Pointy shoes and fashion fads

Many years ago, as a young child, I was visiting my aunt. Her adult daughter happened to be home for a visit as well. I still remember sitting on the floor while she stood near me and seeing her bare feet.

They were deformed.

Her toes came to a point, with the big toes turned inward, and the outer toes twisted inwards to the point that the baby toe was actually on top of the one beside it, and that one was mostly on top of the next one. She had, literally, pointy feet.

On the way home, I asked my mother why my cousin's feet were like this. My mother explained that she had an office job and had to wear dress shoes all the time. At that time, the fashion for women's office wear included high heels and extremely pointy toes. She wore shoes like this for so long, her feet were permanently conformed to the shape.

It was at that young age that I decided I would wear comfortable shoes, only!

Sure, I did wear heels and pointy shoes on occasion, when I had a formal event to attend. I doubt I have ever worn them for more than 24 hours total in my entire life. Most of the time, I wore sensible shoes. Unfashionable, boring, comfortable, shoes.

The irony of this is that after injuring my feet, I no longer have the choice. I will never be able to wear anything higher than a 1/2 inch heel again - at least not if I want to be able to walk for the next week - and the narrow shoes designed for women have long since forced me to buy my shoes at the men's department. Since I almost never wore these fashionable women's shoes in the first place, it's never particularity bothered me.

I also very rarely see the displays of women's shoes anymore. Not only do I just go to the men's section for myself, it seems my daughters have inherited both my wide feet, and my husband's long ones. They also like to actually walk around without risk of breaking their ankles, so we tend to go to the boys' section to get shoes for them, too. Why girls' sandals all have to have high heels and sparkles is beyond me. And what's with putting high heels on girls' runners, for crying out loud! How stupid is that?

Lately, however, even I have noticed that pointy shoes are back. Today, the girls and I happened to walk through the women's shoe section in a department store. It was horrifying. Not only are pointy shoes back, but these toes are so long, they're starting to look like they should curl them back, like the shoes worn by Shriners in parades, to keep them out of the way. There's a reason pointy toes went out of fashion. Aside from the fact that they're butt ugly, they make women's feet look several inches longer than they really are.

Ironically, we saw that short shoes are also in. These shoes aren't just flat at the front - they've got this folded back sort of look to them, with rubbery raised areas. Talk about gross!

Then there were the really weird heels. I saw a pair of shoes with what looked like ordinary, practical, 1/2 inch heels - except in the middle of the heel a tiny high heel stuck out of what looked like a hole in the sole. Aside from being silly looking (assuming the heel could actually be seen while worn, as it was so tiny), the design was completely unstable. Even though the heel was rather low, they were twisted ankles, waiting to happen.

While waiting at the bus stop later on (and waiting... and waiting), we ended up standing near a woman who's fashionable shoes were so pointy, she looked like she had skis for feet. We saw other women wearing huge, clunky heels that were bigger than the shoes they were attached to.
I don't get it. Why do people even buy these? How can they be considered fashionable? I realize that different people have different tastes, but wearing something that can cause permanent damage to your body, or that puts you at risk of injury, just doesn't make any sense to me. They're also incredibly ugly. I mean, my "sensible shoes" are hardly attractive, but with the bizarre styles coming out now, they're starting to look good by default.

I just don't get it.

(edited for silly spelling mistakes that got missed by spellcheck)

Update:
Well, it seems women aren't the only ones to suffer silly shoes. Tonight, I was at a business meeting. I was sitting in the front row and the speaker was on a speaker's platform, so his feet were at a height where I couldn't miss them. They weren't pointy at all, but they extended several inches beyond the tips of his toes (I could tell by where they bent as he walked back and forth in front of me), ending in a squared off tip. They looked like business versions of clown shoes!