The History of Heels | The Military Tech That Became Women's Most Impractical Shoe

Men invented high heels. Men made them a power symbol. Then men decided women should wear them instead. Classic.

In this episode of For the Love of History, we're uncovering the surprisingly bloody, surprisingly spicy history of high heels — and it starts not in a shoe store, but on a Persian battlefield.

From the cavalry soldiers of the Safavid Empire who used heels to stay mounted while firing arrows at full gallop, to the Sun King Louis XIV, who weaponized fashion to control the French nobility, to the Victorian photographers who turned heels into a symbol of femininity and desire — this is the story of how one piece of military technology completely changed its meaning over 1,000 years.

We'll cover:

👠 How Persian cavalry invented the heel as a tool of war (and empire-building)

👠Why European men adopted heels as the ultimate masculine status symbol

👠The androgynous fashion movement of the 1630s — and why men were furious about it

👠How Victorian erotica transformed heels into something else entirely

👠The engineering problem that took centuries to solve: the stiletto

👠Why heels disappeared after the French Revolution — and what brought them roaring back

Plus: why did men's fashion get so boring? And who is really to blame for uncomfortable shoes?

Whether you're a fashion history lover, a weird history fan, or just someone who has ever cursed at a pair of stilettos, this one's for you.