Why Do People Care So Much If Your Shoes Are Even Partially Off?

I was standing in line at Barnes %26amp; Noble and had one of my feet out of my flipflops.Put my (bare) foot on top of my other foot that still had the flipflop on.An employee saw me and yelled in front of everyone%26quot;If you can%26#039;t keep your shoes on you need to leave my store%26quot;. I got so mad I put the books down %26amp; walked right out!





At my office job (no customers come in) most women have their shoes off at least sometimes.One manager gets mad even if you are sitting at your desk!She has a rule that if the shoes are closed toe no one can see your toes at any time.If they are sandals your toes can%26#039;t go past the first strap.If you have on thong sandals the tops of your toes can%26#039;t be past the thong piece.They can be just barely off but not to the point of being comfy.





If you are standing or sitting someplace and have your toes over the thong strap.If you have a pair of toe ring sandals,toes 2-5 are COMPLETELY bare.But if you have your big toe OVER the thin leather ring people freak out?

Why Do People Care So Much If Your Shoes Are Even Partially Off?
This guy at Barnes %26amp; Nobles was totally out of line, and your manager is pretty foot-phobic too. It%26#039;s sad there is so much anti-barefoot bias in the US, because there really is no reason for it. Bare feet are *not* unhealthy or dangerous; our skin is made to keep pathogens out, they don%26#039;t smell unless they just came out of shoes, and indeed as you mention, you see the entire foot anyhow, you didn%26#039;t even put your foot on the floor. Even if you did, there%26#039;d be no risk; fungus needs a quite damp place to spread. It can live for a while on a damp locker room floor with lots of moisture %26amp; sweat, but not on a dry store floor. Nor is it likely that a barefooter has foot fungus in the first place, since it also can%26#039;t grow well on a bare, exposed skin. It needs to be picked up by the bare skin of course, but it can only grow %26amp; catch hold if you then put your foot inside a closed shoe, where the warm, dark %26amp; damp environment is just right for a fungus to grow.


Injuries aren%26#039;t likely either; I%26#039;ve been barefoot for ten years, never divert my step no matter how much glass I see, and I get a tiny splinter maybe once a year. Never had a cut, never had even the smallest splinter indoors.





I guess people have such a great anti-foot bias because of several things


1) shoes cause many foot problems, especially for women. Yes, if you%26#039;ve been wearing those narrow, pointed-toe, high-heeled shoes all your life, your feet are probably going to look really bad and hurt too. That doesn%26#039;t make people think too favorably about feet; unfortunately the feet are the target of their disgust while the shoes are the problem. A study of people in India %26amp; China who never wore shoes, including many rikshaw coolies who ran barefoot on the streets all day long, showed they had very few foot problems, far less than Western folks with all their fancy footwear.





2) Foot odor. Once again, this is caused by the shoes, not the feet. It%26#039;s not the sweat you%26#039;re smelling, it%26#039;s a substance created by bacteria breaking down sweat in anaerobe circumstances (with little or no oxygen). This happens inside shoes, or underneath wide (esp. synthetic) straps of open shoes, but not on the bare foot. On the bare foot, no matter how much you sweat, the sweat just dries up %26amp; is broken down without the smell. But you *notice* the smell when you take the shoes off %26amp; the foot is bare, so once again the bare foot gets the blame.





The next points apply to the US only; in other countries, including all of Western Europe (where health care %26amp; hygiene really isn%26#039;t backward or lax) most people believe going barefoot is healthy and not dangerous. But in the US, barefooters have to deal with the widespread belief that going barefoot in stores is against Health Department regulations. This is a myth; the Health Department doesn%26#039;t care one way or another. However, it causes people to kick barefooters out because they don%26#039;t want to get cited, and also it makes people think %26#039;well, there must be something unhealthy about it since it%26#039;s against the law%26#039;. Would make sense, if it *were* against the law, but it isn%26#039;t...still the myth lives on and thus many people believe it must be unhealthy. Only the US has these Health Department signs, other countries rarely have any signs at all (never seen one here in the Netherlands), and even the rare places that do have a dress code don%26#039;t blame the Health Department.





Next US problem is the fear of injuries and resulting lawsuits. As I mentioned above, injuries are very rare, and insurance companies don%26#039;t require or even recommend footwear for customers. In the unlikely case a barefooter were injured, there%26#039;s such a thing as %26#039;contributory negligence%26#039; meaning he wouldn%26#039;t have much of a case. However many store owners don%26#039;t realize such things in detail, so they worry. In other countries people suing over injuries is rare and settlements much lower (and I mean *much* lower) so this also is a US problem only.





Since these problems are all based on misconceptions, the one thing that can be done about them is inform people of the truth. There are Health Department letters available from most US states at the link in the source, also a link showing it%26#039;s not illegal to drive barefoot. Not everyone may instantly agree; people who have heard anti-barefoot arguments all their lives usually aren%26#039;t willing to accept they%26#039;ve been wrong in a matter of minutes. But I do believe educating people will help change attitudes in the long run.
Reply:In todays %26quot;relaxed%26quot;mode of thinking,people don%26#039;t realize that businesses have to follow a Health Code set by the city. When you see the sign,%26quot;No shirt,No shoes,No service%26quot;,it


isn%26#039;t posted there as a decoration.
Reply:should have said no,and threw them at him and left



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