Would Dorothy Be Considered A Whore Cuz She Wore Red Shoes?

By notoriouslysinglegirl, August 20, 2015

 

 

Recently my business card was passed on to an older un-hip woman. She commented that I must be a whore because of the picture on the card.

 

My card and blog’s logo is of a pair of red stillettos haphazardly planted on fourth street in down town Los Angeles during a photo shoot on a rainy day in 2011. I was wearing the shoes but took them off, because unlike Carey in “Sex and The City” I can not wear stilletos for twelve hours straight. Being a nurse I’m more of a Danskos kind of gal. My creative photographer saw a creative moment and snapped up the picture, which became the “NotoriouslySingleGirl logo.

 

Red shoes always bring attention to the wearer. Hans Christian Andersons tale of the Red Shoes dooms the main character wears red shoes, which she can’t take off, and ultimately kill her. And of course there is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz who wears dead Witches ruby red slippers on her journey down the yellow brick road.

 

 

 

I remember walking around Italy when I was thirteen years old with a group of other girls. A group of teenage boys would followed us around the town square, of course this is before the age of the internet and social media. But in order for them to catch our attention, they would shout out: “I like the girl with the Red Shoes, causing us all to look down to see who was wearing the red shoes, and of course none of us were! The boys laughed and terrorized us.

 

So, are Red shoes a curse?

 

Red shoes have always been associated with power. In the time of Louis XIV, only aristocratic men wore the shoes symbolizing their status and class.

 

Christian Louboutin charges hundreds of dollars for red soled shoes, only the wealthy or females who give up eating can afford them.

 

“The power of the red shoes lies in their ability to reveal some fundamental truth about the wearer” states Rachelle Bergstein, author of Little History Of Red Shoes.

 

There was once a woman who wore beautiful red Prada stilettos at a hospital that I was employed at. I was having lunch with one of her employees. I’ll never forget the time this woman clicked and clacked to the table, and how my friend sat straight up in her chair as if she was ready to salute her! Obviously, this red shoed woman had the “Power!” and I don’t think anyone would dare call her a whore!

 

Nor do I think anyone would call Dorthy a whore, but someone who was gifted an opportunity and a fabulous pair of magical shoes!

Perhaps I think too much, but I couldn’t help but wonder why this woman’s mind automatically associated the color red with the word “Whore” instead of power? I mean really, what ghetto was she raised in? Or did her father have an affair with a beautifully red shoed woman?

 

I told my mother about the woman calling me a whore due to my logo. My mother is seventy one years old and has spent her entire life in the fashion business. And yes, I consider her hip. Her remarks: “That woman is an unhappy whore herself who doesn’t understand fashion, and has deep seeded issues!”

 

Well said…. And may we all continue wearing red shoes with magic powers!