[ExI] how did high heels happen?

[Kryonica]

Interesting isn't it that fashions of all sorts all tend to make women bigger as if this was one of our unconscious aspiration? Fashion models have to be tall and not being tall enough to be a model is a shortcoming of a kind.  High heels make us taller. In 18th century France there was a fashion when women wore very high wigs, some so high that they got stuck in door frames, to the merriment of the social satirists of the day.  Traditional Japanese women also appear to have built up their hair to add an extra inch to their body.  When imagining my future enhanced self I always add an inch or two and many avatars in Second Life are incredibly tall by real life standards.  Why it should be so is hard to say, since tall people are no better (smarter, stronger or more long lived) than shorter people but it is manifestly something that peoples all over the world appear to value.
On 27 Dec 2011, at 21:19, Mike Dougherty wrote:

> 2011/12/27 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
>> Question: could this behavior be somehow hard wired into human brains?  Has
>> anyone any speculations or theories that could explain why a little girl
>> would be inclined to wear something that is uncomfortable, impractical and
>> discouraged by her own parents?
> 
> The first thought that came to my mind is that "high heels" make
> shorter women appear to be taller.  Children generally want to be
> bigger because the perception of grown-ups is that they get to do
> anything they want.  That only grown-up women "get to" wear such
> ridiculous footwear might be the allure.  If mom isn't typically
> dressing this way as a role model, but mom also isn't the girly-girl
> that your 6yo niece wants to be - it could be that the odd shoes are
> valued for their novelty in the same way that a tiara would be.
> 
> I don't have any nieces though, so I'm really just guessing from the
> perspective of basic observations of what you called "inscrutable
> beasts."  :)
> 
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