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Cruel Shoes The kickboxing foot pads or full-contact boots or just "kicks" (as they are known in the trade), along with the boxing glove or full-combat glove (aka "punch") are, I suppose, the main "fetishized" items in my special relationship with the combative female...the boots especially, as they call attention so readily to the one part of the foot that remains uncovered: the sole. The boots frame the bare soles, in an inverse peekaboo method; unlike shoes that hint at the wonders they encase, the boots reiterate the fullness of the sole as an instrument of aggression, of challenge, of competition for supremacy. Ironically, they also reverse the design of my other favorite footwear: the humble rubber beach flip-flop... |