Study: Heels Make Women Sexier
High heels may be painful, but women know what they’re doing when they squeeze their feet into them. A new study from the UK’s University of Portsmouth wearing heals makes women more attractive in the eyes of men—and other women. In the study, researchers filmed women walking in both heels and flats for four minutes each. Their faces and bodies were not filmed, and all flats and heels were identical to prevent bias.
Researchers then asked men and women participants to view 30-second clips of the video and judge them based on traits of femininity and attractiveness. Male participants rated the heel-wearing woman more attractive and feminine. The female participants also rated the women wearing heels more attractive than those wearing flats—at a greater scale than the men.
Researchers said heels complement the way a woman’s body moves, emphasizing feminine movements in her pelvis, hips, legs, knees, feet and shoulders.
The study, which appears in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, believe “evolution may partly explain the continuing popularity of high heels as an article of the female wardrobe. If wearing high heels emphasizes some sex-specific aspects of the female form they may make women more attractive, and one motivation, which may be conscious or unconscious, for wearing heels is that it is part of mate selection.”
It all goes back to the old adage, “No pain, no gain,” right? No matter the painful blisters and the soaks necessary to keep walking, high heels will endure as a fashion necessity.
