Do You Have Enough Wiggle Room?

I have to admit that my walking shoes are ugly. When I look down, my feet look too big, too wide, and too long.

In my mind I have three images of beautiful shoes and beautiful feet.

As a girl, in National Geographic, I saw lovely children and young women being carried because they couldn’t walk. Their feet, with broken bones, had been bound since infancy.

My mother had dyed-to-match pointed-toe high heels in the 1950s to 1960s. I thought she was beautiful, but her shoes that matched each outfit caused bunions and misshapen toes.

Now I see powerful women like Nancy Pelosi wearing stilettos. The narrow six to seven-inch heels are sharp and dangerous if used as a weapon. Stilettos make women taller, lengthen their legs, emphasize their bust, and typically cost $700 for executives. Clearly they don’t have any wiggle room for toes.

The term “wiggle room” comes from the Depression Era in the 1930s. Children especially got shoes with “wiggle room” for when their feet grew. Squeezing more life out of a pair of shoes was crucial. There is still discussion about whether toes should touch the end of a shoe or not.

Later manufacturers of women’s shoes, during the period of abolitionists and suffrage, designed very pretty, delicate shoes which were ideal for doing nothing.

For this thinking and writing prompt, give an example in your real life of needing “wiggle room.”

1. Cut me some slack

2. Give me some space, leeway, elbow room

3. One shoe is tighter than the other

4. Older people need more support

5. New leather shoes need a few weeks to become “broken in”

6. I am looking for comfort over beauty or style