Aww what's your beef with flip flops? They're convenient, comfortable and can look really cute!

The Goddess writes: "Personally, I find you suspect if you wear flip-flops as footgear in any venue that does not have sand, a pool, or shower tiles."

You should probably avoid Florida, Amy. If I'm not at work, I'm in flip-flops, period. When I had a two-week vacation, I didn't leave the area, but I didn't wear anything but flip-flops on my feet for the entire time.

Personally, I think closed-toed shoes are bad for our feet. Man has existed for thousands of years without cushioned soles, arch supports, etc. Nowadays, we treat our feet like they're delicate as porcelain. Fine dishware is not wrapped so securely as we wrap our feet. I'd work out barefoot if my gym would let me. Obviously, they won't, so I make a compromise with a very minimalist shoe. Our feet were designed to work and support our bodies, not be wrapped in walking casts, which is what the typical cross-trainer amounts to.

My gym is still not wild about my choice of shoe, which actually has independent toes, but I would rather lift weights with my feet doing what they were designed to do. We're apt to atrophy if we keep treating our feet like fragile crystal.

And the pirate cows who drive their cars right into telephone poles would agree!

I think it's highly suspicious that there are uniformed agents hanging round the airport who claim to have authority to molest every passenger.

Amy,

Wouldn't flip-flops be logical? I mean, if you've got to take them on & off at the whim of TSA, why bother with real shoes?

Hairy toe knuckles are unappealing. Shoes came with civilization. No need to go backward. And if you're wearing flip-flops through the TSA, this means you're going barefoot. Ick. I wear socks over my socks.

"if you've got to take them on & off at the whim of TSA, why bother with real shoes?"

Going naked also would be in order but this likewise is problematic.

I suspect that "I saw this woman in blue feeling up granny, is that suspicious enough?" would not go over well with The Stupid Agency.

I have to write the last few paragraphs now, which is SCARY.

Just one more push, and you'll have your delivery right on schedule. It'll be a walk in the cake![*]

[*] one of my more favorite mixed metaphors

Shoes are pretty inconvenient at the airport. I'm holding a baby, so I need to do everything one-handed. I hadn't even considered flip-flops. Now I'm going to run out and get a pair! I can wear them with socks. Yay!

I have fuck-me flip flops, properly known as chanklas. 4 inch wedge heel, covered in gems. I don't work, so I'm flip flops or nothing unless I'm at the gym or in lab at school. And often even barefoot at the gym, in yoga.

I do not have hairy toes. And why get a fun gemcovered pedicure if you aren't going to show them off?

Suspicious activity at an airport: What about all the people giving up their Fourth Amendment rights just to fly.

My objection to shoes is not aesthetic or convenient. I object to them because with this inclination to overprotect our feet, the muscles in them and the calves -- which are intended to work -- are atrophying.

The shoes that are designed to be worn in the gym shouldn't be worn by anyone who doesn't have broken bones in their feet.

When the trainers in my gym objected to the shoes I wore, they said that they wouldn't protect me if I dropped a weight. I countered by suggesting that I drop the weight I plan to use on their foot, to see how well their cross-trainers would protect them.

They don't talk about my shoes any more.

Have you ever seen a really buff guy at the gym, who looks good from the knees up, but has matchsticks below the knees. He'll tell you it's genetic, but the reality is he probably strapped his feet in walking casts all his life.

Cross-trainers are the corsets of the 20th and 21st centuries.

And I telephoned a pirate to take a pole to your car and see if that leaves you sufficiently cowed.

HAH!! I have pirate flip-flops! Got the skull and crossbones on 'em!!

o.O

I love Amy to death. (If she ever gets callously kicked to the curb by another gay guy, it won't be this one.) But Amy seems to be the "anti-foot fetishist."

Does anyone else remember a post of hers a long time ago, in which she described a person who sat across the aisle from her on a plane who took off his shoe and massaged his foot.

Which Amy described as "masturbating his foot."

I concede that his actions were at least uncouth, but hardly illegal. Perhaps if his foot hurt or was cramping, his actions might have been justifiable. In any event, I never saw it as anything worth making a case out of.

I also despise flip-flops and it seems like at least 90% of people wearing them have really nasty feet.

Maybe I just got lucky because I was flying at 28 weeks pregnant, but at PDX I didn't have to take off my shoes or be felt up, just place my bags on the xray belt and walk through the metal detector. It was like the security of 20 years ago. During the 45 minutes I was in the security lines I only saw a handful of people pulled aside to be patted down and very few people took off shoes. I casually commented to one of the screeners that I was expecting more involved screenings like I'd gotten at other airports and was told they'd received a lot of harassment and complaints from travelers as well as lawsuits so they've backed off on screenings to cut down on complaints. Flying back from Rome I didn't have to take anything off or even be xrayed. They were only concerned with looking at anything electronic in your carry-on including cords. Then when we get to Newark we had to go through the full everything for searches and security and I got into an argument about going in the nudie scanner while pregnant (they don't allow you to opt out) and after 30 minutes of standing there a supervisor showed up to molest me and insist I prove my baby bump was real pregnancy and not some prosthetic belly. The even more maddening part was that we had gone from Rome to Newark, gone through customs, and straight into an area for international connections. There was no way to have gone anywhere but inside this closed, secured area so it's beyond me why we were subjected to such stringent and demeaning screenings again.

Note to Amy: DON'T watch the episode of Pawn Stars where Chumlee makes wine!

Note to all: I doubt you mind flip-flops on a Victoria's Secret model.

I'm with Amy on this one 100 percent.

Note to all: I doubt you mind flip-flops on a Victoria's Secret model. -- Radwaste at July 12, 2013 6:23 AM

On the runway, yes. On a beach going back to my hotel room, different story.

Amy: "And sorry, Katie, but regarding the appeal for the eye of flip-flops, there's a reason there's no such thing as "fuck-me flip flops."'

Hmm, now you mention it, I cannot remember ever finding flip-flops sexy on a woman (it's not a turn-off, but it's not a turn-on either - just neutral). Heels, sometimes. But what I really find sexy, for some inexplicable reason, is a good pair of sexy boots on a woman, especially if the mid/upper legs are showing.

Other than that, I'm totally neutral on feet - they neither turn me on, nor does it bother me to see them - but apparently feet are the most common fetish - so it might be a genuine case of each to their own.

@Patrick "Cross-trainers are the corsets of the 20th and 21st centuries"

What type of shoes do you recommend for training / walking / running etc.? I've always struggled to put on calf muscle, now you have me wondering if it's the shoes.

> it's not a turn-off

Except for Crocs, those are just ugly.

Not a big fan of running, but if it's your preferred activity, I recommend these.

And some people do actually run barefoot.

My gym demands I wear a shoe when I workout, even though I think that holding and balancing weights barefoot is better for my calves, so I compromise with these.

How did we get from airport security to flip-flops?