91. Kick Off Your High Heels—and Keep Them Off

Few of the dictates of fashion have been more universally limiting and damaging to women than high-heeled shoes. Any podiatrist will tell you that women who regularly wear high heels suffer not only from deformed, bunioned, and callused feet, but from myriad other maladies, including calf, knee, and back problems. And yet, women continue to wear heels, all in the name of fashion.

Isn’t it fortunate that current styles allow at least some room for individuality, and that it’s possible to wear comfortable, low-heeled or flat-heeled shoes and still make a fashion statement? Yes, it’s true that many men find high heels sexy. (That, after all, is why we put ourselves through the torture and inconvenience of heels.) But if you really want to simplify your life, and you’re still wearing high heels because the men around you find women in heels attractive, maybe it’s time to change the people you spend time with.

Aside from the discomfort, having high heels in your closet raises the complexity of your wardrobe to another level. Think how simple it would be if all the shoes in your closet were the same heel height. That’s one of the primary reasons men’s wardrobes are inherently simpler than women’s: They can wear any number of different shoes, in total comfort, with the same suit or pair of slacks without having to worry about the length of the pant leg.

After you’ve been away from high-heeled shoes for a while, few things will look more pathetic than a woman mincing down the street in high heels. And you’ll know that if her feet aren’t hurting her now, they soon will be.