The Complete Magazine

feet care, The foot is an important and an interesting part of the human anatomy. When we're born, they take our footprints, people count our toes and tickle our soles to hear that wonderful baby gurgle. At that amazing age babies can actually take hold of their feet to chew reflectively on their own toes. Long before we're walking, our parents are cramming them into tiny little leather Oxfords, hiking boots or even tiny running shoes, I guess because they‚Äôre just so darned cute. Once we do start walking, we take our feet for granted. They get us where we want to go, and that‚Äôs just fine.


Pedicure Susie Cue

But once we're grown and trying to fulfill our sexual destiny, we become aware of feet as aesthetic accessories. Turns out, they are more than just balancing tools, locomoting appendages. Feet have the surprising capacity to be extremely cute, or they can be downright hideous. Women's feet are usually nicer than men's, and the foot fetish is a common obsession among men. In fact, China once made the foot the primary object of female sexual beauty, subjecting women to footbinding because tiny feet were considered the most attractive. We still hold to the ideal of tiny feet, which explains why it's so hard to find women's shoes in wider that "B" width. It also describes pointy-toed shoes, stilettos and other fashionable footwear that makes your legs look wonderful, but can turn toes into what one author described as "scrambled monstrosities".

Pablo Neruda wrote a poem that spoke of his love's "hard little feet": he loves her feet because they walked the world to find him. While "hard little feet" may not sound beautiful to some people, the description evokes high arches, narrowness and a sort of lithe strength not found in the average foot.

Whether you have hard little feet or larger, softer ones, your feet will appreciate a weekly soak and scrub. Especially for women like nurses or teachers, who spend hours on their feet each day, a dedicated footbath is essential to preserving not only the beauty of your feet, but their health and comfort too. Use the time to push back softened cuticles with an orange stick, to rub away calluses with a pumice stone, and finish by moisturizing and rubbing your feet. A foot rub is the perfect finish to your footbath: get help from your own sweetheart!