in a woman’s foot causing the muscles to pull and the joints to move,” said John Clark, a podiatrist at the Tallahassee Ambulatory Ankle and Foot Care Center. “If the joints move around enough, then the foot may stay permanently in that position.”
What podiatrists have been saying for years is finally hitting home for women who wish they did not have pain.
Clark said he believes most of his patients, who now suffer from wearing high-heeled shoes in the past, have back problems, neck problems, bunion deformities and arthritis.
Some men take interest in a woman who has a variety of shoes.
“I don’t want someone who wears high-heeled shoes all the time. Not all girls can wear high-heeled shoes,” said Kevin Richburg, an architecture student from Philadelphia.
Richburg, 18, said heels do give women a different look and it changes the way they walk. Richburg said if women choose to wear heels then they must have pretty feet.
Men who find high-heeled shoes attractive say they feel women should not wear out their feet with them.
“Don’t wear them to the point where you get calluses and corns because that’s disgusting,” said Jamal Fields, an 18-year-old business administration student from Chicago.
Fields said he likes girls that wear heels because they look nice. However, when he gets involved in a relationship he wants his girlfriend to have decent feet.
Mechelle Torrence, a podiatrist at Cedar Hospital in Miami, agrees that women should have decent feet and take care of them.
“Shoes that are narrow at the top can cause bunions, and wearing high-heeled shoes every day adds pressure to the ball of the feet and may cause inflammation,” Torrence said.
Some women have already been paying attention to the health signs.
“It’s not good to wear heels all the time,” said Danielle Ramsey, an 18-year-old business administration student from Atlanta.
“I don’t want to be crippled when I’m older.”
Contact Sarah Chester at famuanlifestyles@hotmail.com.