High Heel Hurt
High heels are arguably a quintessential part of being a woman. They're stylish, they give a normally short-statured woman a boost, and people wearing it tend to walk in a unique stride.
The problem with it: it hurts. On top of podiatrists and general practitioners dissuading females from wearing extremely high heels out of health and posture concerns, heels break easily, and that makes for a rather humiliating sight especially in a formal setting such as a party or a business meeting.
This trope can show up as part of a tomboy's Femininity Failure. Can result in a Broken Heel at an inopportune time.
And no, this isn't about heels in Professional Wrestling dishing out damage to a face from high above, either.
Examples of High Heel Hurt include:
Anime and Manga
- In the third episode of the original Gunsmith Cats anime, Rally tries on, and staggers about unsteadily in, a pair of high-heeled shoes bought for her by Minnie May. Within a day or so, though, she's comfortable and adept enough to wear them in public at an award ceremony.
Comic Books
- The 2006 incarnation of Wonder Woman had Diana complain about the stilettos as part of the disguise Canary issued to her.
Film
- In contrast to Elsa being very much used to strolling around (and running) in stilettos, her younger sister Anna is clearly uncomfortable with wearing them all day in Frozen II, when she took off her heels after the "Some Things Never Change" musical number.
- Daniel in Mrs. Doubtfire was incensed at the idea of high heels when he assumed the role of the title character, muttering that he'd kill the "misogynistic bastard" who invented them.
New Media
- As if running in high heels is uncomfortable enough, try running with high heels on ice as what this video discussing about Elsa's stiletto habit shows.
Web Original
- During the party at Beacon in episodes 6 and 7 of RWBY Volume 2, Ruby has problems walking in high heels (and later fighting in them), and is visibly close to twisting her ankle at one point, after which she mutters, "How can Weiss fight in these things?"
Real Life
- As mentioned in the intro, this is why podiatrists have from time to time either outright dissuaded or advised people not to wear high heels, or at least wear them only on occasion.
- Not only that it can hurt a person wearing it, it also causes damage to certain types of wooden floors as well, to the point that areas frequented by women end up looking like the surface of the moon due to the floors being peppered by indentations made by heels.[1] This led to some areas, especially historical landmarks made of fragile antique materials, banning stilettos due to said concerns.