Fish Out of Water

Walk A Mile in Heels. No Thank You!

Downtown San Jose was buzzing with people on Monday when they hosted the event in which males would wear high heels. This is symbolizing what it would be like to walk a mile in women’s shoes.

The YWCA put on the event and this was their 7th time holding it and is looking to keep going strong. It was held on April 22, 2009 and it was to support, and promote sexual assault awareness.

Confusion was my first reaction because I have never experienced something like this, mainly because I do not really attend events of this nature. I also am not a huge fan of downtown areas in big cities so I get tense when there is a lot of people I do not know and large buildings all around.

The crowd was buzzing with eagerness to start the walk, which started at Plaza de Ceaser Chavez. This is where I observed the event and was fairly surprised at how many people showed up. At this location I ended up running into a lady named Heidi Lawson whom was a guest in our PR 193 class and Works for the YWCA as the Community Relations Manager.

Along with confusion I was kind of excited seeing as I do enjoy new things and seeing a bunch of men walking in heels is pretty amusing to see. A few of the men participating looked very uncomfortable, and for good reason seeing as high heels are made for the slim foot of a woman.

The volunteers were very nice and knowledgeable about the event and were able to point me in the right direction when I had questions. Going to the event alone was not a bad idea because it forced me to go out and meet people and the other people at the event were very friendly.

There were a lot of families that attended the event meaning more specifically there were more children there than I thought I would see. This was very impactful because this was showing that men were not just drug there by their wives.

I have felt the “fish out of water” feeling a lot when traveling to other countries and even states but this was a different feeling. The feeling I felt was more so one of emotion because I have never been to events like this and to see strangers in a community come together for a cause is extremely moving.