Pet Peeve

I enjoy living in Korea for the most part and I never want my blog to be one of those ones you read and think "Why do they stay there if they hate it?" But that said there are a few things that really bug me about Korea. I know that in comparison to world peace the things that bother me are only small and of no real consequence but still sometimes they grate on my nerves and like every other blogger I feel the need to vent.

In Korea my pet peeve involves a large number [a majority it seems] of Korean women and their shoes. The first part of my beef is that a lot of Korean women wear high heels EVERYWHERE. And, I do mean everywhere. I've even seen some women trying to climb mountains in their spike heels. They wear heels even with jeans or leggings and even with ragged jeans. See the photo with this posting if you need to see an example of this.

Eastern Asia and China in particular have a long history of women suffering foot pain and damage for fashion and looking at Korean women whining and mincing around in their shoes makes me feel that those days are not in the distant past. I know that I can't truly compare Chinese foot-binding to Korean women wearing high heels but there are some similarities. Both result in women suffering pain for fashion.

But that's not the most important part of my pet peeve. The thing that bugs me the most is that so many Korean women don't wear the strap on their sandals. They just shove their feet in their shoes and just let the heel strap flap in the air. It looks so messy and lazy. It makes me go crazy wondering "Why do they wear high heels to look good and then make it look messy and ugly by letting the strap flap around like that?" I just can't figure it out. Do they think it looks good? Is it because their feet hurt and they want to wiggle them around in their shoes? Is it just laziness? Koreans take off their shoes to enter houses and even some restaurants do they just get so used to kicking their shoes on and off that they no longer bother with the straps?

I don't know. As you can see I have spent a lot of time thinking about this and trying to figure it out. And, still I am no closer to an answer than when I first began. If any one can help enlighten me then please send me your comments. I'll post them. I am hopeful someone can help me solve this puzzle.

I took this picture on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 in Youngsan Electronics Market in Seoul, South Korea. The woman walking ahead of me was walking very slowly and lagging behind her friends and slowing down the people walking behind her [me included]. As you can see her left leg is lifted as she tries to adjust her shoe to make it more comfortable [or so I assume] but she still doesn't try to put the straps around her ankle and heel for extra support.

Also, she is wearing leggings and a ragged jean shirt so I am left wondering why she is wearing high heeled sandals in the first place. Heels don't exactly go with her outfit.