High Heel (Object Lessons)

Best Fifteen Books of March 2019, Refinery29 Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Fetishized, demonized, celebrated, & outlawed, the high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them? Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity & the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairytale, from foot binding to feminism, & from the golden ratio to glam rock. Summer Brennan considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire & struggle, sex & society, violence & self expression, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.“The Object Lessons project, edited by game theory legend Ian Bogost & cultural studies academic Christopher Schaberg, commissions short essays & small, beautiful books about everyday objects from shipping containers to toast. The Atlantic hosts a collection of ‘mini object-lessons’. . . . More substantive is Bloomsbury’s collection of small, gorgeously designed books that delve into their subjects in much more depth.” — Cory Doctorow, Boing BoingSummer Brennan is a journalist & author. She received the 2016 Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award & was a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NY University. Her first book, The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America (2015) was a finalist for the 2016 Orion Book Award. A longtime consultant for the United Nations, her writing has appeared in NY Magazine, S A PopMatters Best Nonfiction Book of The Year, 2019 A Refinery29 Best Book of March 2019 A Paste Magazine Best Book of March 2019 Fetishized, demonized, celebrated, and outlawed, the high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them? Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity and the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairytale, from foot binding to feminism, and from the golden ratio to glam rock. Summer Brennan considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire and struggle, sex and society, violence and self expression, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things, published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic . Best Fifteen Books of March 2019, Refinery29 Best Nonfiction Books of 2019, Paste Magazine Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Fetishized, demonized, celebrated, and outlawed, the high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them? Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity and the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairytale, from foot binding to feminism, and from the golden ratio to glam rock. Summer Brennan considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire and struggle, sex and society, violence and self expression, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic . Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Fetishized, demonized, celebrated and outlawed, the high heel is central to the iconography of modern womanhood. But are high heels good? Are they feminist? What does it mean for a woman (or, for that matter, a man) to choose to wear them? Meditating on the labyrinthine nature of sexual identity and the performance of gender, High Heel moves from film to fairytale, from foot binding to feminism, and from the golden ratio to glam rock. It considers this most provocative of fashion accessories as a nexus of desire and struggle, sex and society, setting out to understand what it means to be a woman by walking a few hundred years in her shoes. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic . High Heel Is A Dive Into The Labyrinthine Nature Of Modern Womanhood And Sexual Politics, With The World's Most Provocative Fashion Accessory As Its Point Of Entry-- The Garden Of Forking Paths -- Daphne In Flight, Daphne In Flower -- Ashes, Sea Foam, Glass, Gold -- The Minotaur -- A Goddess At The End Of The World. Summer Brennan. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 157-160) And Index. "High Heel is a dive into the labyrinthine nature of modern womanhood and sexual politics, with the world's most provocative fashion accessory as its point of entry"--$$c Provided by publisher "High Heel is a dive into the labyrinthine nature of modern womanhood and sexual politics, with the world's most provocative fashion accessory as its point of entry"-- Résumé de l'éditeur