Stiletto heel

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A stiletto heel (AmE: spike heel) is a long, thin heel found on some boots and shoes for women. It is named after the stiletto dagger, the phrase being first recorded in the early 1950s. Stiletto heels may vary in length from only a few centimetres up to 18 cm (7 inches), and are sometimes defined as having a diameter at the ground of less than 1 cm.

A pair of pumps with 12cm stiletto heels
Stiletto heels transmit a large amount of force in a small area, and are therefore often stengthened by a metal rod, and a metal or hard plastic tip. The great pressure transmitted through such a heel (greater than that exerted by an elephant standing on one foot[1]) can cause damage to carpets and floors. In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Esme Squalor wore ones with a real stiletto dagger in each heel.

A pair of pumps with 12cm stiletto heels
Contents[hide]
1 History
2 Image
3 See also
4 References
//

[edit] History
This article or section does not cite its references or sources.Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006.
Stiletto heels were invented in Italy and became very popular in the 1950s. And popularity did not stem only from women, as men wore stiletto heels just as often. At first, the heel was looked at as another way to make someone look taller while adding a certain panache to their style. It was very common for men of social stature to wear this type of shoe with their formal outfits.
As time went on, stiletto heels became known more for their erotic nature than for their ability to create height. Stiletto heels are a common fetish item. As a fashion staple for women, their popularity has waxed and waned. After an initial wave of popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s, they faded from the scene until the early 1980s, when stiletto heels became de rigueur for American professional women to wear at the office with their wide-shouldered "power suits". The style survived through much of the 1980s but almost completely disappeared during the 1990s, when professional and college-age women took to wearing shoes with thick, blocky heels. However, the slender stiletto heel staged a major comeback after 2000, when young women adopted the style for dressing up officewear or adding a feminine touch to casualwear like jeans.

[edit] Image

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.
Stiletto heels are worn for the same reasons as any other pair of high heeled shoes. In addition to adding several inches to a person's height, the heels alter posture by forcing the leg to turn out slightly and the hips to sashay slightly. While many people feel this makes a person's legs more attractive, daily wear can cause leg, hip and back problems.
Stilettos are particularly associated with the image of the femme fatale, and are often considered to be a seductive item of clothing.

[edit] See also
High heels
Kinky boots
Locking high heels
Shoe fetishism

[edit] References
^ Jack Green (2003). Pressure Under High Heels. Retrieved on 17 July 2006.

High-heeled shoe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

High-heeled shoes are shoes which raise the heel of the wearer's foot significantly higher than the toes. When both the heel and the toes are raised equal amounts, as in a platform shoe, it is generally not considered to be a "high-heel." High-heels come in a wide variety of styles, and the heels are found in many different shapes, including stiletto, block, tapered, blade, and wedge.
While high heels are today mostly associated with female shoe styles, and the term high heeled shoe is generally understood to mean styles of spike-heeled footwear almost exclusively worn by women, there are numerous shoe designs worn by all genders which have elevated heels, including cowboy boots and cuban heels. A "low heel" is considered less than 1", while 1" to 2.5" heels are considered "mid heels," and anything over 2.5" is considered a "high heel" [citation needed].
Contents[hide]
1 History
2 High-heels today
3 Men and heels
4 Accessories
5 Foot and tendon problems
6 See also
7 External links
8 References
//

[edit] History
Raised heels are stated to have been a response to the problem of the rider's foot slipping forward in stirrups while riding. The "rider's heel," approximately 1-1/2" high, appeared around 1500. The leading edge was canted forward to help grip the stirrup, and the trailing edge was canted forward to prevent the elongated heel from catching on underbrush or rock while backing up, such as in on-foot combat. These features are evident today in riding boots, notably cowboy boots.
The simple riding heel gave way to a more stylized heel over its first three decades. Beginning with the French, heel heights among men crept up, often becoming higher and thinner, until they were no longer useful while riding, but were relegated to "court-only" wear. By the late 1600s men's heels were commonly between three and four inches in height.
In 1533, the diminutive wife of the Duke of Orleans, Catherine de Medici, commissioned a cobbler to fashion her a pair of heels, both for fashion, and to increase her stature. They were an adaptation of chopines (elevated wooden soles with both heel and toe raised not unlike modern platform shoes), but unlike chopines the heel was higher than the toe and the "platform" was made to bend in the middle with the foot.
High-heeled shoes quickly caught on with the fashion-conscious men and women of the French court, and spread to pockets of nobility in other countries. The term "well-heeled" became synonymous with opulent wealth. Both men and women continued wearing heels as a matter of noble fashion throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When the French Revolution drew near, in the late 1700s, the practice of wearing heels fell into decline in France due to its associations with wealth and aristocracy.
Throughout most of the 1800s, flat shoes and sandals were usual for both sexes, but the heel resurfaced in fashion during the late 1800s, almost exclusively among women.

[edit] High-heels today
Throughout the last sixty years high-heels have fallen in and out of favor several times, most notably in the late 90s, when lower heels and even flats predominated[citation needed]. Lower heels were preferred during the late 60s and early 70s, as well, but higher heels returned in the late 80s and early 90s. The shape of the fashionable heel has also changed from block (70s) to tapered (90s), and stiletto (50s, 80s, and post-2000).
Today, high-heels are typically worn by women, with heights varying from a cuban heel of 1½" height to a stiletto heel (or spike heel) of 4" or more. Extremely high-heeled shoes, such as those higher than 5", are normally worn only for aesthetic reasons and are not considered practical. Court shoes are conservative styles and often used for work and formal occasions, while more adventurous styles are common for evening wear and dancing. High-heels have seen significant controversy in the medical field lately, with many podiatrists seeing patients whose severe foot problems have been caused almost exclusively by high-heel wear.
The Sabrina heel is the standard for court shoes and is named after the Audrey Hepburn film of the same name. The Stiletto heel is named after a style of narrow-bladed knife, and is higher with a narrower base. The Reebok Pumps are a kind of pump heels popularly worn by females mostly on the east coast. The trend was supposedly started by a fashion student in NYC, Diana "Dorkface" Lee who rocked the outrageous style, even though everyone laughed at her at first. She was so persistent that they eventually caught on.
Reasons for wearing high heels include:
they change the angle of the foot with respect to the lower leg, which accentuates the appearance of calves
they change the wearer's posture, requiring a more upright carriage and altering the walk
they make the wearer appear taller
they cause the wearer's legs to look longer
Reasons for not wearing high heels include:
they can become painful or damaging for some wearers.
they can shorten the wearer's stride
they can render the wearer unable to run

[edit] Men and heels
Although high heels originated as male footwear around 1500, since the late 1700s, men's shoes have had primarily low heels. The two exceptions are cowboy boots, which continue to sport a taller riding heel, and a brief resurgence in higher-heeled shoes for men in the 1970s[1], and in Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta's character wears a cuban heel in the opening sequence. Some men today wear high-heels and fashion designers have occasionally featured men wearing heels on the runways since the early 1990s[citation needed]. Some shoe manufacturers now market heels with significantly larger sizes to accommodate men.

[edit] Accessories
The stiletto of certain kinds of high-heels can damage some types of floors. Such damage can be prevented by heel protectors, also called covers, guards, or taps, which fit over the "stiletto" tips to keep them from direct, marring contact with delicate surfaces, such as linoleum (rotogravure) or urethane-varnished wooden floors. Heel protectors are widely used in ballroom dancing, as such dances are often held on wooden flooring.

[edit] Foot and tendon problems
This article or section does not cite its references or sources.Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since November 2006.
High-heeled shoes slant the foot forward and down while bending the toes up. The more that the feet are forced into this position, the more it may cause the Achilles tendon to shorten. This may cause problems when the wearer chooses lower heels or flat-soled shoes. When the foot slants forward, a much greater weight is transferred to the ball of the foot, increasing the likelihood of damage to the underlying soft tissue which supports the foot. In many shoes, style dictates function, either compressing the toes, or forcing them together, possibly resulting in blisters, corns, hammer toes, bunions, and many other medical conditions, most of which are permanent, and will require surgery to alleviate the pain.
If it is not possible to avoid high heels altogether, some doctors suggest that the wearer wear high-heels no more often than twelve hours a day, and that they are spending at least a third of the time on their feet in contour-supportive "flat" shoes (such as exercise sandals), or well-cushioned "sneaker-type" shoes, saving high heels for special occasions.
One of the most critical problems of high-heeled-shoe design involves a properly constructed toebox. Improper construction here can cause the most damage to one's foot. Toeboxes which are too narrow force the toes to be "crammed" too close together. Ensuring that room exists for the toes to assume a normal separation so that high-heel wear remains an option rather than a debilitating practice, is an important issue in improving the wearability of women's high-heeled fashion shoes.
Wide heels do not necessarily offer more stability, and any raised heel with too much width, such as found in "blade-" or "block-heeled" shoes, induces unhealthy side-to-side torque to the ankles with every step, stressing them unnecessarily, while creating additional impact on the balls of the feet. Thus, the best design for a high-heel is one with a narrower width, where the heel is closer to the front, more solidly under the ankle, where the toe box provides room enough for the toes, and where forward movement of the foot in the shoe is kept in check by material snug across the instep, rather than by toes jamming together in the toe box.
Interestingly enough, despite the medical issues surrounding high-heel wear, a few podiatrists recommend well-constructed low to moderate heels for some patients. It appears a slight elevation of the heel improves the angle of contact between the metatarsals and the horizontal plane, thereby more closely approximating the proper angle and resulting in proper weight distribution of a normally-arched foot. This is one of the main reasons most Dansko clogs sport low to medium heels. Other foot specialists, however, argue that any heel causes unnecessary stresses on the various bones and joints of the foot.

[edit] See also
Court shoes
Cowboy boots
Foot fetishism
Foot binding
Insolia
Kinky boots
Kitten heels
Locking high heels
Louis heel
Platform shoe
Riding boots
Shoe fetishism
Sabrina heel
Stacked heel
Stiletto heel
Wedge heel

[edit] External links
History of High-heels
History of Costumes - plates 60 and 63
Nu High-heels' The History of Heels
"Chase Me, Catch Me" Analysis by Paul Niquette of the effect of high heels on stride length

Insect fetish object

by G.A. PearsonDepartment of Entomology, Box 7626North Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, NC 27695-7626.

For the past two years, I've been working on a project documenting insect tatoos, scarification, and other forms of body art involving insects (Pearson 1995). In the course of this investigation, I've met some highly interesting people not usually encountered on the average State University campus. Somehow, through a strange series of events that probably don't bear any further examination, I came in contact with Jeff Vilencia, publisher of The American Journal of The Crush Freaks. Vilencia describes the crush fetish as a variant of giantessophilism:
"The feeling is that of letting go, powerless, helpless, tiny, small, and buglike. Wanting to see a female crush something with her foot, longing to be a helpless insect as you squirm around under her foot sole as she squishes your body into grease."
Insects become a fetish object for the crush freak, who wishes to be an insect ground underfoot. Witnessing or imagining the act of a woman crushing an insect is sexually arousing. The bigger the foot the better; shoe size 9 and up are preferred. (My puny size 6 feet made me feel safe enough to discuss his obsession with Vilencia.)
The AJCF has 500 subscribers, mostly in America but also a few from around the world. Inside is Vilencia's collection of letters from fellow crush fetishists, book reviews, and miscellaneous crush erotica. Two other magazines cater to crush freaks: Squish! and In Step, a foot fetish magazine.
There is a flourishing industry in underground videotapes, some of which are highly produced numbers that have been exhibited at film festivals. A casting call for one of Vilencia's "crush" films is reproduced in Figure 1. Amazingly, Vilencia seems to have been inundated by hopeful actresses willing to trample for film fame, some of whom even bought their own bugs and snails to the audition. The films themselves are enough to make an entomologist weep:
"Squish Playhouse #3: Starring Debbie The Crush Queen And Co-Starring Dozens of Crickets and Mealworms."
"Squish Playhouse #5: Featuring a Special Guest Victim -- A Tarantula Spider!!!"
The other victims in Playhouse #5 are live pinkies (baby mice). Well, were live pinkies.
Vilencia sent me a copy of his award winning video "Smush!" and I watched it with a few entomological friends. It didn't do much for us besides gross us out. That is also the reaction of the actress in the film, as she mashes earthworms to death, first in bare feet and then in black pumps, grinning maniacally. "Eewwww, I'm stepping on yewwwww..." she squeals in an artificially-engineered baby-doll voice. The disgust of the stomper heightens the excitement of the crush freak, according to Vilencia. Crush freaks watch the film and -- I have to say it -- mastur-bait. The film won an award at the Toronto Film Festival, where a few animal rights activists wanted to know "When does cruelty to earthworms become art?"
Audio tapes are also offered. One entitled "A Housewife's Guide to Squishing Bugs" has the following blurb:
"Spiders, Ants, Silverfish ,Cockroaches, Snails, Slugs, and Fat Tomato Worms are no match for this angry housewife with her sexy size 10 feet! Follow her from kitchen to garden as she steps on her victims with no mercy! You will want to be the next insect under her foot!"
A "crush mistress," Ms. J, is a professional dominatrix, making specialized videos and tapes for different clients. In an interview in the AJCF she says:
"50% of the people who write to me are into the "Crush" fetish. But of the people who have maintained an ongoing relationship with me, probably only 15%. (are actually crush freaks)"
When asked if she feels any remorse squishing the bugs, she laughs and says:
"None, none! There's no remorse 'cause they're little bugs, I mean, what is their use?" ... I mean, I can appreciate life being sacred, but bugs have no minds you know, and no feelings..."Interviewer: Is there anything you won't step on?"As far as bugs go, I do not step on the little spindly-legged spiders, cause they're my friends. But when it comes to bugs, I mean they're just icky little creatures si I can't think why they shouldn't be stepped on!"
Another woman named Kathy in Utah offers audio and videotapes to crush freaks. One called "Teacher's Pet" is described as:
"A tall stiletto-heeled teacher keeps two students after school for bringing their pet beetle to class. To teach them a lesson, she steps on the beetle and crushes it right in front of them..."
This particular tape echoes Vilencia's theory of how crush fetishism develops:
"When it comes to the crush, several things come to mind... including the Oedipus complex, because certainly we have seen our mothers kill insects and other people kill insects, and I think that the gigantess imagery that seems to be predominant in more people than one would imagine, also come from childhood. Somewhere there was a sexual connection from seeing all the women in heels and hose while very small ourselves..."
Some of the books reviewed by the AJCF are rather surprising: Kafka's Metamorphosis is to be expected, but the rest of the reviews were general interest entomology books. Bug Busters (1991) and Bugs, Slugs, and Other Things (1991) were reviewed, complete with page numbers to bug crushing references. Vilencia has also edited and republished foot-fetish excerpts of R. Von Ebbling's Psychopathia Sexualis, an 1886 treatise.
Clearly, I just don't get the whole crush predilection. However, there seems to be very few crush freaks, so I don't think the invertebrate world is in great danger. Crush fetishists represent a fascinating example of the human ability to eroticize just about any activity: in this case, one of interest to entomologists.
The next time you stomp a bug, better look around -- Jeff and his friends might be watching:
"I think its completely harmless, because it's a fantasy and we can't really experience this (being crushed underfoot). We can do it only in our minds and I think it's probably one of the more safer things. As far as people who are into crushing insects or seeing it done, I don't see anything more wrong with that than going into a supermarket and going into the Raid section, because human beings hate insects."
Acknowledgements
I thank Jeff Vilencia, editor of The American Journal of The Crush Freaks for his free sharing of materials on the crush fetish and fascinating conversations. My use of the term "crush freak" is mot meant to disparage; it is used by fetishists as a self-description.
Bibliography
Pearson, G.A. 1995. Insect tattoos on humans: a "dermagraphic" study. American Entomologist.
Fig. 1. A Casting call for Squish, a film by Jeff Vilencia.
Fig. 2. Some of the film promotional material.

Barefoot

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Jump to: navigation, search

Walking barefoot
Going barefoot is the practice of not wearing shoes, socks, or other foot covering.
It is more common in developing countries and among poor groups but less common, at least in public, in most industrialized countries due to greater availability of footwear and societal taboos against going barefoot.
Some people who live in areas where going barefoot in public is more or less uncommon nonetheless choose to go barefoot in public part or all of the time. Some of these people call themselves barefooters and make an effort to go barefoot as much as possible. Popular surfaces include grass, sand and warm pavement. Many enjoy the sensation of their feet in direct contact with the ground and/or may have other motivations such as perceived spiritual or health benefits. People who self-identify as "barefooters" tend to be those living in developed countries, as the term itself has been popularized primarily via the Internet.
Contents[hide]
1 Activities
1.1 Barefoot hiking
1.2 Barefoot sports
1.3 Barefoot lifestyle
2 Religious and cultural aspects
2.1 Acts of devotion
2.2 Regional traditions
2.3 Symbol of peace
2.4 Barefoot on stage
2.5 Sign of Poverty or Mourning
2.6 Symbol of Innocence
3 Myths
3.1 Driving Barefoot
3.2 No shoes, no shirt...
4 Health issues
4.1 Risks
4.2 Benefits
5 References
6 See also
7 External links
//

[edit] Activities

[edit] Barefoot hiking
Some people who enjoy the sensation of walking barefoot go barefoot on hikes in the countryside, which offers a greater variety of different surfaces to experience than typical indoor or city environments. (For example, bare soil, moss, and fallen leaves are considered particularly pleasant by some.) In the United States as well as several European countries there are barefoot hiking groups [1] which organize shoeless excursions. Several German-speaking countries have barefoot parks which are designed to be ideal for going barefoot and to encourage the activity.

[edit] Barefoot sports
Most martial arts are practiced barefoot, as well as many gymnastics and dancing disciplines. Barefoot beach volleyball and beach soccer have become the favourites of many young people.
Barefoot skiing is waterskiing without skis -- on the bare feet. This sport may also be referred to as footing, barefooting or barefoot water skiing. The participant is a footer or barefooter. Barefoot waterskiing is an international sport with world championships held every two years. More info can be found at World Barefoot Council [2].
Sports that make use of a swimming pool are usually practiced barefoot.
In sports like long-distance running, most athletes run in shoes, but Abebe Bikila set world records running marathons with and without shoes. Zola Budd trained, raced, and won the World Cross Country Championships barefoot, twice.
Some American football placekickers have also played with a bare kicking foot, citing better control over the contact between their foot and the ball as the reason. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Philadelphia Eagles had two placekickers who kicked barefoot: Tony Franklin and Paul McFadden. (The NFL rules stipulate that a kicker has to at least wear two socks. Barefoot kickers had one of the socks cut off so that they resembled tubes.) Ironically, in the 2006 college football season, there was a punter at the University of Southern Mississippi named Britt Barefoot, but he wore a kicking shoe.[1]

[edit] Barefoot lifestyle
A significant portion of the population even in developed countries enjoy going barefoot and some are resisting their society's taboo against doing this in public. In the United States social folkways that frown upon bare feet in public are more pronounced in certain parts of the country than others, where they can hardly be said to exist at all. In some industrialized nations such as those of Oceania, people of all ages and backgrounds, while a minority, are seen walking barefoot for pleasure, comfort and style as they go about their daily business in settings where people dress in blue jeans, shorts, t-shirts, sandals or other informal/casual attire. Upscale restaurants and most pubs, however, generally require shoes.
Some barefooters and social historians old enough to remember American life before the 1960s have theorized that the often inaccurate but nonetheless persistent stereotypical image of the filthy, unkempt, barefoot hippie from the later part of that decade has contributed to an overall change in society's attitude toward the practice of going barefoot in public. The widespread appearance of "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service" signs can be traced to this era, and some decidedly non-hippie individuals and even families who had gone barefoot in public on a regular basis opted to begin wearing shoes, lest they be indentified with opposition to the Vietnam War and other causes associated with the counterculture.
People who prefer walking barefoot to wearing shoes maintain their barefoot lifestyle is a matter of personal choice that harms no one, intends no disrepect and is consistent with the tradition of individual self-expression that has historically been a cornerstone of liberty in democratic nations. Many barefooters are optimistic that with increased awareness, education and visibility, social acceptance will return to pre-1960s levels and in time, the illogical anti-barefoot sentiment of the late 20th and early 21st centuries will be little more than a footnote in the history of footwear.

[edit] Religious and cultural aspects

[edit] Acts of devotion
Many religious traditions consider removing shoes as a pious gesture of respect, especially appropriate when approaching holy places.
In Exodus, Moses had to take off his shoes before approaching the burning bush.
Muslims are usually unshod for prayer (commonly on a prayer mat) or to attend services in a mosque.
Some Christian churches practice barefoot pilgrimage traditions – an example being the ascent of Croagh Patrick in Ireland.
In the Hindu religion, shoes are removed before entering temples.
Among many neopagan reconstructionists, bare feet are considered an ideal way to remain in touch with the elements.
Going barefoot is also a common form of mortification, often combined with others such as pilgrimage, either as penance or ascetism. Roman Catholic religious orders that permanently restrict the ability of members to wear footwear are known as "discalced".
"The Barefoot Path in the Western Contemplative Tradition" by Ken Rice (link below) provides a good overview of the subject.

[edit] Regional traditions
In many cultures it is considered inappropriate, even rude, to wear shoes indoors. It may be acceptable to wear shoes in public places ( e.g. museums or libraries ), but people are usually expected to go barefoot, or wear socks, inside dwellings. This is usually true for countries where inclement weather is frequent, such as Japan, China, or Canada, and serves the purpose of minimizing the amount of dirt and mud brought in from the outside.

[edit] Symbol of peace
In ancient times, shoes predominantly served as military equipment. Therefore Isaiah announced that For every boot... will be for burning, food for the fire. For to us a child has come, to us a son is given. (Isaiah 9:5-6). Jesus advised his disciples to go out for preaching the Kingdom of God without taking along shoes -- and Jesus is shown barefoot on most paintings to demonstrate his peaceful mission. One way to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi, is to walk barefoot around his monument. Even Pope John Paul II and George W. Bush paid him this honor, as shoes are banned within Gandhi's memorial site, Raj Ghat.

[edit] Barefoot on stage
In dancing, theatre, and opera performances, bare feet often express emotions, fears, vulnerability, a down-to-earth attitude, and/or familiarity. It may often alleviate a performer's sense of nervousness or anxiety in such situations, as being barefoot tends to promote physical, and by implication mental, comfort.

[edit] Sign of Poverty or Mourning

Vietnamese girl's feet. Many people in Southeast Asia are too poor to afford shoes.
This tradition dates to Roman times, when it was traditional for prosperous Roman citizens to wear elaborate clothing, including footwear, while slaves and lower-class citizens went barefoot. In Medieval times, leather shoes and boots were expensive, so poorer people often either went barefoot or wrapped their feet in cloth. In art and literature, bare feet often symbolize poverty.
Just as 'sack cloth and ashes' or even full nudity, it was also a sign of mourning in Antiquity.

[edit] Symbol of Innocence
This largely American literary tradition dates from the 18th and 19th centuries, when going barefoot was a standard part of childhood play, especially in rural areas. It features prominently in the novels of Mark Twain and the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier. Barefoot children are also common in the paintings and sketches of Norman Rockwell and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

[edit] Myths
There are many myths and popular misconceptions regarding regulations against bare feet.

[edit] Driving Barefoot
Many people like to drive barefoot, and argue that it is safer than wearing certain types of loose-fitting footwear, such as flip-flops. However, critics suggest that it may be dangerous in some situations. For instance, if a sudden stop is necessary and there is anything such as gravel or glass embedded in the brake pedal, the leg's reflexes may cause the foot to withdraw from the pedal, resulting in an increased stopping time.
Regulations concerning driving barefoot vary from one jurisdiction to another:
In the United States, widespread belief in the existence of laws against driving barefoot has been debunked as an urban legend. Members of the Society for Barefoot Living wrote letters to the highway patrols of all 50 states and were told by officials in each state that driving barefoot was not illegal.
In Germany, traffic laws do not forbid driving barefoot. For thorough study see this page on German traffic laws (in German language).
In Belgium, the driving code does not explicitly ban barefoot driving, but article 8.3 requires drivers to be "constantly able to perform any maneuver". According to the federal police, this implicitly bans barefoot driving. (However, barefoot drivers dispute that lack of shoes impairs their ability to perform maneuvers. It is not known whether this dispute has been tried in Belgian courts).
In Hong Kong, laws require drivers to be driving with appropriate footwear. Driving barefoot, or with sandals, is not allowed.
In New Zealand, traffic laws do not forbid driving barefoot. At least one member of the public has emailed Land Transport NZ, who confirmed that no existing legislation requires drivers to wear footwear.

[edit] No shoes, no shirt...
In the United States, it is also frequently believed that OSHA regulations prevent people from going to stores, restaurants, and the like without shoes (or a shirt). In fact, the law (such as it is) refers specifically to employees and is designed to protect employers from lawsuits. There are no state health codes that ban customers from going barefoot in establishments, as is demonstrated by a project undertaken by The Society for Barefoot Living. Individual businesses, however, are free to refuse to serve customers without the footwear they deem appropriate. Individual cities and towns may also require certain footwear in public places.

[edit] Health issues

[edit] Risks
There may be regional risks like poisonous plants or animals, or parasites that can enter the body through the skin or cuts on bare feet. For instance, the intestinal parasite known as hookworm may infect humans who walk on soil containing hookworm larvae (typically in areas where people have direct contact with soil that contains human feces)

[edit] Benefits
A primary factor for going barefoot is that humans evolved without wearing shoes and that wearing shoes is the abnormality. Some believe that society's habitual wearing of shoes actually leads to a weakening of the feet as a result of the support they provide. It is also believed that shoes impede the natural biomechanics of the foot therefore leading to many health problems seen today involving the feet, knees, and back.
Some physicians who espouse natural healing traditions recommend going barefoot as a measure against flat feet, varicose veins, and dorsal pain. They believe that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks. Currently this issue has not undergone any peer-reviewed study, the standard for a practice to be accepted by the medical establishment.
A study by Dr. Najia Shakoor and Dr. Joel A. Block, from Rush Medical College, Chicago, was published in the September 2006 issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism. The study found that adults with osteoarthritis can benefit immensely from walking barefoot. Findings "suggest that modern shoes may exacerbate the abnormal biomechanics of lower extremity OA," and that "modern shoes, and perhaps our daily walking practices, may need to be reevaluated with regard to their effects on the prevalence and progression of OA."
In the Far East, some areas have officially established reflexology paths; the idea being that those who walk on them in bare feet, stimulating the foot reflexology points, will get the same benefits as a reflexology massage.
There is some evidence that going barefoot inhibits the development of fungal infections like athlete's foot. Such infections proliferate in warm, moist places like the inside of a shoe.
Some evidence for the health benefits of going barefoot has been collected on the page Parents for Barefoot Children, although again this is not a peer-reviewed, scientific study. People who promote a barefoot lifestyle, such as Richard Frazine and members of The Society for Barefoot Living maintain that habitually going barefoot makes the feet tougher and far less susceptible (though not immune) to commonly feared hazards; this is echoed by former NJ health commissioner Len Fishman.

[edit] References
French language: B.F., Tongs au volant : gare ! in La Dernière Heure, August 6, 2003
The Barefoot Hiker by Richard Frazine. ISBN 0-89815-525-8
^ ESPN telecast, So. Miss. at Memphis, Nov. 5, 2006. Comment by color commentator Trevor Matich.

[edit] See also
Barefoot and pregnant
Barefoot Deep Tissue (massage technique)
Social aspects of clothing

[edit] External links
Natural and Healthy Barefoot Activities
Society for Barefoot Living
RunningBarefoot.org
Barefoot running Wiki
Parents for Barefoot Children
Italian Club dei Nati Scalzi
Italian Health Chiropodist Community
European Barefooting Resource Center
The Barefoot Path in the Western Contemplative Tradition
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot"

Crush fetish

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A crush fetish is a paraphilia which primarily consists of the desire to see others crush inanimate objects or small creatures.
Typically, those crushing will use their buttocks or feet making this fetish popular amongst many foot fetishists, as crushing by feet is usually the main focus. The foot (barefoot or in shoes) is thus often idolised by someone with a crush fetish.
Contents[hide]
1 Crush erotica
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
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[edit] Crush erotica
Made up of audio tapes, films, magazines, photographs, and stories (both fiction and non-fiction), crush erotica or pornography is usually purchased for the stimulation of sexual pleasure by those with the fetish. A crush film usually consists of footage of inanimate objects, such as food or toys, or small creatures, such as insects and mammals (especially rodents), being crushed.[1][2]. Jeff Vilencia is a crush film director known for Smush!.[3]
The legality of crush erotica and the actual practice of crushing varies by region. There are currently no known laws forbidding the crushing of objects and insects, however the production or trade of crush erotica involving live vertebrates is condemned by animal rights activists and is illegal in many countries including the United States and Great Britain.[4]
Although the existence of online stores containing content of animal death and torture by crushing are extremely rare, instances of underground free and for-profit trade do exist and can be difficult to control. In early March 2006 a wave of outrage was generated among the global internet community and some crush fetishists condemning a series of crush films produced in Hangzhou, China.[5] The graphic footage depicted a Chinese woman killing, among many victims, kittens, puppies and rabbits by crushing them while wearing high heels.[6]
As witnessed on online message boards and chat rooms in the crush community, crush fetishists usually take a firm stance for or against what they define as hard crush (crush erotica containing the death and torture of animals).[7] Either due to legal or self-imposed moral boundaries, most crush fetishists decry hard crush videos and many message boards outlaw the discussion or exchange of media containing such content.

[edit] See also
Sexual fetish
Foot fetishism
Macrophilia
Shoe fetishism
Trampling

[edit] References
↑ A Better Mousetrap, A. S. Hamrah (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ Insect Fetish Objects, G.A. Pearson, 1997 (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ IMDB (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ Hearing Before a United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on H.R. 1887 (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ Kitten killer of Hangzhou (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ Who is the glamorous kitten killer of Hangzhou, China Daily (accessed 2006-05-04)
↑ Seems crush has a bad name AGAIN!!! (Message Post) (Login Required) (accessed 2006-05-04)