HIGH HEELS AND THE CITY (Repost)

Repost from my notes @FB in late Dec, 2009

So I'm not one of those women who can wear high heel shoes comfortably. On the second thought... I wonder if any women can wear high heels comfortably... OK... let's say that... I can not stand wearing high heels longer than 30 minutes, without complaining, like any normal women can handle. Don't get me wrong, I do have several pairs of shoes with heels, what makes it different is probably the definition of "high" for the heels. High heels for me means that the shoes have heels longer than 2 cm. Stiletto is not in the definition...(for I can not wear them anyway without breaking my legs). Boots (preferably without heels), jogger/sneaker, and flat shoes are my favorite beside "sandal jepit" and sleepers.
(OK... I need to go next door for a while for another community role...27/12)
29/12: Well... Apparently, it took more than couple of days to continue this note...:)

I feel that my colleagues in the office do not consider me a creature who has gender... So, I suspect that maybe they think that I'm a kind of worm or snail or other hermaphrodite creature. My Bosses, my friends in the same room... Eventhough, when we have to go out of town in a group while I was the only woman there, they would let me occupy one room for my self while they --for the sake of efficiency- would sleep in one room together like tinned sardines.
It was no longer just my suspicion that they thought that as if I were un-gendered human being. My colleagues in the office confirmed that yesterday, just after I complained about the pain I suffered in my ankle as the result of wearing "high heels" the day before for about 3 hours. I had to help the girl next door who had her wedding party ... hey... I'm still a woman who has one particular role --as described by Caroline Moser-- which is community role.

This high heels issue reminds me of one TV Program I watched on Arirang. If I'm not mistaken, it was in Heart to heart program, when Oh Se Hoon, the mayor of Seoul, was interviewed by Ahn Jung Hyun the host. It was written that: It has been three years since Oh Se-hoon was inaugurated as Mayor of Seoul. As the youngest mayor elected after the restoration of local autonomy in 1995, Oh has been passionately working to develop Seoul City. To create a brand image of Seoul and South Korea, Oh has been focusing on design of the city and design policies. For the welfare, he has been carrying out various policies to better the lives of citizens living in Seoul. (http://www.arirang.co.kr/Tv2/Heart_Archive.asp?PROG_CODE=TVCR0106&view_seq=4504&Page=11&sys_lang=Eng)
Oh said --well it's more or less like this -- that when he and his team planned and built the city, they got input from women, who wear high heels. Women in Seoul complained that the pedestrian was built for men and it was hard for women who usually wear high heels to walk on it. So, he and his team designed the pedestrians or public buildings that more sensitive to the need of women. I think if they already planned, designed and built for the sake of women with high heels, they should have had thought about elderly and people with disabilities as well... Just like in Japan, there are also rules that public facilities and buildings should be designed and built "with heart", which is only mean that all those places should be accessible by the PWDs and elderly. So...if the mayor of Seoul also think about the needs of women with high heels... that should be a good examples for other cities.

These are not my highheels... :) They're just my favorite footwear.. :P

Back to this high heels issue.
Even when I think that high heels can only torture my feet, as a woman --despite the fact that no body cares that I am still a woman, and I prefer wear my old boots on my graduation last year while wearing "kain songket and baju kurung" canceling to wear the new cute high heels I prepared previously for the sake of my legs --, I will stand on "women side" that women have right to feel beautiful by wearing high heels. I think, it's a matter of choice whether you want to look beautiful with high heels on, or you feel beautiful without wearing high heels. So, developers -- that includes governments, architects, urban designers, city planners -- should not leave eldery, children, PWDs and women, when they built a city or any public spaces, for public spaces should be accessible by everyone, and women have right to feel beautiful and comfortable while accessing those public facilities....