Why Do You Have So Many Beautiful Shoes

Insecure? New shoes should fix it

AMY CORDEROY HEALTH

19 May, 2012 03:00 AM

 
LIGHTS, mirrors, skinny models - the thought of buying clothes can be a self-esteem nightmare.
Now, researchers have found women who have less confidence in their appearance are more likely to buy accessories such as shoes and handbags than clothes.

The study of nearly 290 New Zealanders found women who felt more insecure after looking at pictures of skinny models owned more handbags than their confident counterparts.

The study also examined the shoe ownership of nearly 1000 US women and found those who said looking at pictures of models made them feel insecure tended to own more shoes. But when it came to clothing, researchers found no links between confidence and purchases.

The study leader, Jessica Boyce, said accessories could be a way of women boosting self-image without drawing attention to their bodies. "When media body ideals threaten self-image, women may attempt to self-affirm via accessorising body parts not directly connected to their core body image," she wrote in the journal Body Image.

"If this is correct, then the popularity of the shoe and handbag industries may partly be an indicator of women's body image struggles."

MY THOUGHTS

I never thought about it - but is this true?  Do I really love beautiful shoes because I feel insecure?  I admit that I sometimes go out to buy beautiful shoes because I wanted to feel better.  But to buy beautiful shoes to make me feel secure, that's a little too much, I think.

I love having a variety of beautiful shoes because I want to always have a pair of footwear that would go with the clothes I'm wearing, something appropriate for the event.  Naturally, this means I need to have beautiful shoes in different styles and colors.


On the other hand, why do I want to that?

Oh, never mind.  I don't want to spend too much time thinking about this.  I just love beautiful shoes.  Period.









Someone told me, she buys lots of beautiful shoes when she's feeling insecure about herself.  I didn't agree with her.  Nor did I agree.

I thought, I needed to think about this.  And I have.

The first question I asked myself was - Why Do I Love Beautiful Shoes?