The stigma of feet
If you look around at different countries, you see there are different views of how one’s feet should be displayed.
If you go to New Zealand or Australia, you are allowed in the store without shoes. In the US, there are signs that you have to wear shoes to get served.
Why do we view the feet as needed to be covered up?
We don’t have to cover our hands to get served. One would probably argue that your feet can be dirty and make other things dirty. There is more surface area to step on something and bring it into where you are going. It is amazing that it is perceived that what can be seen is more dangerous than the unseen.
Germs are not just small, they are tiny
If we could see the germs on our hands, there might be signs that everyone needs to wear gloves, as a customer, to get served? Germs that are dangerous can be invisible yet we still carryover germs or visible dirt on the feet as limiting.
If everyone would wipe off their feet in case there is more visible dirt on them, then would that be more acceptable in the stores? Then we would be tolerant of bare feet and embrace the idea that they are very functional and adaptable and provide better foot health if allowed to act as they are in the environment.
In some countries, it is accepted practice to take shoes off at the doorway, before entering. Doing so is seen as both a sign of respect and also leaves the shoe residues from the outside world, outside.
Encasing a foot in protection also creates a really nice warm and moist environment for our imprisoned feet to sweat in the dark feeding smelly bacteria and fungal spores.
Then, if we take the shoes off at the door, we spread our cocktail of shoe soup through our or someone else’s property.
Yet, we know that permitting ventilation and exposing objects to sunlight can control fungal spores and bacteria.
Our feet are just as much a valuable part of our body as every other part.
The more we value and accept our individual body parts, the more we will accept our whole being.
Tread lightly. Stride out. Feet are sweet (as).
Ask a Kiwi what this means.
GeriTraK. Good To Know