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SCENE
| October 7, 2003| Send features
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Weathering
Heights
Students striving to be fashionable
feel the effects of high-heeled shoes
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| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
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By Erica
Bryant
The Shorthorn Scene editor
What started out as a fashion statement
turned into a verbal one — a cry for help.
Jennifer Thomas slipped into black leather sandals with two-inch
heels and headed off to class one Friday in the spring. By the end
of the day, the criminal justice junior had bleeding blisters on
each of her toes — and bandages that covered nearly that much.
Unable to walk back to her room at Lipscomb Hall South, Thomas called
her roommate to pick her up from the University Center. She said
her feet were swollen and she didn’t know if or how she could
make it back to her room.
“I was cute, though,” Thomas said.
As students try to keep up with shoe trends this fall, some are
finding they should have paid attention to more than the price tags.
According to the American Association for Women Podiatrists Inc.,
common shoe-related injuries include inflammation and swelling,
nerve damage or pain in the ball of the foot. Less frequent injuries
include ankle sprains and bone fractures.
Standing at 5 feet, Thomas, 22, said she wants to be taller. To
her, added height is an attention grabber. She said a basketball
player in one of her classes teases her about being short.
“Dang, you come to my belly button,”
she quoted him saying.
She said she also has noticed many females wearing high heels that
look good on them. She tried it, she said, because if others could
do it, she should, too.
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| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
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But Thomas couldn’t.
“That was my first and last time wearing those to school,”
she said. “Now, I only wear flip-flops and tennis shoes.”
Thomas said she saves those sandals for church. There, she said,
she mostly sits. She said she is sacrificing style a little, but
being comfortable is more important. She saves her shoes for special
occasions.
“Going to parties is the only time I’ll wear them again,”
she said.
Alicia Beverly, also a 5-foot tall criminal justice junior, wore
4-inch stiletto heels to a party Saturday night.
She strapped on the heels to make her legs look longer, she said.
“I have a very short torso,” she said. “I have
to use my legs for something.”
Beverly danced from about 9:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. and said she removed
her shoes twice because her feet went numb.
She had worn them to class before but didn’t feel the effects
because she only walked to two classes that day. It was also Black
Wednesday, when black student organizations hold a forum in front
of the University Center’s Palo Duro Lounge. Beverly, 20,
said she likes to dress up, and Black Wednesday gives her an opportunity.
She said she’s not worried about what people say about her.
“People who know me know I’m
doing it for me,” she said.
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| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
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The American Podiatric Medical Association
suggests women limit the time they wear high heels and vary the
height based on activity. “Walking” or “performance”
pumps can also alleviate stress on the feet while adding height.
Colley Story, a 5-foot broadcast junior, began wearing heels in
high school, when she said she dressed to impress.
“I used to try to fit in and make the boys think I was cute,”
she said. “I got over that. I realized I could still look
cute in pajamas.”
Story, 21, said that although she suffers from blisters, she wears
heels occasionally. But dressing up for school every day is not
worth jeopardizing one’s health.
“Your feet are more important than a boy,” she said.
Thomas couldn’t agree more. That Friday after school, she
called her mom to tell her what happened.
“She just laughed at me and said, ‘Jennifer, why would
you do that? You’re going to school for education, not to
look cute,’ ” she said.
She went to her parents’ house in Waco that night and asked
her mom to massage her feet. A foot soak and a few laughs later,
she did.
Her feet healed over the weekend, but the scars remain. And Thomas
is still laughing.
“That was dumb, and I’m never doing it again,”
she said. “It didn’t make my outfit look any better.
I don’t know what I was doing.”
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