Stiletto heel

The stiletto heel can be found on some high-heeled shoes and boots. Generally speaking, this kind of heel is high and narrow, appearing as if a stiletto dagger or spike is emerging from the footwear. Originally, the principal design philosophy behind the stiletto heel was to not only lengthen the appearance of the legs as all high heeled shoes do, but to appear fragile so that the female appeared lighter and delicate. A notion soon dispelled by the penetrative damage they created by the concentration of force into such a tiny area! This led to them being named "stiletto" after the infamous long slender italian dagger used to assassinate and murder by penetrating easily and quickly to the vital organs!

Stilettos can vary in length, some are only an inch off the ground, while other more exotic shoes can have over six inch heels. There are a large variety of different stiletto shoe designs, both in terms of the materials used and the height of the heel.

Stilettos are often associated with shoe fetishism. For persons with such a fetish, these heels can exude a sense of sexual strength and control over a situation or individual. Conversely, these heels also can represent a sense of danger, as being so small, could create danger standing up for the person wearing them.

The term "stilettos" is often used to describe shoes, boots or sandals fitted with stiletto heels, whether in the quantititive form as in, "the shop was full of stilettos", or in the particular form meaning an individual pair as in, "she was wearing her stilettos".

The term is often used erroneously to mean any pair of high-heeled shoes irrespective of thickness. This may be because those growing up in a time when true stilettos are being worn may not understand the connection with the dagger and simply associate the name with the height of the heel. See "high heel".

Historical Perspective, Definition and Social Comment.

A Stiletto heel is a type of heel on a woman's shoe that is less than 1 cm wide at the tip. The original stiletto heels in 1953 were about 4 inches high and were made of hardwood sheathed in steel or were solid aluminium with screw in steel tips. Though some of today's stiletto heels have exposed steel or brass heels, since 1958 up to present they have been mostly made from hard plastic with a steel tube inside to strengthen them; the steel tips have a thin metal rod that fits very tightly into this tube.

Today's stiletto heels can be as thin as 0.5 cm and as low as 1.5 inches or as high as 5 inches; any higher generally requires a thick platform sole as in the modern pole dancer shoes where the often transparent moulded plastic platform unit has a 6 inch heel and a 2 inch platform sole. Such shoes are also quite popular for “ballbusting”.

They were once seen as dainty and fragile, but both the damage that they caused to floors and being named after a thin lethal dagger, means that nowadays most people see them as being dangerous. They have thus taken on sado-masochistic connotations and though most people would never admit it, they fascinate both men and women because of their lethal power. The stiletto heeled leather boot (kinky boot) has always been the symbol of the dominatrix and this item has passed into the mainstream to become a standard fashion item for the modern woman.

High heeled shoes have always been regarded as sexy, not just for their body altering and leg lengthening effect, but in themselves; the heel is a phallic symbol and the arch under the heel is a vaginal symbol. But the stiletto has this extra lethal dimension in that they are capable of piercing things such as male gonads. Team them with pointed toes, particularly the new long pointed toes or winklepicker toe (a phallic symbol in itself!), and you have an incredible instrument that suggests either pleasure or castration! Indeed, stiletto heels whether boots, sandals, slippers or pumps are sometimes used in sexual foreplay.

Contrary to popular belief amongst many men and women who don't wear them, with practice they are not difficult to walk in (providing that they are the correct size and fit!) and today's career women can be seen running for trains, hopping on and off subways and buses and hurrying up and down stairs in them. Some will tell you that they feel confident and even invincible in business meetings and presentations; their distractive 'male arousing' qualities means that while the men are busy trying to wrestle with thoughts of sex, they can take advantage of them and win the argument or the deal.

Much to the disgust of many 40 and 50 something feminists, it is the stiletto clad post-feminist modern 'have it all' career woman of today who is reaping the hard earned benefits of the feminist era and she is using her sexuality to get ahead even further, - but on her own terms not the men's. It's not for nothing that those successful and ruthless women on Wall Street and in the City district of London were and are called "Spike-Heeled Power Bitches"!

The pointed toe stiletto-heeled pump (or court shoe) once the symbol of female oppression in the late 1960s, has become the long pointed toed stiletto heeled ankle boot that is now the symbol of the get ahead career woman!