Protection or pleasure: Female footwear

Abstract

This article addresses the love for shoes by the perspective of design and emotion. Reviewing the footwear history, we realize that it did not take too long for the shoes start to have new functions, aesthetic and symbolic, which eventually came to have greater relevance in the acquisition of women's shoes. Today, these outweigh the importance of physical comfort for many women, that once feeling pretty, do not realize the discomfort of the shoe. Studies indicate that the objects we love have a strong influence on our sense of identity, especially when dealing with clothing articles that have the power to show on our appearance our identity, tastes and preferences. Crossing the semiotics field, the footwear is analyzed as an object of feminine desire, imbued with symbolic relations. As a result, we propose a framework to describe the emotional relationship between women and shoes.

Full text

Protection or pleasure: female footwear
Mariana Seferin a* and Júlio van der Linden a,b
aPrograma de Pós-Graduação em Design, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre - RS, Brazil
bDepartamento de Design e Expressão Gráfica , Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Osvaldo Aranha,
99 - 4º andar- sala 408, CEP 90035-190 - Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Abstract. This article addresses the love for shoes by the perspective of design and emotion. Reviewing the footwear history,
we realize that it did not take too long for the shoes start to have new functions, aesthetic and symbolic, which eventually came
to have greater relevance in the acquisition of women's shoes. Today, these outweigh the importance of physical comfort for
many women, that once feeling pretty, do not realize the discomfort of the shoe. Studies indicate that the objects we love have
a strong influence on our sense of identity, especially when dealing with clothing articles that have the power to show on our
appearance our identity, tastes and preferences. Crossing the semiotics field, the footwear is analyzed as an object of feminine
desire, imbued with symbolic relations. As a result, we propose a framework to describe the emotional relationship between
women and shoes.
Keywords: female footwear, design and emotion, love for products, protection, pleasure.
*Corresponding author E-mail: marianaseferin@gmail.com
1. Introduction
The use of footwear dates back to the protection of
the feet in the prehistoric period, but history shows
that it was not long before it served new functions,
aesthetic and symbolic. Today, they outweigh the
importance of physical comfort for many women
who, while feeling pretty, do not realize the
discomfort of the shoe. To the extent that its use is
part of a social code, adopted to some extent in a
voluntary manner, the initiatives to raise awareness
about the risks run into barriers [1].
Many studies warn about the negative effects of
high heels. Aghazadeh and Lu [2] demonstrated that
its use affects the ability to lift loads. Nagata [3]
relates them to accidents on stairs. Lee et al. [4]
affirms that high heels may lead to greater muscular
effort, causing discomfort and fatigue. The use of
harmful footwear is linked to symbolic values, which
transform them into elements of social obligation and
fetish. Thus, women pay a high price in exchange for
their personal success [5], using the shoes as a
symbol of power and elegance [6] and even
exploring the association of fetish with power [7].
The emerging of the shoe was due to great need to
protect the feet from cold and soil. His initial
appearance was that of a bag tied at the bottom, with
the time was developing the other constituent parts of
a shoe, sole, insole, the upper. Looking at the history
of footwear, it is clear that from its inception was not
privileged comfort. Initially, the difficulties related to
comfort were related with the available materials and
with the lack of knowledge of anatomy,
biomechanics and physiology. More recently, the
scientific and technological developments enabled
the design and manufacture of shoes to offer high
levels of comfort and safety.
Despite the advances that allow us to wear more
comfortable footwear, today, women still submit
themselves to physical discomfort in favor of feeling
elegant, beautiful and / or sexy, and thus feeling
comfortable psychologically. We often hear women
saying that they do not feel pain or discomfort when
using high heels and pointed toes shoes, maybe the
pain it is annulled by the psychological comfort.
Therefore, one can say that for those women who
prefer the elegance rather the comfort, what really
matters in the choice of footwear would be the formal
and aesthetic aspects, which comes to refer the
Work 41 (2012) 290-294
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affection with the use of products, the Design and
Emotion.
As a consequence of intensifying the use of high-
heeled shoes, has been growing concern about its
effects on health. Many studies, prove the adverse
effects of the use of women's footwear designed from
stylistic criteria, such as high heels and pointed toes
[8,2,9-14]. However, despite all the knowledge
developed in the recent decades by the areas of
Biomechanics, Physiology and Ergonomics, fashion
factors still determinate the shoe design, especially
the female footwear and its adoption by the women is
related with several factors [15,12]. There is evidence
that factors as the appearance importance and the
attitude toward in general risks are crucial for the
comfort and risk appraisal process in the use of fine
high-heeled shoes with thin nozzles [16].
The conflict between the objectivity of the
recommendations from the areas related to health
and safety and risk behavior adopted by women who
use high heels (and fine nozzles) can be explained
from the supremacy of the symbolic benefits to the
detriment of physical risks. Therefore, this article
focuses on the emotional relationship with female
footwear and proposes a framework of its
description.
2. Method
This work was developed based on literature re-
view, considering the following themes: risks in the
use of high heels, fashion, semiotics, emotions and
love for products. Based on theoretical analysis, we
created a proposed framework of the affective
relationship with feminine footwear.
3. The basis for the framework
Universally, the high-heeled shoe is seen as a fet-
ish; for the semiotics, the shoe is seen as a symbol of
power. This can be understood by analyzing the his-
tory, mythology and fairy tales. At many times the
shoe served to differentiate social classes. At first for
separating the barefoot from the people that wore
shoes and then differentiating the classes according
to the different shoe styles, giving to the user the
power of a particular footwear style, being this power
related to social prestige or associated with purchas-
ing power. In fairy tales and mythology, the shoes are
often associated with power and magic [6].
It is a common association of high-heeled shoes as
a symbol of elegance and sensuality. This perception
of high-heeled shoes as stylish is also part of the
historical past, where the high heel was initially
intended for those with a higher purchasing power.
Thus it was also seen as a symbol of nobility, the
greater the heel, the higher was the social position of
the individual [6].
In the book Emotional Design, Donald Norman
[17] reports that humans have three levels of brain
structure, they are the visceral, behavioral and
reflective level. These levels can be translated into
product characteristics, as follows: the visceral, the
appearance of the product, its formal characteristics;
the behavioral, the pleasure (physical sensation) and
the use effectiveness; and the reflective level,
affirming the self-image, the personal satisfaction
and the user memories (prestige, rarity and
exclusivity perception).
According to Ahuvia [18], "the people, and things,
we love have a strong influence on our sense of who
we are, on our self." Loved objects represent and
influence our sense of personal identity. This can be
seen specially in apparel and personal use products.
For Belk [19] people use their favorite objects to en-
large, expand and fortify their sense of self.
Our personal objects, besides exposing our identity,
also exalt our personal tastes and preferences. To
Kälviäinen [20] the taste should be interpreted by the
designer as a demonstration of lifestyle preference
and as products orientation. The taste is intimately
connected with the expression of identity and social
interaction.
It is well known that humans have affection for
products and this affection can be expressed by
feelings and emotions. "Affect has been described as
part of 'the consumer’s psychological response to the
semiotic content of the product" [21].
The relationship of people and industrial products
has been approached more recently from the
perspective of affection. Desmet and Hekkert [22]
“describes the various ways in which products can
act as emotional stimuli”. Norman [17] states that
“emotions reflect our personal experiences,
memories and associations”. Ahuvia [18] states that
objects that we love have a strong influence on our
sense of identity. Russo [23] argues that “people tend
to describe their love for a product as something that
is dynamic and endures over time”.
According to Desmet and Hekkert [24] there are
three types of product experience: aesthetic experi-
ence, which is linked to our product perception, as
the touch, the smell, the visual, “the beauty one ex-
periences when physically interacting with a
M. Se
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riences when physically interacting with a product”;
the next is experience of meaning, associated with
memories and meanings which the person relates to
the product and in this way “assign personality or
other expressive characteristics”; the last one is the
emotional experience, that relates to the emotions
and feelings resulted by the evaluation that people
make of a product.
Beatriz Russo in her doctoral thesis discusses
the love of products, highlighting the love for cars
(men and women) and shoes (women) [23]. In her
research she discusses the love that came with the
time of use and do not approach the “love at first
sight” that motivates the purchase. It was collected
50 reports of different participants who described
their love for specific products. These reports show
that the love felt for products is rewarding, a long
lasting relationship which is derived from a dynamic
experience where there are affective experiences that
arise from this significant relationship causing
wellbeing to the people. Thus, Russo says that is
because of these rewards occasioned by the love felt
for products that make people seek to extend the life
of these special products. She also points out ways to
design researchers and product developers to
promote in their research and projects rewarding
experiences and enduring relationship between
people and products.
The effect of emotions in relation to female shoes
with thin high heels and pointed toes, considering the
comfort and risk perception of women has been
investigated by van der Linden [16]. The results
indicate that the "perception of comfort and
perception of risk are influenced by individual
characteristics, which were identified as dominant
references" [16]. The reference is dominant
according to the person orientation. People who have
a dominant orientation as a reference to pleasure,
favor the appearance that changes their perception of
comfort, so the risk is denied. But people who have
pain as a dominant reference, neglect their appear-
ance and have a great sense of risk perception that
affects their perception of comfort.
The framework proposed by van der Linden [16]
includes the product dimensions for consumer needs
(appearance, usability and functionality), the stimuli
forms developed by Desmet and Hekkert (object,
agent or event), the dominant reference (pursuit of
pleasure or avoidance of pain), the processing levels
developed by Norman that determine the evaluation
(visceral, behavioral or reflective) and the affective
responses (pleasant emotions, feelings of indifference
and / or unpleasant emotions). The idea of dominant
reference allow to understand the different ways a
product can be perceive as taking into account the
way how happens the stimulus, “the same footwear
can be considered sexy (as object), dangerous (as an
agent of an accident) and elegant (suitable for use in
events that require good presentation” [16].
4. The framework
Fetish, elegance, comfort, identity, love, are words
associated with the experience of the use or
possession of women's shoes. More than protection,
the original purpose, the aesthetic and symbolic
aspects dominate the manufacturers, the media and
consumers discourse. Only the comfort maintains its
functional attribute, the footwear goal. But, as
discussed in van der Linden [16], the perception of
comfort is not carried out in an objective, rational
way, but in a subjective way, mediated by emotions.
Among these, the love, approached by Russo [23],
plays an important role in the interaction between
women and shoes.
This begs the question: What kind of love do
women feel for shoes, which makes them take risks?
Based on the literature and as a research hypothesis,
this paper proposes that there are two different kinds
of love: Love for Shoes and Love by the Shoe
(Figure 1). The first expressed by women that are
influenced by fashion trends, seek to have lots of
pairs of shoes, do not bother with physical discomfort.
Many have a fetish for shoes and they value brands
and designers. Their goal is to obtain social status
and they feel that if they are not wearing the latest
trend they will be seen as socially inferior within
their social ranks and classes. Here the shoe is seen
as a symbol of power, which will influence the social
status and affirming their social identity. The second
refers to emotionally gratifying memories
experienced with that particular shoe. Here the
comfort and personal symbolism often has greater
relevance than simply the aesthetics. The shoe is seen
as part of the user identity, who has developed a
sense of attachment and oneness with it, which can
generate a special attention with regard to the
preservation of footwear and a quest for extending
the life of it.
M. Se
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292

Figure 1 Female Footwear-Relationship Framework
Besides the two cases of affective relationship with
shoes, there would still be a relationship in which not
have established emotional ties, but only practical in
nature. This case, as opposed to others, would be the
Protection by the Shoe. Here, the footwear is seen as
an item of protection for feet, what matters is the
safety and comfort offered by the footwear.
It is possible to associate these three categories to
Norman’s three levels of brain processing, where the
Love for Shoes would be at the visceral level, which
is responsible for quick judgments, attraction and
where the physical characteristics prevail. Love by
the Shoe is in the reflexive level, which is
contemplative, sophisticated, comes to the perceived
rarity, experience, exclusivity, self-image and about
the messages that a product sends to people. And, the
Protection by the Shoe is located at the behavioral
level, where appearance does not matter as much as
the product performance and usability.
This research assumes that there are possible
crossings between the Love for Shoes, Love by the
Shoe and Protection by the Shoe, and with these
crossings profiles of individuals can be created which
indicate their preferences. These profiles can come to
assist the development of new shoes that provide the
attributes selected by those. As Norman [17] said the
designer should know how are people for whom the
product is intended.
5. Conclusions
The proposed framework aims to better describe
the reality of the relationship between women and
shoes. It presents an improvement compared to van
der Linden’s framework [16], by adding to the
pleasure-pain axis, the possibility of different kinds
of pleasure, such as the pleasure of ownership
associated with affective memory (love by the shoe),
and the pleasure of possession by following trends
(love for shoes). This distinction theoretically
corresponds to Norman’s processing levels and also
with Desmet and Hekkert’s types of experience with
products. By integrating complementary views, the
framework provides greater sensibility to individual
variations.
To the extent that it is a theoretical construct, the
framework needs to be tested and validated. For this
purpose, the continuity of this research will include
the identification of women's groups that correspond
to profiles that can be associated with the three types
of proposed relationships between women and shoes.
Based on this first study the formation of focus
groups will be established which will comprise of
women who have strong emotional ties with shoes,
aiming to identify and test whether the dimensions
included in the framework are valid to express the
feeling that they have for the shoes, and to check if
there are other motivations to love them. With the
focus groups it’s expected that the generation of
knowledge will contribute in the development of a
shoe design parameter.
M. Se
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