Get them while they're young
BY: Catherine I. Fernandez
Somewhere Susan B. Anthony is turning in her grave. Little girls no longer need to look up to Dora the Explorer; they can now emulate Carrie Bradshaw the materialist.
Heelarious provides infants with their first set of heels. Featured on Fox news, Good Morning America, and NBC news, the brainchild of Britta Bacon and Hayden Porte has been growing in popularity since its conception last year.
Made for infants up to six months old, the crib shoes are available in a variety of colors, ranging from black to leopard print; and, each pair of heelarious heels come in a purse-shaped gift box.
It is hard to believe that this idea was allowed to flourish. Apparently out-of-touch pageant-mothers are not the only ones who desire dolls for daughters.
These shoes with soft collapsible heels are advertised as harmless; yet, is it harmless to instill the idea that heels are a requirement for women at such a young age?
Wearing heels gives the appearance of a larger derrière and chest. This provocative look is fine for grown women who want to spice up an outfit. However, trying to pass down this stereotypical item of feminine beauty to newborns is unsettling.
Yes, mothers want their baby girls to look cute but the seemingly mandatory pink clothing and accessories are more than enough - we get it, it’s a girl - there is no need to add heels to the ensemble.
Criticizing infant footwear may be a bit harsh and uptight but when the Today Show’s Bobbi Thomas says things like, “Little girls can get a jump start on their strut and be top-models-in-training before they leave the crib,” it is hard not to be concerned.
Obviously, the shoes were designed for the parents’ amusement, not the babies. Still, strapping heels on a six-month-old has to set off some alarms.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be feminine; but, whether moms realize it or not, things like baby heels and make-up teach growing girls that the only way to be feminine is by altering their looks. It says natural is not beautiful.
Mothers have the right to dress their babies up however they want but do not forget they are babies.
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I just got done doing a little investigation on the internet, and some of the words and phrases being used by some “concerned citizens” and alleged pundits include: exploitation . . . sexualized . . . gross . . . loss of innocence. Are you kidding me? I’m a big fan of Showtime’s “The Tudors” but I honestly thought we had evolved as a society over the past few centuries beyond the puritanical point where women (of any age) are demonized for embracing their femininity. Why is being feminine so often equated with being sexual which in turn has some sort of negative connotation (at least by the moral minority)? I have to imagine that the same people calling foul here also believe that women who are the victims of sexual assault may have “asked for it” based on the way they were dressed at the time…especially, God forbid, if they were wearing heels at the time. Will dressing a little girl in playful shoes really turn her into a prematurely-aged harlet any more than forcing toy trucks and miniature soldiers on a little boy will create a pre-adolescent mercenary? More importantly, when did high heels become something sexual? If a nun wore black heels would she somehow be less holy? Sometimes, fun is just fun. Sometimes, fashion is just self expression.
Sometimes, modern societies allow women to be feminine, successful AND positive role models… in or out of their high heels.
Like most baby products, Heelarious is more for parents and onlookers to enjoy than a commentary on social mores. And as one such onlooker, I have to admit I smile every time I look at these “heelarious” shoes.
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