Stilettos: the quintessential fetish object
Appropriately, stiletto heels – which may, of course, adorn shoe or boot – are virtually
synony-
mous with the femme fatale, and with the dominatrix. However, as suggested above,
stiletto heels are not only effective in providing the dominant woman with the means to
literally tower both physically and psychologically over the male or female (or other gender)
kneeling at her feet, but they often complement the picture presented by that very person
kneeling at her feet (whether male or female). It is not, in fact, contradictory to see stiletto
heels coupled with a riding crop in the case of the former, and with a slave collar in the case of
the latter,7 but testi-
mony to the universal, erotic symbolism and pure style of the stiletto heel,
which has the presence to harmonise with a range of symbols and behaviour across the fetish
spectrum. It is, indeed, “the ultimate fetish”.8
Social anthropologist Ted
Polhemus addresses this ability to be all things to all wearers and all observers:
...the precariousness of extremely high heels… has the effect of underlining
vulner-
ability and dependence. Yet, at the same time, if the heel is sharpened into the
stiletto style… completely contrary erotic connotations are also present: the feminine
shoe as a weapon and a means of keeping men “under the heel” of dominant, even
dangerous women.9
Thus we have shades of grey: femininity represented in complex nuances and subtle shifts
be-
tween different aspects of pers-
onality, communicated by the style of high heel carried by a
particular shoe or boot, or accord-
ing to the context in which it is worn, including when the
wearer is male.
Photographer Housk Randall’s portraiture subjects in his collaborative work with Polhemus on body modification, The Customized Body, testify not only to these nuances – both the subtle and the not-so-subtle – but also to the feeling of empowerment imparted by adopting a bold stance in
presenting personality, whether it be in everyday life or a semi-
theatrical context.
One of Randall’s subjects, “Pia”, expresses the contradictory–complementary dichotomies of
the body-sculpting, emotional and psychological effects of wearing high heels: “It’s about
being very vulnerable & [sic] very strong at the same time, about falling for-
wards off the shoes
& [sic] pulling your ass in tight to stay upright, so your sexuality is raw, on the outside but
untouchable”.10
We see in Pia’s account that the influence of such heels on the wearer do not stop at the
psych-
ological and emotional, but ex-
tend in a very real way to the physical by altering posture
in a manner that many women (and some men) regard as enhancing their sexuality and allure.
This is not a product of imagination: the anatomical effect of the high heel was demonstrated,
with an app-
ropriate example from the British designer Vivienne Westwood, by Gillion Carrara,
a professor of fashion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for National Geographic’s
“The joy of shoes” feature: “Carrara places the shoe on the floor, steps in and up. ‘The breasts
go out; the derriere juts
back; the leg elongates,’ she says, as her anatomy puts her words into action. ‘Men find that very attractive.’”11
They do indeed. And so do many women.
see note †
One celebrated godfather of the modern fetish world, the English-
man John Willie, untiringly
pro-
claimed his admiration for danger-
ous heels, the women who wear them, and everything
they sym-
bolise, for thirteen years in his magazine, Bizarre. Willie, whose real name was John
Alexander Scott Coutts (1902–62), was an artist, photographer and writer
