Red Shoes, Brown Shoes, and Italian Pumps

Red Shoes, Brown Shoes, and Italian Pumps

I work with a woman who is really into shoes. She typically wears fashionable, high-heeled pumps, narrow and pointy at the toes, probably Italian, and very expensive. They look uncomfortable and may account for the pained and pinched look that is often on her face. I have nothing against people who wear uncomfortable shoes, but this person actually judges the character of others by the shoes they wear (I kid you not!).

Now, I typically wear flat shoes for comfort and economy. I regularly wear the same two pairs of brown and black flat dress shoes for work and social events and a pair ratty sneakers for non-important running-around. I do have other shoes, but I like these three pairs because they are broken-in and comfortable.

My co-worker thinks people who wear flat shoes are poor and unfashionable and, therefore by her standards, people with whom she has nothing in common. I create a problem for her: she likes me, but I wear flat shoes. To make me fit into her "shoe paradigm", she has rationalized that I cannot wear high heels because I am "too tall already" (yes, she actually said this to me). Since being "too tall" is more unfashionable than wearing flat shoes, she tolerates them.

In light of this odd relationship, I am forced to ponder the symbolic relevance of shoes, and I do this by examining the story of the girl who wore the red shoes. One popular variation of this story is Dorothy and her ruby-red slippers in the Wizard of Oz; however, the classic telling of this tale, immortalized in Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes, delves much deeper into its psychic implications. In Andersen's tale, a young girl, whose hand-made red shoes are taken from her, disobeys her rich caretaker and wears a different pair of red shoes to church. She is punished by being forced to dance in her red shoes until she repents of her vanity and evil ways.

A simple reading of this tale may compel the reader to reject the seeming lesson of the story: girls who violate the conventions of their communities are punished until they realize the error of their ways. Women and girls should should be able to be non-conformists without retribution. If one reads the tale on this level, then this is a valid point. However, I think if we go to a deeper level, a more archetypal level, then this story does have something to teach us and should not be dismissed.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in her popular book Women Who Run With the Wolves, states that shoes protecting the feet are symbolic of protecting "mobility and freedom" (p. 239). Furthermore, she states that in the tale, when the young girl puts on the red shoes, she is trying to regain the freedom she lost when her hand-made red shoes were taken from her. However, her new red dancing shoes, though similar to her handmade shoes, are not the same and are, in fact, detrimental to her. Estes' point is that sometimes when a woman loses her true self (that is, her wild wolf nature) she sometimes tries to compensate by taking on behaviors, obsessions and addictions that are ultimately harmful (pp. 252, 269). This interpretation of the tale is valid and should be heeded.

In light of Estes' reading of the story of The Red Shoes, it is important that if we do suffer great loss in our lives, we must be so very careful in attempting to fill that loss with imitations of that which was lost. These imitations ultimately harm us.

In my ongoing attempt to return to my authentic self, I will strive not to put on red dancing shoes (or Italian leather pumps). I will not try to find false fulfillment in superficial things and destructive habits. I will keep wearing my comfortable old sneakers and keep on walking.

Reference: Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run with The Wolves. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997 (Paperback edition).

Lori Gloyd (c) April 25, 2006