The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Nikki Haley should run like a woman — in flat shoes

January 19, 2024 at 5:05 p.m. EST
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in Des Moines on Jan. 15. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Regarding Monica Hesse’s Jan. 15 Style column, “For as much as she talks about high heels, Nikki Haley is tiptoeing around her womanhood”:

Like aristocratic Chinese women of yore with painfully bound feet, women wearing high heels are exhibiting their submission to the domination of the male gaze. High heels are not conducive to walking, running, farming, housework, child care, teaching, factory work, construction or even retail sales. High heels supposedly make one’s legs attractive and posture alluring. Why does former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley use high heels as a symbol of female power? They are, rather, a symbol of female subservience.

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Running in heels is a joke! Haven’t we seen the movies where the female protagonist starts running, then kicks off her heels to run more efficiently? What about Cinderella? Her glass slipper is usually depicted as a high-heeled shoe. Did it help her get to her pumpkin coach more quickly? Trying to kick a man while wearing high heels is most likely to throw the kicker off balance and on her backside.

I would be more impressed if Ms. Haley wore real running shoes on the campaign trail and quit talking about shoes over real topics, such as social policy. Every leading Republican candidate says the same things about pardoning former president Donald Trump, closing the borders, defunding the IRS, banning abortion, allowing unfettered gun sales, etc., ad nauseam. Ms. Haley is just another pea in the pod, regardless of her footwear. And, yes, I am a woman, but I never wear high heels. They are extremely uncomfortable, which is most likely why men stopped wearing them in the 18th century.

Christel Stevens, University Park

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