This nightingale is also a nightlight :> (even more illuga with kuuvakhi wings!)

shirahama's rebuttal:

Also the most comfortable. I chose them after trying on several different brands and comparing lifespan vs usage vs comfort - I needed them for a physically demanding job, not the weekend hiking trails. I could have easily chosen cheaper boots that would have lasted long enough to be worth their low price, but I know the Sam Vimes Boot Theory and knew weaker, less comfortable boots would make my life harder in the long run.

So when the outside edge of the heel started wearing down after three years of heavy use I went to the shop I got them from and said “hey this is a common problem for me with how I walk but now it’s affecting my ankles and knees and I don’t wanna have to buy a new pair, is there a way to fix this?”

The salesman at this very fancy upscale boot store said “oh yeah, there’s a shoe repair place that can give you some heel guards - it’ll keep the rubber from wearing out.”

So at 8am this morning right after my 9hr shift ends I went to the shoe repair shop and it is the most hole-in-the-wall, is-this-a-real-business-or-a-mafia-front, am-I-gonna-get-shot tiny cinder block cube I’ve ever seen in my life. I grew up plenty poor and love me a good hole-in-the-wall business, but going from upscale store to this cash-only repair shop gave me whiplash. Wasn’t expecting this when a guy who wears three piece suits to sell boots said it’s the best place to go.

The skinny kid behind the counter looks somehow 16 and 25 at the same time, but when I tell him this place was recommended he smiles and says to hand over my boots. I hand him the vaguely warm foot-smelling boots, and stand in my socks in the 3’ square entryway surrounded by every color leather polish you could buy and watch as he turns my boots around in his hands, sizes up a crescent moon bits of plastic, and unceremoniously hammers tiny nails through them before handing them back.

The heels are perfectly level again. I can walk without almost rolling my ankles. They don’t clack loudly on the pavement or feel different. This is gonna fix my knee pain. It cost $10.

This kid had every tool he needed within arms reach, worked fast and smoothly, I was in and out the door in less than 8 minutes, and it only cost $10.

I didn’t think anything could cost only $10 anymore. I’m so used to hyperinflation prices I was spiritually thrown back to the 1400’s visiting the cobbler in town square. This kid might have been that cobbler and just decided to never die.

I go to the thrift shop and buy decent leather shoes(although sometimes it's just ones I like)for maybe $10. Then I take them to get resoled and spend $25-45 to get them resoled. The place I went last time put heavy duty soles intended for work boots on my pretty, dainty, leather boots. It looks great and those boots have lasted me like 10 years so far and the soles are still awesome.

Huh, you know I never considered that but come to think of it, The Skin Gap could be a major contributing factor to these gendered "thermostat wars" you hear about.

Let's use some random Google image search finds to compare the amount of bare arms and legs, low/wide necklines, low-cut shoes, etc in this "business casual" wardrobe:

vs this one:

This isn't shaming or berating the women who wear these outfits by any means, this is directed at the clothing industry for marketing and pumping out clothing made of thin flimsy material that leaves large parts of the body uncovered for women, while marketing and pumping out clothing made of thick sturdy fabric that gives full coverage to men (as well as the social norms behind all of that enforcing all of this).

...but if a man wore something like this, people would think he had lost his mind!

I just might add that to my reading list, thank you.

As for the examples here, I could see something similar to the bottom outfit being an acceptable school uniform in some places, especially for primary school aged boys.

As for an adult man working in an office? At the very least he would almost definitely get some weird looks and/or snickering from his colleagues, but the chances that he'd get taken aside and told her needs to dress more seriously and professionally would actually be quite high.

This is despite the fact that the top outfit, when worn by a woman, would be perfectly acceptable in the same setting (despite actually having less coverage than the bottom outfit).

Indeed, that's why I was saying "contributes to". As someone else pointed out in the comments, androgens do tend to make one run hot, so I would totally believe that men generally do have more of a tendency to run hot.

However, if androgens do tend to make one run hot, that means that the skin gap if anything should run the opposite way than it does in reality. If men tend to run hot, men should be the ones in shorts or skirts (including in formal/professional settings) to help the legs keep cool, wearing clothing out of thin gauzy material for more breathability, and wearing low cut tops to help the torso keep cool.

It's interesting you mention that, because the woman who coined the term "the skin gap" is an Orthodox Jewish woman, and in her original blog post where she coined the term "the skin gap" she talks about how the women most heavily impacted by this are Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women.