cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

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Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

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From:

cahn

First on the list is: they don't wear high-heeled shoes. : D

HAHAHAHA omg that is amazing!

From:

selenak

It is, but it's also worth remembering that wearing high heeled shoes wasn't something coded as female in that era. If you check out full body portraits of Louis XIV, you'll note he's wearing them, and consequently so did a lot of his nobles (I guess not those who were naturally tall, but other than that).

(Meanwhile, Louis' cousin Charles II: naturally tall. Which made life dangerous for him when on the run from Oliver Cromwell as a young man.)

There's even an anecdote in Saint Simon (I think, could be another source) about a prank where one noble nailed another to the floor via driving nails into his heels. So "not wearing high heels" is something you would notice as a contemporary.

From:

luzula

Oh, totally! When

garonne and I were at Versailles and practising fashion history on all the paintings, high heels on men was one of the tells (shows if it's before or after about 1730). I remember an awesome 17th century painting where one guy had black shoes with bright red heels. *g*

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Well, that's exactly what made it so hilarious to me: that the 18th century was so big into high heels that it wouldn't occur to you *not* to wear them on your expeditions across difficult terrain!

From:

cahn

I didn't know that until now, but ha, yes, I did get that from

luzula's context :D But now I need to go check out Louis XIV, clearly!

But I still think it's hilarious that they're like "what could possibly make these guys more hardy than us?? We have no idea?? Oh wait! Maybe... it's... the high heels??"

Or, what

mildred_of_midgard said :D That is commitment!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Reminder of this discussion of Fritz's wedding, complete with heeled shoes for him (which still failed to make him taller than EC, something for which he probably never forgave her, amongst her other "faults").