And throw on some heels! Daniel Sims, SEAS ’13, sent in evidence of new anti-stumble concrete being laid down on the steps.
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Bwog Staff on
Mar 17, 2010 
80 Comments
And throw on some heels! Daniel Sims, SEAS ’13, sent in evidence of new anti-stumble concrete being laid down on the steps.
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80 Comments
@wow this post = columbia university, exhibit A.
@Man I rest my case.
@Man Whoops. That should’ve been a reply to ‘lol’ above.
@Wait, really?! I can’t believe a bwog post about replacing the concrete on campus turned into a debate over gender roles. YOU ARE FIGHTING ABOUT HIGH HEELS PEOPLE!!! SHOES! Come on! I wear high heels because I’m like 5 feet tall and I like to see the world from a better angle. They’re like glasses, except things aren’t blurry without them, they’re just really, really high above my head. Any why shouldn’t I wear heels that represent my own, personal style? I’m not making a feminist statement or self-sexualizing; I’m just wearing a pair of shoes I like! Really, people! Like Tim Gunn said on Season 2 of Project Runway: “Lighten up, it’s just fashion!” Get over it! New concrete on campus means less people will fall. Awesome! The End.
Oh, bwog, you and your commentators are so amusing.
@Anonymous you sound like an idiot and miss the point entirely….high heels are so much more than just shoes
@Anonymous as evidenced by the many heated responses they created
@Wait, really?! No, I understood the arguments. I just disagreed with most of them. They are just shoes, in my opinion. And I was pointing out that the humor is not only in the fact that people are arguing whether or not high heels represent something far more than that, but the fact that a bwog post about new concrete had turned into such a heated debate over something entirely unrelated. And you had to call me an idiot over that; for voicing my opinion? Man, you people are harsh.
@wow to equate make-up with looking good is just ridiculous. make-up does not essentially equal beauty or sex appeal but only functions as such within the coded culture of our society. if there is any objective criteria for beauty it would have to be health, but even that depends somewhat on what our conception of healthy is.
you’re right, there isn’t anything wrong with a woman wanting to make herself attractive to someone. but high heels and makeup are only one way of doing it, and it is a method that is very much a relic of a time when women were much worse off. striving for sex appeal is great. striving for sex appeal by painfully walking on stilts so that your ass jiggles in a certain way is another thing. if that floats your boat, whatever, but don’t have any illusions that you’re on equal footing with the opposite sex while doing it (no pun intended).
seriously, i’m not going to tell anyone not to wear heels. lets just be frank about how they function in our society.
and finally, your last sentence demonstrates that you don’t know what heteronormative means. I suggest you look it up, or thing about it for just another second or something.
@Um. Are you kidding me? Make-up doesn’t make you look better? Have you ever seen Miley Cyrus sans make-up? *Shudders*
@Man What I meant by what I said above is that yes, in an ideal world we would all be attractive to the opposite sex in sweats and a t shirt. Petulance would be an aphrodisiac. Long woolly beards and hairy armpits would be in vogue. But since generally none of this is true, we (men and women) do little things to appear more appealing.
Yes, I’m sure high heels are painful. Not all women wear them–many of my friends don’t and they look fine. Not all men have six pack abs and chiseled chest muscles, because attaining them can be a mite uncomfortable. (I recognize that working out is healthy whereas high heels may not be, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make). All this is fine. But when a woman puts on high heels and make up, or a man opts to pay for dinner or the movie ticket, the extra effort goes a long way. I appreciate when women dress nicely just as much as I hope they do when I pay for a date or hold a door open.
@Antiquated Gender Roles I’m off to go find a rich dude in my fuck-me heels. He’ll take care of my medical bills when I develop knee osteoarthritis.
@I love you. ’nuff said.
@Man To each his/her own. Luckily there are plenty of people for guys like me and plenty of people for women like you. But in a world where it’s weird unless the male proposes marriage to the female and facebook groups like “I’m the girl. You’re the boy. You text me first or we don’t talk today.” has over a million fans, feminism and gender roles are not only about the oppression of women by the male population. Personally I’m ok with the status quo, as is the vast, if not outspoken, majority. Granted, I’m not expected to wear high heels. But men still have societal expectations placed on them that I don’t mind subscribing to.
In response to “high heels,” self-sexualization is biologically hardwired into our psychology, male and female, so calling for the abandonment of high heels and make up on the grounds that sex appeal is not something to strive for is unwarranted. If you choose not to wear them, more power to you. But I know I’m not alone in thinking that it’s nice when a woman changes out of her sweats and puts on some make up.
Also, i acknowledge the heteronormativity of my post. I can only speak from the perspective of a heterosexual.
@You Are so right. I’m so tired of hearing feminists bitch about how chivalry is dead. Ironic, much?
@lol “changes out of her sweats and puts on some makeup”
LOL yes, as if those are the only possible ways a female can dress. either she’s wearing makeup, or she’s bumbling about in sweatpants and sweatshirts. you, sir, are an idiot. last I checked there are all sorts of ways that a woman can make herself look attractive (to herself or the desired sex)–and a lot of those ways dont include make-up and high heels! stop acting like putting on high heels and makeup is the only way a woman can really be “appreciated” or appear “attractive”–if that shit matters so much to you, maybe you should date a fucking blow up doll.
@Man I never said that high heels and make up are the only way for a woman to make herself look attractive. I’ve said earlier that I have many female friends who, in my opinion, look great no matter what they’re wearing. I am merely making the point that if a woman elects to wear high heels or put on make up, this is not “oppression of women,” and I personally appreciate when they do. I also appreciate when women go to any other effort to look nice. (This is not to say they can’t look nice naturally, but rather when they put in extra effort it marks the occasion as special).
And like I said, “to each his/her own.” Nobody’s forcing you to wear high heels. And saying things like I’m an “idiot” and that I should “date a blow-up doll” are offensive and invalidate your argument, as does misinterpreting my argument to set up a false dichotomy.
@lol wait, so i can’t make a half-joking remark about how you should date a blow up doll (i mean, the bulk of what you’re saying you appreciate centers around women’s appearances, amirite?) because they are ‘offensive’ and ‘invalidate my argument’–but you, on the other hand, can make offensive statements (perhaps a joke?) about how a woman who doesn’t wear high heels or make-up should thereby expect you to fart freely in front of them? nice double standards there!
i guess by your logic, you’ve invalidated your own arguments :D
@Man What I said earlier was meant to be funny (to some), but it still illustrated my point: that some feminists set their own double standards. Your use of invective was a personal affront, attacking my character rather than my argument. So, no, I didn’t invalidate my own argument.
@lol except–you totally created a straw-man argument. since when did “feminists” say that they weren’t going to wear high heels and thereby expected men not to fart in front of them? when did anyone in this discussion say they thought high-heels were negative in any other way yet at the same time they wanted men to pay for their meals?
your whole straw man argument not only invalidates (omg! your favorite word!) your argument, but its kind of offensive to assume the people discussing on this board feel that way. DURR
and also-blow up dolls are funny, if they aren’t funny to you and seem to strike such a chord, then, well.. that sounds like a personal problem :P
@Man Ugh. If anything, the flaws you point out are begging the question, not straw man fallacy. (I would argue that since I referred to “societal expectations” it should have been clear I wasn’t attacking any commenter’s argument in particular.) Since this is an informal discussion, I should be free to make a statement, as I did, and then respond to criticism. If this discussion has devolved to semantics, however, I won’t interested in continuing it.
Someone has to speak for the status quo.
@lol you’re ‘speaking for the status quo’ by ‘making jokes’ about ‘double standards’ that you believe feminists must ‘have’, despite the lack of any actual sort of proof that feminists seem to believe the things you claim they believe. and on top of that you’re stating your own personal tastes in regard to what you ‘appreciate’ in women.
yes, uh huh, sure. you’re definitely speaking for the status quo. what a noble and important role you have taken on. LOL. don’t kid yourself. you’re just arguing on the internet, sharing with us your intimate fantasies about what you want women to do for you on dates, and arguing against about fake arguments that no one has made. then you start boo-hooing all over the place when i make a blow-up doll. LMAO. speaking for the status-quo my ass, you’re just another internet turd who has to sit around and shit all over “feminism” because LOL ZOMG u luv it when girls wear high heels.
@lol oopsies
*arguing against fake arguments
*make a blow-up doll joke
@high heels thanks for your lecture on fashion as art; i guess i’m trying to support an image that discomfort/pain isn’t beautiful (and no matter what anyone says there is no such thing as comfortable heels for walking/living, maybe for standing for five minutes while you wait for your limo….) and i will try to ignore your blatantly heteronormative statement that \men couldn’t give a damn whether chartreuse or cerulean is more “in” this season…\
@high heels sorry supposed to be a response to the lesbian above
@bwog is truly on spring break. No new posts in DAYS!!! Spectrum is killing them right now. Cmon Bwog, 2 new articles today , u can do it!
@Seriously Bwog, I love you. I really do. But spectrum has been posting multiple new articles every day over spring break and you guys haven’t done anything.
COMPETE! DO SOMETHING!
@bwog they did it!
@... spectrum is like web 2.0 whoring at its finest.
first off: they have the word “BETA” in their header image. a BETA blog? wtf?!
second off: they pretty much ripped off gawker hook, line and sinker with those cute little colored boxes containing snarkisms of exclamation above each post…
@wow let the “feminism thing” rest? who the fuck are you? if anybody ever listened to people like you women wouldn’t have the right to vote. Hell, I bet like a quarter of them would get beaten by their husbands some day and another quarter would be raped. Oh wait, thats the world we live in.
maybe we can “let the feminism thing rest” when people stop saying fucked up shit like
“Women who refuse to wear make up and high heels are fine as long as they don’t mind me letting my gut hang out, scratching myself, and farting in front of them.”
haha. go fuck yourself.
its not the Reagan era anymore shitheads, this sort of blatantly misogynistic shit just doesn’t fly. You all sound like pricks.
I’m a guy at columbia by the way. you don’t need to be female to have some fucking respect.
@why don’t you go read “Man’s” response. It pretty much sums up all anybody can say to you.
@yerk “Man’s” response is kinda despicable. I’m going to counter by saying to this “guy at columbia”: Hear, hear!
@actually no, “man” is right. Feminism is a two-way street.
@high heels um you definitely are barnard aren’t you?
why can’t you people just let the feminism thing rest?
@high heels why does it bother you so much that i want to change the expectations of women? you are probably a small insecure boy who’s still pissed at some “dumb bitch” who dumped him freshman year. and this issue is not just for women… men too could benefit a lot from a redefining of our narrow construction of masculinity. so you shouldn’t just dismiss anything resembling feminism as barnard nonsense
@Anonymous While I get your goal, speculating that high heels is probably a small insecure boy etc totally discredits anything you say or rathe write.
@high heels you might say you wear them for yourself and you might even believe that, but it’s just the result of our culture teaching girls from the day they are born that their beauty and sexual appeal are probably the most important assets for them in this world. yes, even the brilliant columbia girls are victims of this self sexualization, like look at anygirl who has ever put on makeup. if she says that it’s \for her\ and that \she feels better with makeup on\ it’s just because she has learned that in her life she gets more positive attention when she makes herself look a certain way. guys aren’t expected to wear makeup and their species has survived…. So i still believe that high heels are a prison and makeup too! lets free the women of columbia !!! outlaw high heels !
@... oh, barnard
@Anonymous Commenter: +2 awesomeness
Everything is a “prison” if you think of it that way.
@high heels no, because a prison is stifling and not everything in our culture is horrible. high heels are not healthy
@Right, only Barnard has feminists. And feminists are to be scoffed at. Thanks, asshole. Thanks.
@you're a douche nozzle.
@Man Women who refuse to wear make up and high heels are fine as long as they don’t mind me letting my gut hang out, scratching myself, and farting in front of them.
@aw poor oppressed man-creature
@Woman You know, I enjoy letting my gut hang out, scratching myself and farting as well. These are simple human pleasures that know no gender. There is an expectation that I will restrain these urges in public just like you. However, I’m also expected to wear makeup and spanx on top of it.
@lol if some guy ever told me i had to wear high heels or else he’d fart in my face, then you know what–i probably would put on those high heels
and then proceed to stab him directly into his nether regions so as to insure these kinds of people just don’t breed :D
@lol stab with said high heels of course
WHOS DISCOMFORTED NOW BITCH
@they're obviously doing this just in time to accept another batch of students. It’ll be ready in time for Days on Campus, for sure
@... they’re obviously doing this just in time to replace damaged cement when foot traffic is low and the weather is cooperative.
@tv um my volume went out on my cbs (march madness), anybody else?
@Anonymous stream it online. I hate how CBS owns the tournament.
Streaming through espn 360 is sooo much better when it’s a non-tournament game.
@tv yeah thats what im doing just pissed that my volume just went out on my cbs even though other channels are still working, anybody else on campus having same problem?
@high heels are embarrassing and imprisoning for women. any girl who wears them and thinks she looks hot is an idiot. be comfortable!!! it’s way more attractive
@... what if they are comfortable? what then?
(yes, they exist.)
@alum Some of us wear them for ourselves, you know, not to impress anyone. I personally love the feel of my body in heels. Each to their own.
@lesbian feminist some women do enjoy getting dressed up for their own sakes. nice clothes and shoes can be very pretty. isn’t beauty/design for beauty’s sake a large basis of art? why do you assume women only enjoy looking nice for the sake of men? (I’m going to ignore the blatant heteronormativity of your comment for now, since you clearly haven’t met any femme lesbians)
most straight men don’t notice the fine difference between last season’s fashions or this season’s fashions or what’s in versus what’s out. but some women are very interested in these sorts of things and follow fashion blogs, buy the latest whatevers. it isn’t for men, men couldn’t give a damn whether chartreuse or cerulean is more “in” this season or whether your boots match your bag or whether your eyeshadow is gold or pink.
yes, you could say that implicitly, all attempts to look attractive are unconscious attempts to make ourselves look more desirable to the desired sex. sexual selection is a part of nature and a pathway to evolution. why is that harmful? and men do the exact same thing, you know, even straight men. they don’t express it by wearing makeup or heels, but they try to wear flattering clothes, get a nice haircut, shave, etc.
abandoning traditionally feminine attire is not the point of feminism. the point is for equality and free choice so a women can wear pants and sneakers or a skirt and heels and not be looked down upon either way
@yes it’s harmful if you’re putting yourself through large amounts of discomfort just for the sake of adhering to a norm of feminine attractiveness. i think that’s what the commenter is trying to say. and while i don’t agree with hir about all women being ‘imprisoned’ by high heels–hey, some people of all genders truly enjoy it, and they have every right to–i have encountered a lot of women who force themselves to do it and then whine ceaselessly about how uncomfortable and painful it is for them, which is pretty unfortunate, and I think in that case they should just give up trying to attain the whole ‘sexy-high-heels-image’ and wear what they like.
one more thing- i don’t think zhe is being ‘heteronormative’ in that comment–zhe didn’t even mention men, really. perhaps zhe may have implied that women wear high heels to look attractive to men, but still, that doesn’t mean zhe’s being heteronormative– i think it’s at least arguable and perhaps even true that the image of an attractive woman in high heels with her ass swaying about left and right (heels make your ass move in a certain way that many find to be sexually provocative) IS a product of a patriarchal society and feeds into patriarchal notions of femininity. Doesn’t mean that all women put on high heels just to please men, but those kinds of power dynamics still exist.
@high heels thanks for your lecture on fashion as art; i guess i’m trying to support an image that discomfort/pain isn’t beautiful (and no matter what anyone says there is no such thing as comfortable heels for walking/living, maybe for standing for five minutes while you wait for your limo….) and i will try to ignore your blatantly heteronormative statement that \men couldn’t give a damn whether chartreuse or cerulean is more “in” this season…\
@ummm I don’t think we want bwog to change into spectrum, we want bwog to go back to the bwog that was 2 years ago…like if bwog made a mistake…it would check itself and let us know it made a mistake…ya dig!?!??
@Bwog does still do that! See the comment from Anish (Bwog Staff) like six lines up. Don’t hate.
@crisis is this a crisis over at bwog?
@Bwog i love you dont ever change into spectrum even if every1 is telling u to
@The International Drew I don’t understand why they just don’t install granite. Surely there’s a wealth of foreclosed countertops that can be cannibalized for our purposes.
@Yep, nothing like cannibalistic granite countertops.
@Anonymous c-c-c-c-c-oncrete b-b-b-b-b-b-rick
@YES!!!!!! this is the best news i’ve heard all break!!! i was doing the walk of shame this past saturday morning across campus in heels, plus that torrential downpour….once i hit low, shit just fell a part. thank god for this.
@that's embarrassing. i feel bad for you
@Bwog concrete not brick, way to go again, this is dispicable
@tee hee your spelling is too ;)
@Anish D’oh, my bad. It’s fixed!
@bwog you should have included a before/after brick picture
@not yet they aren’t done yet, in fact, nothing has been replaced, only taken out
@... they’re replacing the concrete, not the bricks.
@had you seen that concrete? it was fucking disintegrating before our very eyes.
*prepares heels for spring*
@... yeah it was pretty awful
@wtf ” *prepares heels for spring* ”
what does that even mean?
@uhhh shoe repair? heel/sole replacements?
do you live under a rock?
@um No it was a stupid thing to put in asterisks.
@doi it connotes action. lurk moar.
@Anonymous When you walk on cracked concrete in heels, the heels can easily get stuck in/behind a rupture in the concrete, and then you stumble. She was saying that with the fixed concrete, she can easily wear heels on Low Plaza.
It’s cute when boys don’t understand anything.
@Anonymous Boys do. Idiots don’t.
It’s cute when b-faces make sexist generalizations.