Sunday, January 26, 2014

Killing off the High Heel


A big cheer to Emma Thompson for taking a stand against the expectation of women to dress up in towering heels that could destroy both your body and soul.
 
After picking up several acting awards barefoot recently, she proclaimed: "I've taken my heels off as a feminist statement really, because why do we wear them? They're so painful. And pointless. You know, I really would like to urge everyone to stop it. Just stop it. Don’t wear them anymore. You just can't walk in them."

A second time she carried a pair to the podium and flung them over her shoulder, declaring: "I just want you to know, this red, it's my blood (referring to the devil red soles on the Louboutin shoes)."




Go Emma! I’m loving your campaign against the cruelty of high heels. From one comfort-loving female to another, you rock!

I’ve never been able to understand why people wear heels. I think I tried, age 15 in the mid-80s, somehow ending up with a pair of white stilettos – which was the chav shoe of the day in deepest, darkest south Yorkshire. But I couldn’t walk and they hurt like hell, so I ditched them without a second thought and stuck to my favoured Doc Martins, infinitely more practical. 

Horrible, most horrible

About 10 years later, Sex and the City happened and suddenly fashion-victim women were becoming obsessed about Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks, celebrities starting over-glamming and designer culture replaced common sense. Fast forward another 15 years and thankfully common sense is coming back. Doc Martins are back in the shops and young girls are going grunge again.

The high heel commercial conspiracy against women is finally being rejected for the ridiculous misogynistic nonsense it is.

Today's Observer, possibly the most farcical picture of heels ever!

Fact: high heels are bad for your health. Doctors says they raise women’s risk of serious medical conditions, including arthritis, trapped nerves, spine and muscle damage. Studies have found that almost nine in 10 women have blisters, cracked heels, verrucas, corns and ingrowing toenails caused by ill-fitting fashion shoes.

If you're in heels you can't run fast, you can't even walk properly, therefore it makes women more helpless and vulnerable. The only empowering benefit I can see is that if you’re being attacked, then at least the heel can be used as a deadly weapon.

I love the fact that even Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex And The City) has given up heels after a foot doctor told her: “Your foot does things it shouldn’t be able to do. That bone there…You’ve created that bone. It doesn’t belong there.”

And looks-obsessed Victoria Beckham is having surgery on mangled feet covered in bunions caused by years of towering shoes.

Let’s hope this killer heel obsession is just an idiotic blip in the history of women and that girls of today will reject the dumb, teetering insanity that has destroyed the feet of millions of superficial women during the last two decades.


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What do you think? Are you still in favour of them? Have you ditched them in favour of comfort? Or have you always hated them?



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Monday, January 13, 2014

Behold... the Receptives...

Have you ever been stuck for a word?

It happens to me a lot.

But what if that word actually doesn't exist? It would be necessary to invent it wouldn't it? 

I was giving a presentation to a group of like-minded women at the weekend, who like me, are open-minded to new ideas and pursuing self-development and education.  

I wanted to say, "people like us might be a bit of a minority, because we think one way, and the masses think another.... blah blah....."

But I couldn't. There was no word to describe us. 

I wanted to say 'we are a group who are interested and receptive, not easily offended'. We're not 'crunchy' or 'granular' as they say in the States, because that's too leftfield hippy.

But I couldn't think of a word to describe us. 

Does it even exist?

So I've decided to put myself out there as a cod-psychologist and start inventing character styles... to fill in the gaps.

I must have been feeling like such a bright spark on Saturday because my brain suddenly came up with three new character styles. Here they are:

                                              *******

Receptives
Noun
Describes people who are able or receive knowledge with an open mind and are willing to engage with new ideas. They are the ideal attendees for someone who is facilitating a tutorial or group.

Deflectors
Noun
Describes people who like to avoid new information, by blocking it or pushing it to someone else, possibly by being defended in their manner and body language. They are not interested in learning new things. They are the opposite of Receptives. 

Perceptives
Noun 
Perceptives are insightful, intelligent, and able to see what others cannot. They are even higher on the intelligence scale than Receptives because they don't just receive, they perceive so much more. They are the dream attendees of a class/group.

                                                       *******
 

I like to surround myself by Receptives but life often throws Deflectors at you when you're least expecting them, and they can really throw you off balance. The challenge in life is how we handle them and how we don't let them send us in the wrong directions. 

I just wanted to put these words out there for now. I know they're not new nouns, but they are variations on a theme and handy for describing certain people. 

Do you have any words of your own that you use to describe yourself or others?










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Sunday, January 12, 2014

TESCO OFFER


Tesco is offering Mama D readers an offer for the new year:

€15 off when you spend €60 or more on your first online grocery shop at Tesco.ie URL: www.tesco.ie/groceries

eCoupon code: RXXH3NJ
Offer end date: 20/02/2014

Full terms and conditions can be found at www.tesco.ie/groceries

For more details of my review of Tesco Online visit this page

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