How dare Melania and Ivanka Trump wear high heels, declared Newsweek writer Nina Burleigh last week. The shoe preferences of the first lady and first daughter, Burleigh wrote, is both "beautiful" and "horrifying."
She emphasized the horrifying part. Why, she wonders, must "the female consorts of the Leader of the Free World" continue to step foot in public by "molding their arches into the supranatural curve that Mattel toy designers once devised for Barbie’s plastic feet."
Burleigh goes on to quote fashion experts who to try and prove how the heel emphasizes the female body's greatest assets, suggesting that the Trump ladies are slipping on stilettos to get whistles from the opposite sex.
“Historically, the Trumpian women’s shoe of choice was invented not for women but for aristocratic men, men who would never have to work, and who didn’t have to walk much but were carried in litters or carriages,” Burleigh wrote. “Paintings of Louis XIV, the Sun King, show him sporting red-soled heels, posing with one foot forward and pointed out— much like Ivana and Ivanka Trump in countless photographs over the years.”
Maybe they're not making statements or seeking male attention for their heels. Maybe they just like to wear them? Maybe it completes their outfit?
This isn't the first time Ivanka has been mocked for being too feminine. The Nation's Joan Walsh argued it was unacceptable for Ivanka and all her "girlie" glory to sit in for her father at the G-20 summit in Germany last month. The dress she chose suggested that this was the 1950s and Ivanka was just her father's property, Burleigh bizarrely concluded.
Heels pair perfectly with business attire. They are even a confidence booster for some women.
They are nothing to be ashamed about.