High heels: fashion or oppression? 6 Minute English

Neil: Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English,

I'm Neil. And joining me it's Rob.

Rob: Hello.

Neil: Today, we'll be discussing whether

wearing high heeled shoes is

a fashion statement or

a sign of oppression - and by that I mean

something you have to wear

because someone has told you to.

Rob: Now Neil, whatever style of shoe

you choose to wear, it's good

to polish them and

keep them looking shiny and new -

but one man from India called

Vickrant Mahajan set

the Guinness World Record for polishing

the most shoes. Do you know

how many pairs he

polished in eight hours? Was it...

a) 151 pairs, b) 251 pairs, or c) 351 pairs?

Neil: Well, if it was me, it would be

no more than one pair - but as it's

a world record,

I'm going to go for 351 pairs.

Hopefully you'll give me the answer later!

But let's focus now on high heels.

Rob: Yes. It's a style of shoe worn

by women around the world.

But why do millions of people choose

to walk on strange, stilt-like shoes?

Neil: Studies have suggested wearing

high heels can lead to damage

to the muscles and skeleton.

But despite this, they are worn to look

professional in the workplace or for

glamour - a word to describe

the quality of looking fashionable

and attractive.

Rob: And of course, they are associated

with female glamour, which

is something Tim Edwards,

Honorary Fellow in Sociology at

the University of Leicester has been

talking about on the BBC Radio 4

programme, Thinking Allowed. Here

he is describing why he thinks that is...

Tim Edwards: Women's shoes

in particular kind of have this kind

of transformative or even

magical quality - they can do

something for a woman, and it's quite

difficult to kind of draw parallels

quite like that with men, in a sense of

which it almost becomes something

slightly otherworldly... however one views

it as something which is a kind of act of

subordination or an act of empowerment

etc, there is a sense in which

your experience is changed - you are

suddenly raised 3-4-5-6 inches higher,

your balance is altered, your

experience is transformed.

Neil: So, he describes high heels

as having a magical quality.

He uses the word transformative -

meaning a great improvement or positive

change - so they transform or improve

how someone looks.

Rob: Well, they do make you taller and

that can make you feel more powerful

or important.

Tim even said it becomes otherworldly -

an adjective to describe belonging

to an imaginary world

rather than the real world.

Neil: Magical shoes do sound

otherworldly, but Tim also mentioned

that wearing high heels

could be seen as an act of subordination -

that's making someone do something

to give them less authority or power.

Rob: Well I guess that's only if you are

forced to wear them. But there's

another interesting point here - men don't

have a style of footwear

that can define them.

Neil: Yes, it's just sandals for you and

sports trainers for me. In fact

Tim Edwards says

it's difficult to draw parallels with men's

shoes. When you draw parallels

between two distinct things,

it means you highlight the similarities -

but here he's saying it's difficult

to find similarities - men have

nothing special to wear on their feet.

Rob: Of course there is nothing

to stop men wearing high heels -

although personally I don't think

I'd be able to keep my balance - but

Tim Edwards suggests it would be viewed

with suspicion. Let's hear

what he has to say...

Tim Edwards: I think the issue with

men and footwear is that if you

think of more contemporary

culture - I mean the guy who kind of

wears overly flamboyant shoes

or shoes which are

not kind of black, brown or flat is viewed

with a degree of suspicion - either in terms

of his sexuality, or in terms of his

work ethic - or in terms of his kind of

general moral, well, you know, his moral

standards in other kinds of ways.

Neil: He says that if you don't wear

a regular, ordinary black, brown

or flat style of shoe, you might be viewed

with suspicion. Men who wear shoes

that are flamboyant - that's brightly

coloured and that attracts attention -

have their sexuality or

their attitude to work judged.

Rob: He mentions someone's

work ethic - that's the belief that

working hard is morally right.

A man who wears flamboyant shoes

may have a different attitude to work.

It sounds like

quite an old-fashioned view.

Neil: It does, and let's hope people don't

judge you when you go out

wearing your sandals and socks!

But now, how about giving us the

answer to the question you set earlier.

Rob: Yes. I told you about

Vickrant Mahajan, who set the Guinness

World Record for polishing

the most shoes. I asked if you knew how

many pairs he polished in eight hours.

Neil: And I guessed 351 pairs. Come on,

was I right?

Rob: I'm afraid not, Neil. The answer was

251 pairs. It's still quite a lot - that's 502

individual shoes and I'm not sure

if he actually got paid for doing it.

Neil: Right, let's polish up some of

our English vocabulary and

remind ourselves of some of

the words we've discussed today,

starting with oppression.

Rob: Oppression is when you are forced

to do something by someone

more powerful.

Neil: We talked about glamour - a word

to describe the quality of looking

fashionable and attractive.

Rob: Our next word was transformative -

meaning a great improvement

or positive change.

Neil: Otherworldly is an adjective

to describe belonging to

an imaginary world rather than

the real world - it's magical or special.

Rob: We also discussed an act of

subordination - that's making

someone do something to give

them less authority or power.

To draw parallels is an idiom meaning

to highlight the similarities

between two distinct things.

Neil: And we mentioned flamboyant -

that describes someone or

something brightly coloured and

that attracts attention.

Rob: Finally, we talked about work ethic -

that's the belief that working hard

is morally right.

Something that both Neil and I have!

Neil: And that brings to the end

of the programme. Don't forget to visit

our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Bye for now.

Rob: Bye bye.