This Virtual-Lancaster reporter notes that Shoe Zone, the shoeshop in Marketgate, is selling very high heeled (2″+) fashion shoes in sizes for little girls aged 6 and upwards in their children’s section. For an adult sized foot this is roughly the equivalent of a 6″+ heel. The assistant in the shop clearly hadn’t thought about it much, was pretty embarassed when asked about it and didn’t want to be named or quoted.
It’s not rocket science to see the permanent damage shoes like that can do to little growing feet, as even wearing high heels regularly for a few years in one’s twenties can initiate a progression to crippling twisted toes and bunions in later life as well as damage to joints and tendons. ‘Little girls want this stuff’, is the endless excuse for this sexploitative marketing, which has also been used in recent years to justify the ubiquitously nauseating aisles of uniform sugary pink, that anyone with a healthy digestive system has to look away from, in so many high street stores.
It’s the parents’ money that finances this tottie-market though. Little boys want to live on burgers, crisps and doughnuts, teenagers want to stay in bed all day and a great many adults would like to walk out of work into the nearest pub and drown there. Fortunately most of us have people who care enough to keep us from crossing lines that will totally mess us up. And who refuse to enable / finance us into permanent self-harm.
Shoe Zone have clearly worked out that this just isn’t happening for a lot of little girls though. There’s money to be made from sexing them up.
Of course there always has been, as any vice squad officer can tell you. Just please don’t claim that ‘they want it’ (Eeugh). Like every child, all they want is approval and belonging. It’s up to the adults around them to decide just how self-destructive they have to be to get it.
Tell Shoe Zone what you think of their self-harming shoes for little girls.
Email: customerservices@shoezone.com, telephone: 0116 222 3113
or write to Shoe Zone Ltd, Humberstone Road, Leicester, LE1 2LH.