Pointy Shoes

It's almost hilarious that I am writing about pointy shoes, and on some level it's horrifying that I am thinking about getting a pair. This is coming from someone who has always thought that said shoes, besides being painful and dreadful for foot health, often make the wearer look like they forgot their broomstick at home. And, for most of my adult life, I have cared little for the whims of fashion and cared less about people's opinions on how fashionably I dress.

So. Why the change?

I think part of the reason is that our perceptions of beauty change. Not surprisingly, advertising works. If you look at any of the online catalogues of say, Banana Republic, or Nordstrom, and search for "work clothes," you'll pull up pages and pages of professionally dressed models with POINTY SHOES! And while the first few hundred pairs of pointy shoes may look ugly, by the five hundredth pair, they start looking like they go well with the professional outfit...

Which, while compelling, is still not a complete reason to buy a pair. Common sense and a lot of research has proven that high heels, and especially pointy shoes, are BAD for feet. And as someone who wants to stay away from any type of general anesthesia, I swear by the ever comfortable Danskos. Heck, this is someone who interviewed across the country in her Danskos!

So the new change is that I've started my residency in Dermatology. As a rule, dermatologists are a well dressed bunch. And, sad to say, as one of the newbies in the department, part of me would like to blend in as much as possible. After all, you have to try to look the part. (Which brings back memories of "wearing"/hiding underneath a white coat as a medical student, deathly afraid that someone would find out that I really knew very little about the profession.) Luckily, our department is not as cutting-edge fashionable as some across the country - there are quite a few scary sorority-like derm programs out there - but a majority of the residents and the younger faculty wear these darn pointy shoes. And thanks to years of advertising's brainwashing effects, and perhaps the achilles heel in my "I don't care what you think" armor, I now think those pointy shoes look good, and dare I say, add a nice touch to a professional outfit. And while the shoes will likely not affect attending perception of a resident, hopefully looking like I blend in will help me fly under the radar, at least until I actually know what I'm doing...