Stiletto

Pain, Pleasure and Style

Abstract

Beauty standards are set by society and there are various parameters of beauty. One such parameters is the kind of footwear we wear. Under capitalism people’s choices are often shaped by the market structure and which is further enhanced by popular culture. A stiletto heel or simply stilettos is a type of (footwear) which has a long, thin and high heel. The present paper thus, provide a sociological study of stilettos by taking Karl Marx’s concept of ‘commodity fetishism’. The paper also explores how the idea of “body beautiful” that are hugely influenced by the media and popular culture. Therefore, the paper proceeds with a threefold objective firstly, to trace the history of stilettos and secondly to look at how media shapes the idea of beauty and thirdly, to connect it with Marxist idea of ‘commodity fetishism’.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46700/asssr/2023/v5/i1/223401