Women’s Shoes

Abstract

The chapter begins with a discussion of “shoe obsession” in women. An image is described that shows a woman in a shoe store with dozens of different shoes on the floor, suggesting she is having difficulty in finding a shoe she likes and reflecting the anxiety women often feel when it comes to purchasing shoes. This is followed by a discussion of the erotic nature of the foot and of the shoe and of the role shoes play in folklore. In the story of Cinderella, it is the size of her foot, which fits into her glass slipper that the prince has (which she left at a ball), that is of crucial importance.