I worked in a shoe store for 4 1/2 years and I really enjoyed it, not least because of the great discount I got on shoes. Shoes, along with purses and bags, have always been amongst my favorite purchases. Even when I can't find the right pair, I don't get a complex about them not fitting or feel self-conscious trying them on - as opposed to clothes which can send me into a major meltdown. I love shoes. So how is it I've come to hate them in the pop culture world?
Because they're all over the place. Everytime I turn around, pick up a book, or watch a television shoe, there's the discussion. About the Manolo's the heroine just loves. Can I just state for the record, I have never seen a pair of Manolo Blahniks that I've considered even remotely attractive? And I'll argue to the death that this is not just because my personal taste isn't there. They're ugly shoes that couldn't flatter a pair of feet if they tried.
And yet every chick lit novel (and I use the term advisedly) has a heroine who'll just die if she can't get a pair or she'll die if anything happens to the ones she has or she'll just die because the woman who stole her boyfriend has three pairs. I'm sure that somewhere, somewhen there was the first chick lit novel to mention shoes and they were entirely germaine to the plot. But what they've become is some kind of lazy shorthand for the authors. Want to make her a hip, urban chick? She must crave Manolo's.
Don't get me wrong I'm not dissing the genre as in this piece but I am dissing the authors employing lazy shortcuts. Give me individuals. Maybe your heroine could love Birkenstocks or penny loafers? Perhaps she goes barefoot, okay, that would be difficult to pull off in an urban setting. But come up with something new to tell me who these women are. There aren't enough Manolo's in the world the shoe them all.