Flareup: I don't know, but when I find him, aarugh!
Let's say you've made a character. She's cool, she's fierce, but most importantly, she's feminine. Now what's a good way to get that across to the audience?
Maybe you make her hair long. Maybe you give her clothes. Or maybe you make her stacked like a snow fort. But what do you do if you either can't do any of that, or you have done all that and it's still not enough?
The answer: high heels. Because a woman is slightly bent over wearing this kind of accessory to maintain balance, it arches her hips in a manner that evokes sexual courting. And if it makes no sense for her to be wearing them, then you can evoke them through this trope.
In its simplest form, High-Heeled Feet is Exactly What It Says on the Tin; a being whose feet are arranged in such a way that they superficially resemble high-heeled shoes. Due to its nature, this trope is often used for beings that can't be justified as traditionally wearing shoes, such as robots, aliens, or monsters.
A common example of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics. Compare High-Heel Power. Compare Robot Hair, for another visual shorthand which is often used to code non-humans as feminine. Sub-Trope of Clothing Appendage that often falls under Rule of Sexy and Fanservice or Fan Disservice depending on the context. Overlaps with Combat Stilettos if the character in question is a physical fighter in spite of the high-heeled feet.
Examples:
- Bokurano: Zearth's legs resemble tall, high-heeled boots, oddly enough.
- Land of the Lustrous: After Phosphophyllite's arms are replaced with gold-platinum alloy, the substance spreads throughout Phos' body down into their feet, giving them high-heels.
- Beowulf (2007): Grendel's mother has these in her human form, despite otherwise looking like a beautiful woman, to invoke the Uncanny Valley.
- Gypsy's feet in A Bug's Life are shown to be shaped like high-heeled boots.
- In Planet 51, the female aliens have high-heel–like protrusions on their heels. In addition to fitting with their 1950s aesthetic, the movie's animators also found that it gave them a very feminine gait.
- Alien: The Alien Queen is usually portrayed as having high heel shaped feet, in comparison to the standard clawed feet of her subjects. She loses them in Alien vs. Predator due to it being the first film she's seen fighting in, subverting Combat Stilettos.
- Beowulf (2007). While Hot in Human Form, Grendel's mother is shown shapeshifting her bare feet into natural high heels 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.
- Kingsman: The Secret Service: Gazelle had both feet amputated and replaced with curved prosthetics with a vertical blade through them, making them look like high heels.
- Farscape has Natira. Her "Between My Legs" introduction draws attention to the fact that her exoskeleton has high heels.
- Torchwood: The part-converted female Cyberman in "Cyberwoman" has built-in high heels.
- Battletech: Some 'mechs have bifurcated feet where there is a gap between the front and back parts, giving the impression of high heels. The Reseen Wasp, Stinger and Phoenix Hawk in particular have these.
- Warhammer: In their 8th edition models, Treemen have pointed, toe-less feet with a wooden spike attached to their heels.
- Transformers: A recurring trait of female Transformers is built-in "heel struts". Interestingly, there are some male Transformers that are also portrayed with them, most infamously Starscream in Transformers: Prime.
- BioShock 2: Lady Smith-type Splicers have mutated such that their high heels have merged with their feet, creating new feet and legs that look more like those of a gazelle than a human.
- In Dead Space, necromorphs of the Slasher and Spitter varieties have a "peg" growing from their heels that assists them in crawling through air vents. It's noted to be a hindrance when walking normally, however.
- Mega Man Zero: Leviathan, the only Robot Girl out of the 4 Guardians, has her feet end in high heel boots.
- An infamous male example appears in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, when Raiden returns as a Cyborg. For some odd reason, his cybernetic feet come with high heels that he uses to grip onto the handles of knives and swords. They continue to appear even in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance when he gets a new cyborg body, and just like in the cutscenes for Guns of the Patriots, he uses them in a lot of his combos by turning himself into a spinning top of death when doing breakdancing moves.
- Mortal Kombat: D'Vorah the humanoid insect is a gestalt of many subspecies of bugs, and the carrying body of these is female-shaped, complete with heel-like spikes on her feet.
- NieR: Automata: The YoRHa androids, at least the ones with female shapes, have high heels built into their feet. It is most obvious with A2, as she doesn't actually wear shoes over them. This does nothing to impede their movement or combat functions.
- Pokémon Sun and Moon: The Ultra Beast Pheromosa is designed to look like a slim, attractive, sassy woman, complete with the fact that she stands on two high-heel-like feet; being a bug-type, her feet are more like two separate claws, but they're angled in such a way to make it look like she's a woman with heels.
- Resident Evil: Gun Survivor: For whatever reason, the Tyrant form taken by Morpheus D. Duvall in Dead Aim is either feminine or outright female. It's all there: breasts, Alien Hair, and... built-in heels.
- StarCraft: Kerrigan's infested form has chitinous spikes protruding from her heels that act like organic stiletto heels.
- Warframe:
- Many of the female Warframes, such as Saryn and Banshee, have high-heels. Some male ones (including Nidus and Lavos) also have them. This counts as an example as the Warframes are not suits of Powered Armor, but rather bodies controlled remotely through Transference, meaning that the heels are actually part of their bodies.
- Most Grineer have prosthetic legs, and female units have separate heels in theirs (including Hyekka Master).
- The Machina in Xenoblade Chronicles 1 have prongs protruding from their feet, making them resemble high heels.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Dahlia (or Tsuki) has a very feminine optional blade has two talons jutting out the back end of her feet giving the effect that she is wearing heels.
- Invoked as a fashion trend with "Skin Heels", thigh-high boots designed to be made from human skin. The artists claim they're "designed to make a statement about social media ideals and body modification", so it's likely that they are supposed to invoke the Uncanny Valley effect.
