Tacco alto

Object Lessons

by Summer Brennan, Sara Marzullo (Translator)

Feticizzati, demonizzati, celebrati, messi al bando: i tacchi alti sono un oggetto controverso, un simbolo tanto centrale quanto discusso nell'iconografia della femminilità moderna. Cosa rappresentano davvero? Sono in linea con una sensibilità femminista? Cosa rivela la scelta di indossarli? Summer Brennan indaga la natura labirintica dell'identità sessuale e della presentazione di genere, e lo fa accompagnandoci in un affascinante viaggio nel tempo che ricostruisce il ruolo del «tacco alto» nell'espressione, e nella repressione, della femminilità. Dalla pratica del Loto d'oro nell'antica Cina alla scarpetta di Cenerentola, da Sylvia Plath a Marilyn Monroe, dalle Manolo Blahnik di Carrie Bradshaw allo sbaffo scarlatto di un paio di Louboutin, questo saggio vivace, acuto e originale esamina il più provocatorio degli accessori. Un vero punto di convergenza di desiderio e lotta, sesso e società, violenza ed espressione di sé.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Essays, Fashion, History, Audiobook, Cultural

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2019

About the author

Summer Brennan is a journalist and author. She received the 2016 Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award and was a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Her first book, The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America (2015) was a finalist for the 2016 Orion Book Award. Her second book, High Heel, part of the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury and The Atlantic, was published in March 2019. A longtime consultant for the United Nations, her writing has appeared in Granta, The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Scientific American, Longreads, Pacific Standard, McSweeneys, Lit Hub, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn and New Mexico.

Reviews

[Summer Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book, but I might be biased—I wrote it ;)

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our shoes pin us to the world... and because the stories that shoes tell are invariably about public life, they must also be about status

A thought-provoking meditation that starts with heels and travels over a range of related topics from rape culture to fashion, pain and femininity, beauty and art. Brennan is a wonderful companion as she moves us from Ovid's Daphne via Sylvia Plath's haunting black pumps in The Bell Jar, the shoe workshop in Ferrante's quartet of novels, and the numerous fairy-tales that work around shoes (Cinderella, The Red Shoes, Puss-in-Boots just as starters) through to David Bowie's glitter platforms and modern feminist debates about empowerment vs. submission to patriarchal strictures.

I've read a few of the books in this intriguing series and this is the best to date - of course, that's partly because it speaks so clearly to my own concerns and interests, but also because Brennan combines the anecdotal with the researched, and ultimately leaves things open rather than closing them down:

How can we retain and celebrate a woman's sexuality and femininity, while freeing her from sexual objecthood? What are women even like outside of patriarchy?

Witty, personal, wide-ranging, interrogative, angry in places, but always thoughtful and stimulating - you won't wear your favourite heels in quite the same way again!

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC via NetGalley.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because I now make shoes designed for healthy, natural movement, which high heels are decidedly not. Despite knowing the significant negative effects these shoes have on not just the feet but also the ankles, knees, hips and back, I still found myself unable to shake the idea that a truly elegant look requires these torturous devices.

Summer Brennan's mesmerizing book is an exploration of why that idea is so deeply embedded in the consciousness of many women. I've never read anything quite like it before. It's structure is unique, comprised of 150 short segments that travel through myth, history, literature and Brennan's own modern-day experiences to weave together an insightful understanding of the relationship between movement, shoes, and perceptions of what is beautiful and feminine.

The portrait Brennan paints contains many shades, including recognizing how high heels can give a sense of power to those who have felt powerless. Mostly, though, it is a subtle indictment of high heels as a relic of the idea that a beautiful woman is a vulnerable one, one whose very ability to move is restricted. It's hard to explain, but Brennan's unconventional approach helped me to gain a three-dimensional understanding of the contradiction inherent in these shoes and my own struggles to feel elegant when not wearing them. Highly recommended.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the more interesting and thought-provoking volumes from the wonderful Object Lessons series. It’s a thoughtful and wide-ranging exploration of high heels – how and why they were first thought of to why women (in particular) still wear them, however uncomfortable, nay even dangerous, they often are. (How glad I am my own high heel days are over). Insightful, non-judgemental and entertaining – just what the books in this series should be.

[SueKich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Killer heels and Plathitudes.

My first entry into Bloomsbury Academic’s collection of monographs…and likely my last (sorry Bloomsbury!) The Object Lessons series consists of short little books, about 25,000 words, about specific objects ranging from the everyday to the unexpected. (Eye charts, anyone?)

Unfortunately, this one read to me like a disorganised student essay. There are some insights as well as some interesting nuggets to discover but there really wasn’t a great deal here that I didn’t know already: the invention of the steel-centred stiletto, the Cinderella myth, bound feet, and so on. Plus plenty of Plath.

As women grow older, comfort becomes paramount and heels get shorter. It’s a point young Summer Brennan fails to make. But the thing about high heels is that they can be summed up in just one word: flattering. And, as writer Mary Karr remarked, look where they lead to. (Though she didn’t put it quite as politely as that!)

My thanks to Bloomsbury Academic for the review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

[roxi Net · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lover of high heels, I felt this book was a must read for myself. I thought it was well laid-out and written almost as if I were hearing a podcast. history, opinion, and acute observations made this book and enjoyable read. To link Orvid, fairy tales, societal views/norms to 'simple' high heels was fascinating to read. Oddly enough, the book inspired me to wear heels the next day after months of comfy flats. I won't look at heels the same, and I love them just as much.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 3 out of 5]

High Heel by Summer Brennan is the first book in the Object Lessons series by Bloomsbury Academic that I've chosen to review over on Carpe Librum.

I've always been fascinated by shoes and while I can no longer wear high heels myself (long story) I'm interested in the ways in which they can liberate, empower and hobble their wearer.

"So, are high heels good? Are they bad? What do they mean? Are they feminist or anti-feminist? Do they communicate authority? Independence? Oppression? Professionalism? Confidence? Frivolity? Subservience? Sex? No one group can seem to agree. If you ask me, the answer to all of those questions is, yes." Page 25

Summer Brennan examines the history of the high heel and the fact they can be empowering while simultaneously immobilising and painful. Femininity, fashion, consent and sex is explored and the author does an admirable job of letting the reader decide.

"For better or worse, the high heel is now womankind's most public footwear. It is a shoe for events, display, performance, authority, and urbanity. In some settings and on some occasions, usually the most formal, it is even required. High heels are something like neckties for women, in that it can be harder to look both formal and femme without them. It's a shoe for when we're on, for ambition; for magazine covers, red carpets, award shows, boardrooms, courtrooms, parliament buildings, and debate lecterns. Along with being our most public shoe, it is also considered the most feminine." Pages 15 & 16

High heels change a woman's posture and gait, and often this is what makes a woman wearing them more attractive. However they also slow us down, weaken our mobility and make running difficult, forcing this reader to question whether making women physically vulnerable is part of the attraction in addition to lengthening the leg and arching the back.

High heels aren't the first - or only - item of clothing that forces women to contort their bodies into uncomfortable and unnatural shapes, and Brennan covers one of the most extreme in the practice of foot binding in Imperial China.

"But it is women's bodies that have been most often manipulated, legislated, controlled, and contorted. A number of those cultural practices have been aimed at the feet." Page 64

Brennan goes on to step us through an examination of shoes in fairytales which was interesting however I didn't quite understand why the content was broken down into 150 separate 'vignettes' as I've noticed other books in the series don't follow this format.

I was looking forward to discovering the long term physical effects of wearing high heels, but the author sidestepped the subject which was a little disappointing. I could have done with less content around female objectification, rape culture and the relationship between what a woman is wearing and consent in favour of her thoughts on the future.

What do you think? Are high heels oppressive or empowering? Do they convey professionalism and confidence or vulnerability and sexuality? Just like any item of clothing, I think they can do all of these things and the reasons for wearing them are as individual as the wearer.

* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Australia *

[Greta Wolking · Rating 4 out of 5]

I meant to finish this during women’s history month, oops, but 4 stars! ⭐️ High Heel is a quick-to-read nonfiction deep dive on the titular shoes, structured with 100+ very brief “chapter” sections. One of my favorites was Section 33, which introduces the idea of heels as either being feminine or frivolous. This leads into a favorite debate of mine: exploitation vs empowerment. Are high heels something we can claim to celebrate femininity? Or are they standing in the way of our advances? This is explored both literally and figuratively. (Hard to run far if you’re stuck in painful stilettos!) Revisited again at the end, Summer Brennan writes “Feeling powerful is not the same thing as being empowered.” Thought-provoking stuff!

Section subjects also included applications to mythology, Freudian tendencies, parables, fairytales, folklore, rape culture, modern art and more. (I learned a lot!)

Overall I really enjoyed the analysis. I wish some of the sections were longer- practically each page was a new section- and it jumped around a bit. This was great for capturing attention but I wanted it to be expanded more linearly, versus going back and forth.

[Ivy♌ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things".

In this object spotlight we dive into the world of the High Heel.
The High Heel, the icon of femininity a landmark symbol to be celebrated, fetishized, demonized and outlawed.
A particularly in depth look into the world of the High Heel and how it has transformed over time, it's relevance to gender identity, sex, women and the feeling of empowerment to the wearer's.
Brennan makes a great comparison from Hollywood to cultural and societal associations with the "heel" it branches into the significance of feet binding and over to fairytale and the cinderella myth were interesting to read.
An intriguing set of books to read give them a go you will enjoy them.
4 Stars

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and Netgalley for sending me an arc in return for an honest review.
(All opinions are my own and are unbiased)

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so, so much packed into this tiny wee book. I feel like I’ve completed some kind of reading marathon, and the high heel has been both given depth and lost all meaning.

This would be best read, I think, slowly like poetry. It is divided up into 150 bits, each not particularly long. Each section should be savoured and pondered before moving to the next. I did not read it like this, but will most likely go back and do so. I am bad at savouring words.

I will say big section 2 (there are 4) lost me a little, though I don’t think I would have gotten lost had I read it more slowly.

It’s a bit like reading a book of truths you already knew, yet there is so much you didn’t know - but also you already knew it? It’s very familiar.

I very much appreciate and applaud the time and research that went into creating this book. It’s must have been extensive.

I found the Minotaur section to be the most compelling, terrifying part. Nothing was new information yet it was gripping and reflective.

[Magdalena Voigt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"[...], dass mehr darüber geschrieben wurde, wie Frauen gehen als darüber, wohin sie gehen. Gehen als Schauspiel statt als Erfahrung."

"Können wir die Teile in uns, die durch unsere Kultur verletzt wurden, einfach herausschneiden und dennoch ein Ganzes bleiben?"

Die deutsche Übersetzung ist stellenweise merkwürdig, wenn für die geschlechtsneutralen englischen Begriffe im Deutschen männliche Begriffe gewählt werden. So zum Beispiel am Schluss, als sich die Autorin Summer Brennan abschließend positioniert: "Ich bin kein so entschiedener Gegner von High Heels geworden, wie man vermuten könnte." Ist halt einfach falsch, und von dieser Art gibt's noch ein paar weitere Ausrutscher in dem Buch.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A researched collection of vignettes about the meaning of high-heeled shoes. It is an impressionistic piece of creative nonfiction divided into 150 passages. A lot of attention is paid to the fact that high heels usually (but not always) prevent a woman from running and moving as freely as she otherwise might be capable, and to how this fact is subliminally absorbed and understood on a cultural level, enhanced by mythological tie-ins on the theme of escape. I was intrigued by the number of references to how fancy shoes pinch the feet. Some challenging perspectives, like Chrissie Hynde's comment about her own rape, were included. No attempt is made to hurry to a facile thesis that these shoes are "good" or "bad," and the reader is let alone to draw their own opinions and conclusions.

[Giuliana Matarrese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interessante la parte sulle favole e su come si nascondano dietro tutta una serie di significati e metafore, così come la parte sulla costrizione cinese dei piedi per ottenere quella forma a fior di loto.

Per il resto si tratta di teorie ampiamente esplorate sia da Valerie Steele che di tacchi e dei feticismi che girano loro intorno ha parlato in Fetish che da Roxanne Gay, da Katherine Angel ( il sesso che verrà) o da Camille Paglia ( Sexual Personae)

Il fatto che poi tra i creatori di scarpe non venga citato Salvatore Ferragamo ( e invece si cita Dior, che agli inizi chiedeva proprio a Ferragamo di fargli le scarpe) come giornalista di moda é per me inaccettabile.

[Neal Tognazzini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well-written book that does a nice job of drawing together many different threads, though ultimately it’s a book about the expectations that are, and have been for centuries, forced upon women. The high heel is the occasion for that exploration, but it’s less about high heels than it is about fashion and patriarchy more generally. It felt a bit repetitive at times, and the tiny little subsections sometimes felt haphazardly arranged, but overall I enjoyed reading it.

[Victoria Namkung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brennan takes great care with her research and deeply feminist analysis of the iconic high heel. Whether you shun or collect them, you’ll likely never look at a pair of heels the same way again.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, thought-provoking and beautifully put together.

[Clara MacMeekin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woman should read this!!! I was EDUCATED🗣️

[Penny Zang · Rating 5 out of 5]

For such a “small” book (less than 200 pages), High Heel never feels small. Carefully researched and beautifully written, a fascinating topic approached through multiple layers and angles—I devoured this book. It is a book so rich and provocative that I will need to read it more than once.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out this review and others on 80 Books Blog!

I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

High Heel is part of a series published by Bloomsbury Academic called “Object Lessons” that takes everyday topics and does a brief, but in depth look at those objects. I probably would have overlooked the series entirely if I didn’t already follow the author of this work on Twitter. I am intrigued by some of the other works in the series so this was a good gateway book for me.

High Heel explores the history of the shoe and how it was considered masculine, and made for soldiers in cavalry, before becoming the fashion of noble Europe, and eventually making it’s way as the standard for professional dress for women in today’s world. This is just the shallows of the world of high heels. Under the surface, there’s tension that comes with wearing high heels for women that this book really took the time to spell out. Even going as far back as the Greek myth of Daphne, where for as long as a woman is pursued, there will be obstacles that slow her down, whereas Daphane was turned into a tree, high heels now are a tool to slow down the modern woman and make them objects.

Further, the idea of women are told to wear the shoe, even though it is uncomfortable, and causes pain, and the fact that we can’t acknowledge it in social settings is even more obvious when we see the history of the high heel, like in the original Grimm fairy tale of Cinderella, or Andersen’s Little Mermaid. Now, we must be in pain, walk slower, and also be at fault for when we are assaulted.

Of course, I don’t think everyone is going to agree with the assessment that women are required to wear high heels, or agree that they have to wear them because of the patriarchy, and that is valid. In my experience, if you’ve ever worn high heels and felt some sort of power then you know why you want to wear them. This book makes you pause to evaluate your motivations–is it really for yourself or to please the patriarchy? Why should I have to only feel powerful in painful shoes? Am I trained to think less of pain, and more of beauty?

Overall, I found this a quick read that was interesting and well thought out. I wasn’t a fan of the structure, but it was easy to read past that. Looking forward to reading other books in this series and by this author. Check out The Oyster War by the author, which is a fascinating micro-history/politics surrounding a small California town, a private oyster business, and the Parks Department of the U.S.

[John Plowright · Rating 5 out of 5]

“How do they walk in these things?” plaintively queries a high-heeled Jack Lemmon as ‘Daphne’ in Billy Wilder’s ‘Some Like It Hot’. The more fundamental question, directly and intelligently addressed in Summer Brennan’s ‘High Heel’, is why do they walk in these things at all, given that their pinched toe and tilt of the foot makes them so impractical and uncomfortable?

Her own love-hate relationship with this object (she records falling whilst trying to run on 4-inch heels) results in Brennan offering a finely nuanced assessment of the ambiguity surrounding this cultural icon. Thus high heels can combine formality and femininity for the professional woman, whilst also being associated with the sex worker and fetishism. Their height suggests heightened status yet their restrictions on movement invite or impose passivity. They can come across both as empowering and liberating and as cruel and degrading (the modern-day equivalent of the lotus shoe), and those that wear them can thus appear as beautiful and alluring or vain and deluded. Not surprisingly, then, high heels constitute, as Brennan states a “fertile locus of feminist debate.”

This loosely structured book has an historical dimension but doesn’t really provide a systematic or detailed history of the high heel. Tellingly Brennan’s Bibliography contains Ovid, the Brothers Grimm, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf but not June Swann’s ‘Shoes’ or Colin McDowell’s ‘Shoes; Fashion and Fantasy’, or Pattison and Woolley’s ‘Shoes: A Century of Style.’ This is because Brennan kicks off her high heels in order to range far and wide, pondering portrayals of femininity in Greek myth and in fairy tale as well as issues relating to female objectification and sensuality in the modern (western) world.

The fetishist or historian interested only in high heels will likely find this book somewhat disappointing but anyone curious to learn how heels, and shoes more generally, are “about … power, or the lack of it” will find ‘High Heel’ very well written and thought provoking.

[Kj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking in its intimacy as well as scope: a hospitable starting place for anyone starting to ask questions about patriarchy but an equally refreshing place for those who have been engaging these questions for decades.

I took my sweet time with the book, only reading a few portions a week. Maybe there’s a universe in which I could have raced through it and read it all in one sitting, but in this universe, I had to exhale, pause and regroup after nearly every section—in a good way. With powerful juxtapositions, poetic implications, and wide-reaching connections, Brennan's short Object Lessons book named, mined, and integrated so many common aspects of what “woman” has meant in centuries of patriarchal societies, all through the footprint of a shoe.

The text was haunting, illuminating, and liberating. I literally would sigh every time I put it down—from relief of having aspects of my experience named or from parts that made me hold my breath with tension of hearing compounded repetition of the traumas and injustices that, familiar as they are, cause pain to read in their centuries of banal continuation. Each section was truly food for thought, with the space between each numbered section also speaking volumes. The shape and rhythm of the book weave together things just as powerfully in their implicitness/unspokenness as when explicit connections are made. It is as intellectually rigorous as it is lyrical and intuitive.

I loved every page.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this as a birthday gift for someone I know who has quite the collection of shoes/heels, although it was on my to-read list before I considered it as a gift. High Heel is an unconventional treatise on this type of footwear. In short, easily-digestible chunks, Summer Brennan ponders the evolution of high heels in our history and culture. She wrestles with the conflicting attitudes towards high heels evinced by feminists, as well as the role of high heels in shaping ideas of femininity and women’s sexuality. It’s an interesting book that makes some good points, although I’m not sure it left me feeling like I’ve learned a lot in the way of new stuff.

Summarizing this book is difficult. I didn’t know what to expect going into it. First, it arrived and revealed itself to be an A5-sized book. Huh. Then I discovered that within each of the 5 parts, rather than more conventional chapters like you’d see in a book, Brennan has written a series of numbered passages, most only a paragraph long, some a couple of pages. Each, then, represents a unified thought, which together form a kind of stream-of-consciousness lecture from the author to the reader, as if the two of us were together in a lecture hall—or perhaps lying along a river in the sun, musing about high heels. This is a very philosophical book, and makes no secret of that fact. Brennan name-checks thinkers both classical and modern, playwrights and authors and celebrities and politicians. She demonstrates, indeed, that high heels have touched pretty much every aspect of our society.

Some positionality, I guess? As you might surmise, I don’t wear high heels. My gender performance is fairly typically masculine, although I do experiment here or there—I’ve been painting my nails a bit this year. But at 6'4, I’m not really looking to get any taller, nor do I have much junk in my trunk to emphasize. So there’s two of the voluntary reasons one might wear heels ruled out. As far as the “involuntary” reasons might go … well, I’m privileged enough that I’ve yet to run into any situation in which I am required or strongly expected/encouraged to wear heels. I don’t understand my friends’ fascination with heels, or shoes in general, although I try my best not to disparage it either—I’m sure there’s many hang-ups I have that they don’t get, and they are graceful enough not to bother me about it.

So I don’t have a horse in this race, as it were. Like many feminist discussions of grooming and fashion habits, this is not something I can speak about from firsthand experience. Nevertheless, I still find these discussion fascinating. I enjoy reading people’s thoughts, and the high heel is such an immediately recognizable and polarizing object; its inclusion in this Object Lessons series is clever and apt.

Probably the part of this book I most liked (not the best word) is where Brennan discusses high heels as objects that sexualize women and as synecdoche for women-as-sex-objects. Trigger warning here for discussions on her part of rape, sexual assault, murder, etc. Brennan makes one very interesting point: stiletto heels have a peculiar dualistic role in our society. If you wear stilettos, you’re either very high-class or very low-class: either a powerful executive, or a sex worker (to be clear, neither Brennan nor I are positioning sex workers as lower class—rather, we’re talking about how sex workers are perceived in wider society). The so-called middle-class, average woman typically doesn’t wear stilettos often, if at all, and probably not expensive ones. This was a point I hadn’t previously considered, this double-standard of heel-wearing whereby your choice of footwear can signal that you’re either extremely available or extremely unavailable….

I also like that Brennan clearly articulates how choice is not always a choice. As previously mentioned, heels might not be a requirement of some jobs, yet they are still expected, just as women might not be required to wear makeup or perform other expensive rituals of femininity, yet they might be subtly penalized if they don’t conform to such expectations. Similarly, Brennan points out that even when heels are entirely optional, it still might not be considered a choice if women have internalized this desire for heels. If they grow up, are raised to want heels, or raised to want the things they think wearing heels will give them, then are they really choosing heels? Or are heels actually just a symptom of a different, larger social issue?

I admire how Brennan carefully balances her clear aesthetic and personal appreciation for the art and fashion of the heel with the obvious critiques and problematic aspects of this shoe. She makes no secret of her own conflicting attitude, nor does she waste our time attempting to apologize for or justify heels in any kind of torturous way. Mostly she just … talks. She talks about the fun things, the interesting history, the fascinating types of heels and their effects on those who wear them and those who look at those who wear them. She talks about the problematic stuff, the negative stuff.

In the end, she has justified the existence of this book: the high heel is an important enough object in our society to be worth such careful consideration. I enjoyed this book. It made me think. Yet I stop short of actually being able to tell you how it has altered my perception of heels all that much. Honestly, I wish Brennan had gone deeper, or at least had maybe taken more of a stance on some of these issues instead of tried to represent so many various perspectives. By avoiding too much of her own opinion and thought, she has certainly made this book an objective lesson—but it’s also a drier one for all that.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

HIGH HEEL - My introduction to "Object Lessons" - has whetted my appetite for more deep dives into the anthropological and ethical questions surrounding seemingly mundane things. Summer Brennan brings insightful commentary to the discussion, invoking mythology and fairy tale imagery, patriarchy and feminism, with sound historical analysis. This has already prompted conversations in my workplace, and I know of at least one person who is actively seeking out other lessons that objects can teach them. It's a quick read, and something I would have loved to share in my gender studies classes in college.

[Ktbird · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I don't really know what I expected. I wanted this to be more little vignettes about heels than an essay. It started off so promising. It is well written and researched, but felt oddly repetitive.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have found these Object Lessons books intriguing yet somewhat uneven so far. This one, however, is without a doubt my favorite to date...

High heels are such an emblem of femininity - for good or ill - and their fetishization by men and women alike is a fascinating topic in and of itself. Add in the layered feminist and sociopolitical ideology that Brennan weaves throughout the narrative and you find yourself with a very intriguing book that covers a lot of ground in a relatively short time. The organization is interesting. There are not chapters so much as sections, some of which are long and some quite short, but all of which offer food for thought and discussion on the topic of women's shoes - and their implications, which are surprisingly broad-based and startlingly impactful - throughout history. The writing style felt vaguely reminiscent of that of a Southern preacher. There is a back-and-forth, almost call-and-response feel to it, with sections addressing a topic, moving on to another, then falling back into the rhythm of the first as though to remind the reader of where they've been. It's an interesting choice in such a politicized book, and I found it occasionally to feel redundant and irritating rather than emphatic.

That point aside, overall the writing is clear and the points made resonated with me. I, too, struggle with the conflicting messages and standards that are wrapped up in women's fashions and my own response(s) to them. For a topic that many deride as silly or frivolous, there's a rather wild amount of serious politics and socioeconomics tied into women's shoes and the choices we make about them, and Brennan does an admirable job at laying those out. Her perspectives on these issues are blatantly presented, but that contributed to my interest in the book. I didn't want a wishy-washy bit of trivia; I enjoyed the give-and-take between observation and opinion and found it to hit a nerve more times than I thought it would.

Overall I think this was a great addition to the series.

[Fern F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for research, but as part of the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury, Summer Brennan's "High Heel" is the type of short read that takes no time, is incredibly enjoyable, and you leave with a lot of interesting information and a deeper understanding of the object at hand.

Brennan muses not just about the history and nature of high heels. She also delves into what keeps women wearing them and on the myriad ways high heels are just another way women are kept down and subjugated. There are discussions of how heels are often used to determine whether a woman who is a victim of sexual assault is a "worthy" victim or asking for it, what it means that more time and ink has been spent on the way women walk (their gait in heels) than in where they walk to, and other topics intersecting feminism and high heels. At times, the discussion's connection to heels feels tenuous (hence the docked one star since I was primarily reading for more information on shoes), though the discussions are always interesting. There's also a a number of anecdotes in the book - from Brennan or friends of hers - and they all make Brennan sound like a super interesting person to sit down and talk about the nature of high heels (or any object with as fraught and symbolic a history).

[Lesekaiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

HIGH HEEL

Klappentext:

High Heels sind Ikonen moderner Weiblichkeit. Sie werden fetischisiert und dämonisiert, geliebt und geächtet. Sind sie etwas Gutes? Sind sie feministisch? Was bedeutet es für eine Frau (oder auch einen Mann), sie zu tragen?

HIGH HEEL erforscht das labyrinthische Wesen geschlechtlicher Identität und Inszenierung und gelangt dabei von Märchen über Filme zum Feminismus, vom Füßebinden über den Goldenen Schnitt zum Glam Rock. Auf der Spur dieses umstrittenen Mode-Accessoires begegnet Summer Brennan den Zusammenhängen von Begehren und Aufbegehren, Gewalt und Selbst--entfaltung, Sex und Gesellschaft und versucht herauszufinden, was es bedeutet, eine Frau zu sein, indem sie sich auf einen Weg durch die Jahrhunderte macht.



Cover:

Das Cover gefällt mir allem in allem ganz gut. Der schwarze Hintergrund wirkt edel und hochwertig.



Schreibstil:

Ich finde den Schreibstil ab und zu etwas verwirrend und irritierend. Allerdings gibt es auch sehr viele wirklich gelungene Stellen.



Altersempfehlung:

Ich würde das Buch ab einem Alter von sechzehn Jahren empfehlen.



Fazit:

Für mich war es eine interessante Erfahrung, dieses Buch lesen zu dürfen. Doch überzeugen konnte mich das Buch leider nicht.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

From this wildly erratic series comes a stolid, comfortable, supporting kind of read – therefore one totally at odds with its subject. There's an introductory quote from Virginia Woolf about not understanding women, and this cultural study of high heels certainly shows they're a vital cog in the machine of understanding them and what they've been through, no matter the gender of the reader. (Of course, the discourse has to drag in those that try and cross gender, but that's probably par for the course within academe these days.) It pinballs from ancient Chinese precursors to Cinderella's glass slipper, and the foot-binding women in China suffered for centuries, through artists and legends that have some familiarity with the restrictive speed of the high heel wearer, to modern office politics and post-post-feminism. We get their history, their meaning – and of course the debate as to whether they suggest the likelihood of rape. All of that sounds like the summary of a dry, high-falutin' book, but this isn't really one. Yes, it zigzags from topic to topic in a very singular way, but generally this is average-reader-on-the-average-bus friendly, so is worth consideration.

[Daniela - The Flare D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tacchi alti e la loro storia attraverso miti, leggende, culture lontane nel tempo e nello spazio, fiabe e femminismo moderno alla scoperta del loro ruolo nella vita di una donna, dall’essere considerati una costrizione a diventare accessorio per ottenere visibilità, postura, posizione o addirittura simbolo di protesta.
In questo libro c’è molto da scoprire, grazie alle fonti e alle numerose citazioni letterarie e cinematografiche.
Qui si parla di tacchi alti come puro accessorio di moda, quando hanno fatto la loro prima comparsa fino ai giorni nostri, ma si parla anche di identità di genere, patriarcato, femminismo di diverse correnti.
Ma poi tutto si arena come nella sabbia senza una conclusione o un pensiero finale da lasciare a chi legge.
È vero che quasi ogni questione messa sul tavolo è aperta, ma personalmente mi è mancato un messaggio.
Da appassionata di scarpe, avevo riposto in questa lettura aspettative piuttosto alte che non sono soddisfatte a pieno, ma il libro merita comunque una lettura e lo consiglio a chi è interessato agli argomenti trattati, attuali più che mai.
Summer Brennan è una scrittrice e giornalista americana con pubblicazioni sulle più importanti testate straniere.

[Beth Younge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the objects series and how they focus on the reasoning behind an object. This was no exception to that. I rarely wear standard high heels and normally opt for a boot with a chunky 2-3inch heel as anything else is painful for long periods of time. The way that Brennan brings her various sources and arguments together was done really well and I finished this feeling like I learnt something about the cultural significance these shoes play. The combination of the past and the present discussions was also a good addition and this helps expand Brennan's argument beyond what we already know.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.