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’.
References
1. Altay, I. 2018. "Representations of Women in India." Daily Sabha. Available at https://www.dailysabah.com/readers-corner/2018/03/19/representation-of-women-in-media.
2. Chowdhury, S. 2015. "An Analytical Study of Effects of Advertisement in Demand of Beauty Products in the City of Indore." Available at https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/240362.
3. Cole, N. L. 2019. "The Sociology of Consumption." ThoughtCo. Available at https://www.thoughtco.com/sociology-of-consumption-3026292.
4. D’Angelo, F. 2016. "Standing Tall, the Stiletto Heel as Material Memory: A Contemporary Cross Culture Look at Perceptions of the Stiletto Heels." PhD Thesis, The Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario.
5. Rakshit, D. 2022. “Why People Find Women in High Heels More Attractive, Feminine, and Well Off.” The Swaddle. Available at https://theswaddle.com/why-people-find-women-in-high-heels-moreattractive-feminine-and-well-off/.
6. Krueger, M. B. "The High-Life: A History of Men in Heels." Available at https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-high-life-a-history-of-men-in-heels/iQJCgMgwSKV5Kw.
7. Marx, K. 1867. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume 1, Part 1: The Process of Capitalist Production. New York, NY: Cosimo.
8. Pazzanese, Christina. 2022. "Tracking the Effects of High Heels at Work." The Harvard Gazette. Available at https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/02/harvard-talk-examines-effects-of-highheelsatwork/#:~:text=In%20any%20case%2C%20high%20heels,banks%20and%20courtrooms%2C%20Desai%20said.
9. "The Italian Stiletto: How It Is Made and Why Its Thrusts Are So Dangerous." Arkansas City Daily Traveller, October 2, 1888. Available at https://arkansascity.advantage-preservation.com/search.
10. "The Origins of Power Dressing." Available at https://www.wordnerd.eu/blog/the-origins-of-powerdressing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2023 JASSSR
