Walking Tall on Stilts

Caroline Hodroj

LAU Tribune Staff

She’s very late to class and her teacher has been known to lock students out if they are not punctual. The young girl scurries hazardously through the LAU mid-gate on unsteady ground, watching out for every crack and crevice that might make her trip. Instead of marching valiantly on flat wear, she’s carried to class in an eight-inch knock-off Jimmy Choo stiletto.

Seeing female students dressed in high heels on campus has become a daily routine. Some find it absurd that women would wear such painful footwear in an academic environment while others argue that the psychological benefits far outweigh the potential physical harm.

“I’ve been wearing heels since I was 18,” Mira Ghanem, a 20-year-old international business student, said. “Sometimes when I’ve worn them on campus, I experienced pain, I’ve felt very heavy.” Ghanem admitted with a grimace that, due to difficulty of walking on high heels, she stopped wearing 10-inch platforms and now resorts to seven. “They make me feel more confident and stronger as a person,” she said.

Physicians advise against wearing heels that exceed 1.5 inches in height. A report on BBC warned that potential injuries related to high heels can range from sprained ankles to broken bones and dislocations. The damage, in some cases, is permanent.

Mona Daoud, a graduate student majoring in international affairs, explained that it’s not possible for her to wear heels that are higher than 3 or 4 inches.

“When I was studying journalism [as an undergraduate] it was impossible for me to wear heels on campus,” she said. “Imagine running around chasing interviewees with heels. It’s tiring.”

Faten Dback, a 23-year-old MBA student, argued that women on the LAU campus are impractical. “This is definitely psychological,” she said. “Women are coming to campus as if it’s some night event. It’s very extreme.”

Dback pointed to the platforms she’s wearing –a better alternative if women want to earn few centimeters.

“Heels put people at a disadvantage, brain-wise,” Samar Zebian, a psychology professor at LAU, said. According to her, the brain must to learn new ways to cope with height differences and make its owner feel socially accepted. “Height is associated with power. Kids have an early bias to like tall people,” Zebian explained.

High heels express popular obsession about height as a status symbol. They’ve become synonyms with femininity, authority and independence. In addition to their semiotic significance, however, heels provide the few essential centimeters that make women feel slender. In a culture obsessed with looks, this element makes heels essential.

“Honestly, I find myself short,” Samantha Kanonji, 21-year-old psychology major said as she shifted her high-heeled feet with a smile. “I’m more comfortable this way, plus it helps with the slenderness aspect.” 

Katrina Tohme, a 20 year-old banking and finance student, is vocal about her love for heels.

“It’s not about a sense of style that I’m copying. It’s just me. I like heels and I don’t need a reason,” she said. Her friends forced her to wear flat shoes on few occasions. “I’m not addicted or anything. I’m wearing the heels the heels don’t wear me,” she riposted.