Even were it fashionable for someone like me to wear any kind of high heels, since I broke my ankle I have too much of a phobia of falling down to ever try.

I think most mammals are digitigrades, right? Afaik the only plantigrades are humans and bears.

Oh nice, the wiki page you linked has a list. The other living plantigrade mammals are:

• Several primates (including humans and lemurs) Carnivora:
• Ursidae: bears (with the exception of the hemicyonines)
• Musteloidea: skunks, raccoons, weasels, badgers, otters, and red pandas
• Rodents: mice, rats, porcupines
• Hedgehogs
• Hyraxes
• Marsupialia: kangaroos, opossums

And humans think it's a sign of other problems too

True, but won't be good for humans unless we get a mutation that gives us appropriate feet structure to be digitigrade.

I’m a woman but I have never worn shoes like that and I never will

She's out of control! Initiate the lockdown!

I didn't realize how bad some of these issues were until I was talking to a woman I work with. She was sort of half considering going back to an old career (white collar, not public facing) instead of our workplace (very much blue collar/male dominated) but she mentioned that she doesn't want to have to start wearing makeup again. I was a bit confused because I didn't think that makeup would really be seen as a requirement there. She said it wasn't a requirement but there was a lot of pressure to do it.

Daily makeup looks almost as bad as occasionally wearing heels to me, but I do neither so IDK.

It's interesting how the situation flips somewhat for men in adulthood. In most white collar office jobs it is totally unacceptable for anyone to wear shorts, flip flops, and tank tops. However, women are allowed or encouraged to wear skirts, strappy shoes, and sleeveless blouses. In hotter climates, I've known a few men that have seriously considered wearing skirts because pants are so uncomfortable, but the social stigma is just too much. Of course, those men still wouldn't be pressured to wear make-up daily too. I have no idea how men can wear an entire suit, especially a jacket, in subtropical and tropical climates. Thankfully I work in a field that does not pressure women away from wearing pants, but again pants suck in the subtropics. Plus, women's business casual pants are almost a completely different thing than men's pants with regards to fitting closely and being made of thin to nearly sheer materials.

I hope this doesn't feel like sealioning, more that I feel like men need to be shown how the patriarchy is bad for everybody. Blue collar dress codes are at least mostly centered around safety. While it seems white collar dress codes are mostly about "professionalism", which is mostly just code for gender norms, misogyny, and patriarchy.

I have the opposite. Every sexy love interest in every 80s movie was the woman in heels. They made a point of showing them.

Wired something in my adolescent brain that I still cant shake to this day. My higher brain knows better but caveman brain "heels = keen for sex"

socks in sandals?

unlike a horse, they cant run fast or trot, no hooves yet.

...so different sizes of the same stiletto model would have the same height of the heel? Seems weird to me that they wouldn't scale it with the rest of the stiletto. Or are you just comparing heels in absolute heights regardless of model/size?

broken toes.