Researchers find high heels not so bad after studying Barbie's feet
"You might have a sore back after you've worn high heels that day, but we've got no link between that and chronic long-term back pain."
Researcher and podiatrist Cylie Williams can only recall one other occasion when she was rushed off her feet explaining a study to reporters around the world.
"I have published a lot," Professor Williams told ABC News.
"I have probably 170 research papers and in my career as a researcher I have had two — and this is my second paper — hit the media at this level."
Cylie Williams is blown away by the popularity of her research into Barbie's feet.
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Professor Williams, who is in the school of primary and allied health care at Monash University, has with a team studied Barbie's feet, the shoes the doll has worn overtime and whether high heels are really that bad for you.
It has captured people's imaginations far and wide and has even been picked up by the New York Times.
"People are often told, sometimes, that things are really bad and when you go 'they might not actually be. We need to rewire your thinking a little bit there and try and break some myths,' I think that captures people's interest.
"And it's Barbie — we expected some attention, but we might've been a bit naive with how much of it we got."
The shift in Barbie's iconic feet
So, let's step into the methodology and findings.
2023's Barbie movie was a blockbuster of epic proportions.
Barbie (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie.
Warner Bros. Pictures - Heyday F / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
It was a scene from the movie in which Barbie reacts with distress when she steps out of her high heels and onto flat feet that ignited the imaginations of Professor Williams and her team.
They studied the feet of 2,750 Barbie dolls — from Barbie's launch in 1959 until June 2024 — and found a shift away from the doll's iconic tip-toed feet primed and ready for high heels, to flat feet for flat shoes.
Barbie, they found, chose her footwear depending on her tasks and occupation — from skateboarding to working as an astronaut — and her feet changed over the years to reflect shoes worn, tying into her different jobs and growing diversity.
What we can learn from Barbie's footwear
Professor Williams says the researchers also questioned whether high heels are really as bad for feet as women are led to believe.
"If you travel around the world and you look at some cultures that rarely wear high heels, you'll hear about back pain and you'll see foot deformity and it will be occurring in men and women, some of whom have never worn high heels in their lives … which means you can't hang it all on the shoes that you're wearing.
"You might have a sore back after you've worn high heels that day, but we've got no link between that and chronic long-term back pain."
She says Barbie's journey shows women are already discerning about the shoe choices they make based on comfort, functionality and identity.
"I've just done a sprint … to my car and I'm wearing a three-inch heel and it's a block. I've walked over Melbourne streets and I've chosen my shoes today based on what I had to do and that I knew I was going to be on unstable surfaces. And that's actually how a lot of people choose their footwear every day.
"So, we don't know that high heels are really bad.
"We know that while you're wearing them, they may have impacts on the way that your feet feel and the way they make your body feel but we don't know what the long-term impact of that actually is if you vary your shoes, like most people do every day."
