Many women suffer physically mentally in order to be physically attractive. This phenomenon is a form of beauty masochism in which women endure physical pain to be thin, muscular, have larger breasts, a more cinched waistline and so on (Wolf, 1991). Wearing high heels is an everyday example of this condition. Is it better to be attractive or physically comfortable? That is the question many women must eventually ask themselves after wearing high heels for a long period of time.
Question #1: Do High Heels Make A Woman’s Legs and Overall Body Form More Attractive?
According to Wade et al. (2022), the short answer is: Yes.
High heels have been pretty much a standard issue item in the wardrobes of most women for years and years now. They are the go-to footwear for many social and business events. Wearing high heels enhances female physical attractiveness for the opposite sex, thus their use seems to be a powerful sexual signal yet they are not worn that frequently. Past research shows that men are drawn more to a woman’s body motion when she’s in heels because the extra elevation changes the lumbar curve, exaggerates the chest and hip, and increases pelvic tilt. Additionally, a nice pair of expensive heels can signal health and wealth.
The Wade study used 448 college students from the Northeastern US who were shown two female body silhouettes: a woman wearing high heels and the other of the same woman wearing flats. Participants rated each silhouette for attractiveness, strength, femininity, health, and status. The high-heeled silhouette was rated as more attractive, more feminine, and less masculine than the silhouette wearing flats.
Another study of heels and attractiveness focused specifically on the change of the lumbar spine when wearing high heels (Meskó et al., 2021). Researchers videotaped women walking in flat-soled shoes and high heels. Their physical attractiveness was rated by 108 participants—61 males, 47 females—and each walking subject’s lumbar curvature was measured both in high heels and in flat shoes prior to each video recording. Test results showed that wearing high heels consistently increased the models’ attractiveness. Both male and female judges made similar ratings (Meskó et al., 2021).
A third study had similar results. It found that of a pool of 292 Caucasian students with a mean age of 21 years attending a mid-sized university in Slovakia had a low frequency of wearing high heels; about 45 percent wore them once a month and 38 percent never in everyday life. Women with a lower body-mass index and a higher self-judgment of physical attractiveness wore them more often. Low BMI females seem to use high heels to visually elongate their leg length in order to increase their physical attractiveness. High heels seem to be a form of sexual signaling by females in intersexual interactions (Prokop & Švancárová, 2020).
Question #2: Do Wearing High Heels Hurt a Woman’s Feet and Body?
And, according to Borchgrevink et al., (2016), the short answer is: Yes, but it is not overly injurious.
Men find a woman’s walk as being more attractive when she’s wearing heels because the additional height changes the lumbar spine while exaggerating the chest and hips and increasing pelvic tilt. While these changes are sexually attractive, they tend to be detrimental to a woman’s body in the long run because they imbalance and stress the structure.
To determine the degree of damage wearing high heels does over time to women’s feet, researchers studied women between 40 to 66 years of age. This pool was divided into two test groups: 95 women who had worn high-heeled shoes at work for at least 5 years versus 102 women who had never worn high-heeled shoes at work. Radiographs were taken of the test subject’s feet and ankles. It was found that most of the women that high-heeled shoes had not caused foot deformation but did inflict foot pain and calloses (Borchgrevink et al., 2016).
Closing Thoughts
Men and women suffer in different ways to be physically attractive, but I suspect women suffer more or, at least, are more willing to suffer than men. I find this whole situation an odd damned-if-you-do-and- damned-if-you-don’t conundrum which isn’t much of an answer, but that’s the best I can regarding this aspect of sexual pathos and comedy.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Borchgrevink, G., Viset, A., Witsø, E., Schei, B., & Foss, O. (2016). Does the use of high-heeled shoes lead to fore-foot pathology? A controlled cohort study comprising 197 women. Foot and Ankle Surgery 22, p. 239-243.
Meskó, N., Öry, F., Csányi, E., Juhász, L., Szilágyi, G., Lubics, O., Putz, A., & Lang, A. (2021). Women walk in high heels: Lumbar curvature, dynamic motion stimuli and attractiveness. Environmental Research and Public Health 18, 299. https://doi:10.3390/ijerph18010299.
Prokop, P. & Švancárová, J. (2020). Wearing high heals as a female mating strategy. Personality and Individual Differences 152, 109558, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Wade, T., Burch, R., Fisher, M., & Casper, H. (2022). On a pedestal: High heels and the perceived attractiveness and evolutionary fitness of women. Personality and Individual Differences 188, 111456, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111456.
Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company.
Revised 01-05-26.