High-Heel Power

"Roll out the red carpets."

"I'm 5ft 3in and need every inch of my Christian Louboutin heels to look my male colleagues in the eye. If high heels were banned in Westminster, no-one would be able to find me."

— Mrs. Nadine Dorries, MP (Tory)

Out of all types of shoes, high heels are perhaps the ones most associated with women, and as a result, are often seen as symbols of femininity. However, this does not always mean that this translates into Women Are Delicate. In fact, sometimes it can imply the opposite. A woman in heels can wear heels and still be badass, competent, and in charge. Whether she's an Action Girl, a competent Girl Friday, someone's boss, a lawyer, or any combination of the above, chances are good that when she comes walking in, it will be in a pair of high heels.

There could be a multitude of reasons why this is the case. One is that by putting on heels a woman becomes taller, and therefore, more authoritative. Another is that the stride created by high heels, when done at a quick pace, can go beyond being just a Supermodel Strut and actually look very commanding but in a distinctly feminine way. A third reason may stem from the fact that heels are often accepted feminine footwear in most professional settings, especially when paired with a pencil skirt or other business attire, which results in a lot of women in positions of authority wearing them in the workplace (making it varying Truth in Television).

The trend for high heels can also depend on zeitgeist and the state of the economy. It is said that in an economic downturn, such as The Great Depression, The '70s, and the dot-com bubble burst and the recession at both ends of the Turn of the Millennium, high heels are on a rise as a means of flamboyance and escapism. Heels go lower or even flat if the economy is stable and comfortable. If a woman wears high heels when the economy is stable or growing upward, it can be an expression of dominance and sex appeal.

Often part of a Feet-First Introduction, along with Leg Focus. Sibling trope to Combat Stilettos, though for this trope the woman doesn't have to be an Action Girl to be displaying High Heel Power. She can simply be good at what she does or be in some position of authority. A must for a Lady in a Power Suit, one of the many cases in which High Heel Hurt probably won't apply. Compare High-Heeled Feet.

While it's certainly not unknown for men to wear tall shoes in order to appear taller, that tends to have quite different connotations. Since the kind of shoes in question here used to be part of male fashion, as exemplified by King Louis XIV of France, and are nowadays part of female fashion, trope examples tend to be Always Female. The obvious exception is the male Crossdresser of all persuasions, who likes high heels for the same reasons women do, and may kick just as much ass in them. For him, though, the heels can be a mixed blessing for increasing his height, with tallness usually considered unfeminine past a certain point—he probably doesn't want to be One Head Taller than his boyfriend (or even girlfriend, if he's straight) when in drag. Tall women face the same dilemma, and so likewise often tend to prefer lower heels. This is often especially true for Transgender persons, for whom conspicuous tallness may likewise be a cause of Pass Fail.

Tread carefully when adding examples that doesn't violate the No Lewdness, No Prudishness policy, as high heels are prone to Fanservice.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Aggretsuko: Washimi has this in spades. She wears high heels, and easily dominates her boss, the company president (not sexually: she just shuts down his foolish ideas).
• Esdeath from Akame ga Kill! who combines this with Combat Stilettos and Minidress of Power, basically Dressed Like a Dominatrix. She's always wearing high-heeled boots and is a sadistic high-ranking general, as well.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: JoJolion takes the idea to its most bizarre application in Hato Higashikata's Stand Walking Heart, which makes her high heels her actual power.
• Kill la Kill: There are several close-ups on Satsuki Kiryuin's heels clicking before she makes a speech or does something badass. Same goes for her mother, Ragyo.
• My Hero Academia has a rather interesting example. Yaoyorozu and Uraraka are the most upfront Action Girls in their class, and their hero costumes involve them wearing high heels, even though they have to do lots of running and training on uneven/unpaved grounds (i.e the forest training camp) and wearing high heels in these areas isn't really the best choice. In some seasons, their high heels even make noticeable clicking noises during matches.
• Officer Jenny from Pokémon: The Series prior to the Unova seasons, wore high heels with her miniskirt officer uniform. Nowhere near practical for law enforcement, but they manage.

Films — Live-Action

• Turns out they even had them in the time of Beowulf (2007). While Hot in Human Form, Grendel's mother is shown shapeshifting her bare feet into High-Heeled Feet as she steps out of the water. They were added by director Robert Zemeckis, although Neil Gaiman acknowledged it was a nice touch as several mythological female demons have unnatural feet.
• Jurassic World has Claire, the head of the entire park and therefore the highest ranking member of the company we see beneath Simon Masrani, and in spite of Owen complaining that her "stupid shoes" are not optimal for surviving in a jungle with dangerous dinosaurs, makes it through the events of the film in heels.
• Carmen Miranda disguised her short height with fancy platform shoes, and was possibily a popularizer of those.
• One of the few male examples of this trope is Dr Frank N. Furter of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Very high heels, and he's both very charismatic, and murderous and dangerous. Although he does struggle to run in them...
• Star Trek Beyond has the heeled◊ (though not in an exaggerated way) Boots of Toughness worn by Jaylah.
• Wonder Woman 1984. Barbara's admiration for Diana is emphasized by how she has difficulty walking and working in heels, while the confident warrior Diana can (Diana's shown stumbling while wearing heels during the Costume-Test Montage in the first movie, but that was back in 1918). After her Dreamstone-induced personality change, Barbara is seen buying a pair of tall, sparkly heels as part of a full makeover, and the first sign of her powers is when she nimbly jumps onto a stepladder to avoid a spilled wash bucket.

Literature

• Discworld: Adora Belle Dearheart from Going Postal and its sequels Making Money and Raising Steam wears high-heeled shoes and is well known for her stern, tough attitude. In her first appearance she makes good use of her high heels against a lecherous drunk by putting one through his foot and threatening to put the other one through his crotch.
• Domino Lady is a Proto-Superhero who uses sex appeal as one of her main weapons, and her high-heeled shoes are as much a part of her Iconic Outfit as her evening gown slit to the hip.

Live-Action TV

• Breaking Bad: Lydia is always seen wearing a pair of blue or black pumps. They receive a lot of focus when she's walking through the New Mexico desert or tiptoeing around dead bodies, showing how at odds her OCD businesswoman side is with the more brutal side of her business.
• Burn Notice features Fiona who's always carrying a gun (or a rifle) and is more than capable of kicking some ass in heels.
• Castle: Detective Kate Beckett typically wears 4-inch heels at work, which have more than once been described as "brutal" and "impractical". She admits to wearing them in order to appear more physically imposing to her (mostly male) co-workers; it's easier for her to be taken seriously when she's literally looking down at them.
• Lucifer (2016): Charlotte Richards is seen wearing high heels at all times. She ends up towering over almost every other member of the cast which, combined with her no-nonsense attitude, makes her appear both formidable and intimidating.
• Runaways (2017): While Nico and Tina are spying on Morgan La Fey, Nico remarks, "Forget about magic, I just want her to teach me how to walk like that in heels..."

Music

• The topic of Beyoncé's song "6 Inch", which introduces a strong working woman first through the sheer height of her shoes.
  Six-inch heels, she walked in the club like nobody's business.
  Goddamn, she murdered everybody and I was her witness.

Music Videos

• Gender-Inverted by Jo kwon from 2AM in his music video for Animal. He performs the choreography in six-inch heels.
• The Music Video for Panic by Lucy stars a giantess in a pair of scarlet stilettos and a matching minidress. All throughout the video she asserts her dominance over the love-struck lead singer by toying with him as he tries to serenade her. By the end she seems to come around after he gives her a ring and seemingly getting engaged to her. Only for her to assert her final act of dominance over him by licking her lips and eating him right then and there. Followed by yanking his guitar out of her mouth and burping loudly.
• "Miserable" by Lit: The Giant Woman is rocking a pair of 8-inch black platform stripper pumps. And despite spending much of the video as a Neutral Female and the Lust Object of the guys who are climbing all over her body it becomes clear that she was in control the whole time. In fact one instance is in fact demonstrated with her shoe. She has one of her pumps poised in the air while she lies on her stomach, and the guys are perched on top of it. Then without warning she casually shakes her foot, and the guys start to lose their balance and nearly fall off. And once she decides she's had her fun with the band and starts eating them, she's able to keep up with the guys no matter how fast they run, despite chasing them in these heels. And she's able to catch and swallow the guys with ease no matter how much they try to stop her.

Theatre

• Diana: The Musical: When discussing Diana's "revenge outfit", the planners consider that looking like "a bitch on wheels with six inch heels" would certainly scandalize the royal family.
• In Mean Girls, Alpha Bitch Regina George threatens to "grind you to sand" beneath her Loubitton heel in her song "World Burn".

Video Games

• Bayonetta is essentially High Heel Power: The Video Game. The titular anti-heroine is a gun-slinging Witch in high heels, that accessorizes her favorite shoes with a pair of matching pistols. Always strutting through her adventures like they were a fashion runway, Bayonetta is a woman that enjoys crushing her foes beneath her heels — sometimes literally, when she stomp-shoots them or summons a giant high-heeled foot to crush enemies. The game's very first images focused on a Feet-First Introduction, showing a stomping high heel with a smoking gun attached to it.
• Quite a few female characters in Fire Emblem wear high heels. They have no problem wearing them while fighting in a war.
• Genshin Impact has the Raiden Shogun, Ei. Her first cutscene encountering the Traveler has her stepping down on thin air, electricity cracking with every step until she unsheathes her sword from her chest, all while the camera ensures that you see her high heels, feminine stride and divine power.
• Samus Aran of Metroid fame's Zero Suit incorporates high heels in its design starting with Metroid: Other M. Super Smash Bros. takes it even further, starting in the fourth installment, by upgrading her to rocket heels. The games developed by MercurySteam go even further: not just her Zero Suit, but her actual Power Suit has heels added to its boots too in Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread. The rocket heels from Smash are the only time Samus' Zero Suit's heels aren't wedges.
• Several female characters in Mortal Kombat wear high heels (like princesses Kitana and Mileena), which seem strangely practical in combat.
• 2B, as well as every other YoRHa android in NieR: Automata, wear stilettos to accentuate their design. It certainly gives them a sense of power that they can use them in any terrain.
• Pictured atop this page is Ada Wong of the Resident Evil series, ever the Femme Fatale while casually fighting (or avoiding) genetically engineered monsters, jumping around rooftops with the aid of her Grappling-Hook Gun, infiltrating labs (in order to sell their research to the highest bidder) and always in high heels.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Rouge the Bat wears a pair of white high heeled-boots adorned with hearts at the base to further emphasize her sex appeal. To a lesser extent, Blaze The Cat wears a pair of high heeled shoes. Not very practical for a character meant to run quick, but fitting considering she's a princess from the Sol Dimension.
• Super Mario Bros.: The major human girls of the series (Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, and Pauline) each wear a very nice pair of colorful and matching pumps in their normal attire. Peach's are either light pink or a magenta/red, Daisy's are orange, Rosalina's is silver to match her silver crown, while Pauline's are distinct ankle-strapped black pumps. Peach and Daisy have been shown to possess other pairs of nice pumps for other outfits, such as their doctors' outfits from Dr. Mario World (both have white pumps), along with two of Peach's outfits from Super Mario Odyssey (namely those Mario Kart Tour identifies under the "Vacation" and "Wedding" codenames; both are also white (justified for the "Wedding" variant as white high heels are standard for brides), with the "Vacation" variant's pair looking like a white version of Pauline's).

Visual Novels

• Queen of Thieves: Vivienne the Femme Fatale wears high heels, complementing the "sexy and dangerous" vibe she cultivates.
• Sweet Enchantments: Liora, the boss of the titular cafe, is a calm, authoritative woman who wears high heels.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • Glynda Goodwitch is Professor Ozpin's second-in-command, being Beacon's deputy headmistress and combat instructor. She is an extremely strict, authoritive and feminine character, who wields a riding crop as her weapon; Glynda possesses of one of the most powerful Semblances in the entire show, and wears some of the highest heels of any female character. When she's angry, the sound of her heels become very loud and clipped, such as when she's introduced heels-first during the Volume 2 finale, destroying Grimm right and left with dismissive flicks of her weapon. After Volume 3, she replaces Ozpin as Beacon Academy's headmistress and the leader of Vale's Huntsmen.
  • Cinder Fall is first introduced engaging in an extremely powerful magic-style battle with Glynda Goodwitch while her upper body and delicate dress remain in shadow and the camera focusses entirely on her legs and the glass-like tinkling of her high heels and ankle-bracelet. As The Heavy, Cinder is one of the most powerfully feminine characters in the show, wielding exceptional power despite her delicate, feminine appearance, and being the only subordinate of the Big Bad who has subordinates of her own. Her heels emphasise her commanding presence and domineering personality, but also hint at a troubled past. Inspired by Cinderella, her shoes are made of obsidian glass and flashbacks reveal that she learned the power and presence of a well-heeled power walk from the abusive stepmother who raised her.
  • Winter Schnee is one of Ironwood's best special operatives and his second-in-command, but her uniform is heavily feminised compared to other female Atlesian characters, including frilled jacket, delicate Schnee patterns and jewellery. The sound of her high-heeled boots is often used to emphasise her slow, deliberate power walks, especially where her dominance over Weiss or the Ace-Ops is displayed, or when she is leading Weiss to see the Winter Maiden. At the end of Volume 8, she becomes the Winter Maiden and de facto leader of the Atlesian people, putting her into direct conflict with the well-heeled and feminine villainous Maiden, Cinder.

Webcomics

• In Lady of the Shard, the Radiant Goddess and the Old God both appear wearing high heels.

Web Original

• A common sight on stock photo websites when searching for images related to power dynamics. Expect to find a lot of images of a Giant Woman about to crush a cowering guy under her high heels.

Western Animation

• Steven Universe has White Diamond, who wears extremely stylish high heels upon her Feet-First Introduction, and she asserts her dominance over Steven, or in her mind, Pink Diamond, by sending him to Pink's room before he can even barely speak. It's a thing that all gemkind, especially the bosslike Yellow, fear White Diamond.

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