Summary
Footwear - the ‘magic’ & the material reality. Laurie Taylor talks to Claudio Benzecry, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology at Northwestern University, about the people and places involved in the global manufacture of women’s shoes. They’re joined by Elizabeth Ezra, Professor of Cinema and Culture at the University of Stirling, and author of a study about magic shoes, from Wizard of Oz to Cinderella, which finds that 'the perfect fit' relates to more than size and that our culture invests footwear with symbolic meanings beyond their status as mere commodities.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:36.6 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about |
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| 0:47.7 | Hello, T.S. Elliot's Mr. Proofrock poetically complained |
| 0:52.0 | about a life so mundane, so lacking in drama that it might best be measured out in coffee spoons. |
| 0:59.0 | Well, I'd like to think that my own life could be described by a rather less mundane set of Marcus, but today's topic, |
| 1:05.6 | well it all could be reminds me that my biography could readily be measured out in footsteps. |
| 1:12.2 | In my determination to be in the right shoes at the right time. I can |
| 1:17.2 | remember in almost pristine detail the moment in my early teenage years when I was |
| 1:21.0 | finally allowed to abandon my black leather Freeman Hardy and Willis Lape's |
| 1:25.2 | ups for the sheer delight at desert boots with their big crepe souls, brothel creepers we used to call them, |
| 1:32.1 | as thick and squashy as plates of meat. |
| 1:34.8 | Then a few years later my feet happily nestled into a pair of macho knee-high-fry |
| 1:40.6 | American cowboy boats never ever to be worn with trousers tucked inside, and then |
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