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Maven said:
But, if you want an interesting history of footwear, including a photo of some uncomfortable-looking high heels, see http://podiatry.curtin.edu.au/history.html.

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And don't forget the ancient art of Chinese foot-binding though at least that wasn't Western culture. I looked that up a while back after a friend of mine was reading a biography of a Chinese woman. Have you ever seen pictures of that?! It was absolutely horrendous -- women suffered extreme pain for years in order to achieve teeny tiny (3-5 inch long) feet. I think a tenth of them even died as a result of infections from foot-binding. And of course none of them could ever walk properly again.

But this is way off topic! But I definitely think that it's a valid point that the media confuses women about the emphasis on beauty. And the constant portrayal of women could easily result in someone questioning whether they're attracted to women or not . After all, that's all we're being shown.

On a side note, I was really surprised when I was in Las Vegas a year or two ago: I saw the show "Zumanity" and there were men being portrayed sexually as well as women. Granted there were more women, but still. And the men weren't even being made to look effeminate (what often happens when the media tries to show men as sexy). I was impressed.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling.

Sidony