To all appearances, stripper shoes are just the newest gushing fashion statement, such as sky-high platforms. High-gloss shiny finishes, and sparkling rhinestones. But there is more reflection within the magnificent outer shell of a heart-wrenching strong powerful symbol. These heels are empowering; artistic tools and resilient ones in a world often negative to the profession and those who wear them.
A Platform for Expression.
First of all, stripper shoes are made to perform: These high shoes are very exciting. And they have exceedingly thick platforms measuring anything six to ten inches-and more-to allow dancers to spin themselves around a pole, drop themselves, and do floorworks in great stability and control. And yet, while the raised platform increases height, do not decrease the angle between the ball of the foot and heel, making them surprisingly comfortable compared to regular stilettos.
These shoes are also a canvas for self-expression; from neon colors and glitter to styles that are clear, lucite and catch the stage lights, they have an endless range of designs. The reason might be that the dancers are choosing shoes that reflect their unique personality, performance style, or mood. The heel is a prop but is not just an extension of identity.
Strength Behind the Shine
Then, this is something very important to be understood: the strain of wearing, and dancing in stripper shoes heels. Whiling away the hours walking around in such shoes, moving confidently in and out of shoes with high and narrow heels-as might be worshipped in runways and editorial pages of the mainstream fashion-is never a very glorious place to be in. Heavy exercise focuses on developing the body core strength, flexibility, and coordination for pole dancers and stripper shoes.
In fact, most of the professional pole dancers will wear these shoes while training them to prepare themselves for the real game outside the club. You imagine performing an exercise and going through all those motions in an environment where you are battling nature’s weight yet not wearing any ankle weights. Thus, these heels become training equipment and not only performance shoes.
And here, too, heels give the sense of power. Walking tall, literally, changes posture, attitude, and presence. For many dancers, slipping into their heels is almost like putting on one’s superhero costume-it announces an attitude switch to confidence, grace, and complete command of the stage.
Not Just a Fad
It has, however, graduated to enter into mainstream fashion and pop culture. Most of the high fashion designers and celebrities have imported aesthetic wedge forms of exotic dancewear into high fashion. Cardi B, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna have all walked down the various versions of a platform stripper shoes heel, blurring the lines between strip-club style and red carpet couture.
This crossover has both empowering facets and disorienting factors. It glamorizes the unabashed and fierce confidence that stripper shoes fashion encapsulates; at times, it consequently displaces the origins of these trends, serving to erase the labor of the sex workers who pioneered them. So we have to appreciate this style while giving recognition to the community that birthed it.
A Need to Break Stereotypes
Equally important is breaking the stigma surrounding these heels and the women who wear them. Too often, these shoes have been placed under the microscope of sexualization and moral judgment. But the closer one sees artistry, athleticism, with an acute understanding of performance dynamics.
For example, burlesque and pole dance competitions nowadays include a category specifically for exotic or “heel” dance styles, acknowledging the technical skill it requires to dance in them. While this legitimizes the form of dance, it also effectively rewrites the story concerning what those heels stand for.
Walking Toward Empowerment
At the bottom, it all comes down to choice: to wear stripper shoes, to walk in them, or to self-identify in a world often quick to label. This reality is empowering for many stripper shoes. These shoes empower them to stake their claim in the space, dictate their choreography, and exude their sexual autonomy.
