Heels

by Justina Lee

Power is the ability to make someone do something against his or her will - such is the definition of power from the politics classes that I have taken. Power is thus the exertion of authority. And if fashion is a form of expression, of reducing a more complex message into an external symbol, those extra few inches provided by a pair of heels are often intended to convey the message of authority. Slip into your three-inch heels and tower over your contemporaries; look down upon them and give your commands. The image of the higher versus the lower, the clinks versus the thumps still evoke a sense of power disparity. You may be disadvantaged while darting for the bus, but naturally blessed with long, lean legs or not, most benefit from the elevation of heels - a symbol of the elevation of power.