“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world” the famous Marilyn Monroe once said. This quote is usually visually represented with a cute pair of heels, giving the idea that heels have this magical power that all of a sudden gives a girl confidence. Obviously, magic has nothing to with it, but yet this idea of a connection between shoes and confidence exists.

The problem stems from society and its ideals of beauty. When a woman feels that she meets beauty standards it gives her a confidence boost. When a woman is looking her best, it means she is feeling her best, and it takes an encouraged mind to do great things. There is nothing wrong with looking great to feel great, the problem is how superficial and unrealistic the beauty standards are.

Every day, there are girls who face a mental and/or physical health issue in order to try and look a certain way. From serious issues of eating disorders, depression, surgery, and diets, little things such as putting on some make-up or wearing heels for a slight confidence boost don’t even seem to add up on the scale.

As a woman in a sorority, who recently just had to recruit new members into an organization focused on women empowerment, I was shocked how much more focus was put into looks than the actual feelings and ideals the women had. The idea was to go in and have a conversation, meet women with the same values, women who have the same ideas as to what it means to develop yourself as women, and ultimately to make a friend. Yet for five days my only focus was on my feet.

There is nothing natural about heels. Physically speaking, no foot is designed to walk around in that position, yet girls still stood for at least five hours in these shoes. The things I saw and heard only made me question why such a shoe was ever put into existence. There were women begging to sit out to give their feet a break, ice bags everywhere, shoes flying the second a party ended, and it’s amazing no one overdosed on pain medication. Yet women did it, without ever taking a second to step back and question why.

So I took a step and asked myself why. Why am I watching my feet swell and accepting the fact that empowered women wear heels? Why am I spending an extra 15 minutes in the morning putting on make-up when I could be focusing my time on something more beneficial? Why am I more focused on my physical appearance than my inner aspirations? And why do I feel my heart gets a say, only after my face feels satisfied?

I had trouble answering all of these questions, because the truth is make-up does not make me who I am or what I am capable of doing, to change the world.