[ExI] how did high heels happen?

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message -----
> From: David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 6:45 AM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] how did high heels happen?
> 
> No one has mentioned the feminist take on high heels. That they're
> of a kind with the many other fashions across history and the world
> that appear designed to -- metaphorically or literally -- hobble women.
 
They *are* designed to look pretty and hobble women. But this is not due to some chauvanist agenda anymore than a peacock's tail feathers are. Instead it is an example of the evolutionary handicap principle. But unlike in conspicuous consumption, another human example of the handicap principle, high heel shoes don't show off a woman's resources but rather her physical traits like agility, balance, grace, and endurance of pain. When a man sees a woman in 4 inch high heels dancing, running, dodging traffic, and walking in the snow all with a smile on her face, our gut tells us, if she kicked off those shoes, she could probably outrun or otherwise evade a predator.  
 
> 
> Spike, I'd agreed with you about mammals vs. reptiles until I had a
> leopard gecko, who reminded me a great deal of a cat. You need
> to step past class distinctions to embrace the full diversity of
> phylum sentience :-).

I agree. Even the simplest organisms have millions of years selective "education" hard-wired into their genes. Therefore you can even count on cockroaches to do intelligent rational things with regard to its own basic drives.
 
Stuart LaForge


“Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution." -Clay Shirky