Every Mom in 1964:

[malthaussen]

"You can't have Beatle boots, they'll ruin your feet!"

Also every Mom in 1964:
"Oh, look at the lovely 4-inch stiletto heel shoes!"

-- Mal

[frogmarch]

1. From years of wearing high heels, my mom

couldn't wear flats or go barefoot because her feet were deformed.

[MuseRider]

2. My mothers were too

and terrible bunyons. I wore heels because we had to in High School and in the first few years of college (missed the white glove requirement by one year) and I too have bad feet. I CAN wear comfy shoes but they have to be soft for the bunyon to not kill me. I should get it removed but there are other more pressing things to take care of.

Women have been slave to hurtful fashion for such a very long time. I wish we would cut it out.

[Jenny von Westphalen]

3. Beatle boots look sort of like laceless derby boots

[malthaussen]

4. Those lack the Cuban heel...

... and the pointed toes.

-- Mal

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. DocMartins

Are really comfy boots. Wider than most womens shoes,well made and last forever.
Got a pair of leather purple ones and leather tall ones I bought in the 80's and I still wear them.

Have to get a new pair of black ones..looking at the jadon type.

I am so glad I could never manage to walk in heels. My mom tried to have me wear them. But I would trip and fall.

[Jenny von Westphalen]

6. The newer ones don't last I've heard

A company called Solovair makes some using the old Doc Martens factory which they bought

[I_UndergroundPanther]

7. Look for docs made in the uk

Stay away from "vegan leather" its just plastic,not real leather.Patent leather is ok as long as it is leather. Patent refers to the type of finish.

[Earth-shine]

8. I was born in 1964. I assure you my mother never wore such things.

She was never interested in being hip.

Maybe I got that from her.

[Genki Hikari]

9. Well, not every mum

My brother and I were too young at the time for anything but Buster Browns. My mother was expecting my youngest brother. Even when she wasn't knocked up, she didn't have to wear 4" stilettos most of the time because she worked for a living as a nurse. The only time she wore heels was if she went out. She didn't do that often.

The problem with shoes of the 50s and early 60s wasn't so much the heel height as the enclosed pumps part. Those caused the bunions and the rest, because the feet had nowhere to go. It was like having bound feet. The pointed toes kind with spindly heels were especially notorious for this; the rounded toe pumps with block heels, not so much.

Wearing sandal-type heels and especially of the platform variety, cuts way back on this problem. I wore such heels for years and never had feet problems from wearing them. The only time I ever got unbearably sore feet was from stiletto pumps. I didn't do that very often. I was vain enough to do it occasionally, but only occasionally.

[Aristus]

10. I always found a woman wearing flats much sexier than women wearing heels.

But I'm not the public arbiter of fashion, so women go on getting horrible pain in their feet.