The Importance of Shoes

If you look at most girls walking around today, you’ll see one of two things on their feet: ballet flats or sneakers. The shoes girls wear are usually very important to them, and these two types of shoes say very different things. While both shoes are worn for comfort, ballet flats speak of a fantasy world, and sneakers instead adhere to a solid working environment.

When one wears ballet flats, one automatically begins to feel more feminine, as if you’re getting ready to put on your tutu and tiara, dancing off to join the ensemble of “The Nutcracker”. Ballet flats belong to a world where men lift women, and women use the poise of their bodies to speak volumes without uttering a word. As John Dryden, an English poet, said, “Dancing is the poetry of the foot.” Dancing is a poetic movement, and in ballet, flats lead to these movements. Ballet flats lead to flexibility, which leads to imagination. By being able to flex a foot freely in a shoe, possibilities for flight through the air opens up. Flats, to me, also are a transportation to the past, a past where love doesn’t always end in divorce, and losing one’s first kiss was as sacred (if not more sacred than it is now) as experiencing a sexual encounter. Things are more subtle in a ballet flat, a subtlety that was prevalent before the advent of a sexualized and scandalized world. Sneakers, in contrast, are firmly entrenched in modernity and practicality.

When you want to play basketball, you throw on some sneakers. When you want to go for a run, you pull on your sneakers and hit the road. In any emergency situation, good old sneakers are right beside you. In this way, sneakers have a staple in our everyday life. They’re comfortable, perfect for any kind of job. Sneakers allow people to sweat and get dirty, as they are solid and not easily breakable, qualities that are important when something needs to be done. You would most likely not use sneakers for a ballet recital, but instead for a hip-hop routine, where the stability of your feet would help the flow of moves. While ballet flats may be seen as a more feminine movement, sneakers embrace both genders. In this way they are more modern. Sneakers cannot be called a “guy” or a “girl” thing; they are used by either for the comfort and practicality they can provide.

Although ballet flats and sneakers both provide comfort, ballet flats can be worn to feel feminine and fantastical, while sneakers make a woman strong in the physical sense. Ballet flats were traditionally used in classical dance, allowing for graceful movements. Sneakers, in contrast, were used for an active lifestyle. By wearing both types of shoes, women can show different sides of an overall personality, making out sex feel stronger in independent ways. Who knew a shoe could do so much?