My summer internship at a women’s health advocacy organization has presented many new challenges and experiences, but none quite as frustrating as the issue of footwear. As a college student who rarely ventures past the flip-flop or tennis shoe, working in DC has forced me to enter previously uncharted territory: the world of the high heel.

            High heels are a basic essential of the sophisticated, business casual look. Heels add height, subtract pounds, emphasize good posture, make legs seem longer and make that amazing clickety-clack noise that just screams I’m a professional, working woman. They not only change how others perceive you, but the way that you feel about your body and yourself. But at what price do these benefits come and is it worth it? As I limped home after my first day at work, blisters near bursting, this question was at the forefront of my mind.

            I realize that this isn’t a particularly new lament. Women have been facing the prospect of uncomfortable and unhealthy fashion for centuries, and complaining about it since feminism was born. The response to those complaints has classically been that fashion is not oppression, it’s liberation. It’s a tool that the modern woman uses to make herself feel confident and powerful, feminine but capable, and to make her look and feel her best when she walks into that board room or struts her stuff on Wall Street or K street or Fifth Avenue.

            That argument has worked in the past for some things. Take the word bitch, for example. This term, once exclusively derogatory, now has a feminist magazine title to its name and a place in the every day language of a generation of young women. In this way, women reclaiming and reveling in an instrument of oppression has turned it into something that, once hurtful, is now empowering.

            So the question then is: can this type of feminist empowerment be applied to the high heel? Can the positive effects that heels have on the way a woman feels about herself justify the pain that must be endured? I say no. The harm of the high heel is not just an occasional blister, callus or corn. It’s tendonitis, knee osteoarthritis, hammertoes, chronic knee pain and back problems. Unlike the hurtful meaning behind the word bitch, these harms cannot be erased or reversed by a new mindset or set of values; they require medication and surgery to correct.

            I know this stance doesn’t leave us ladies many options, and I’m not about to launch into a one woman crusade to rid the planet of stilettos and pumps. I will say, however, that fashion shouldn’t be only about looking good or even just feeling good, but doing both in a way that’s good for us.