high heel
by Summer Brennan
Fetishized, demonized, celebrated, and outlawed…
The high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them?
Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity and the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairy tale, from foot binding to feminism, and from the golden ratio to glam rock. Summer Brennan considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire and struggle, sex and society, violence and self expression, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishers and an essay series in The Atlantic.
Product details
Title: High Heel
Series: Object Lessons
Author: Summer Brennan
Series Editors: Christopher Schaberg, Ian Bogost
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (March 21, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 150132599X
ISBN-13: 978-1501325991
Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 6.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces