Barefoot to University, Alex McNeill and Sarah E. Smith

Why didn't I meet girls like these ones while I was at university????





http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media...o-2982433.shtml


Not wearing shoes rare to some, but comfortable, normal for two
By Jessica Rupell
Rocket Focus Editor
Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Focus

Americans, and especially American women, love shoes.

In fact, according to the Reuters Web site, "a poll of 1,057 women by the Consumer Reports National Research Center for shopping magazine ShopSmart found U.S. women on average own 19 pairs of shoes."

However, shoes aren't important to everyone, such as Alex McNeill, 20, a junior political science major.

McNeill, who is known around campus for her political T-shirts, long skirts and strong opinions, is also known for something else: she doesn't wear shoes.

"The campus is just so beautiful," McNeill said. "There is so much green space and I just like the way it feels."

McNeill said her non-shoe wearing days began during the summer of 2006 when she was working at a Girl Scout camp.

She said it was like a home away from home, and she began to feel so comfortable there that she ended up not wearing shoes except for hikes.

Since then, she often chooses not to wear shoes at all and said the only places on campus she will wear them are the dining halls and the health center.

This means that even classrooms aren't off limits for her.

"Only one professor has ever asked about it," McNeill said. "But just out of curiosity, not because they were trying to stop me."

Even the weather doesn't stop McNeill.

McNeill said that she loves to walk or run in the rain and that she actually gets better traction in the rain without shoes than with her flip flips. Not even snow can stop her.

"I only start to wear shoes when snow actually starts to stick to the ground," she said. "But even then I usually wear flip flops and take them off when I get inside."

Though she prefers not to wear shoes, McNeill doesn't do it be rebellious and will respect a shoe policy in any public place.

"I always have them (shoes) with me in my bag, just in case," she said.

At home, she wears shoes in restaurants and her church, though she mentioned the church she attends here is a bit more laid back and she can get away with no shoes.

Freshman psychology major Sarah E. Smith, 18, is another who often walks barefoot around campus, and said her reason for not wearing shoes is that she simply doesn't like them.

As a left-handed person, Smith said that it took her forever to learn how to tie her shoes and that she would always get in fights with her parents about wearing them.

She said that from the time she was old enough to tell her parents she didn't want to wear shoes, she has chosen not to wear them.

"I think I was about eight years old," Smith said. "And I would not wear them all summer because it was comfy."

Like McNeill though, she isn't completely rebellious when it comes to footwear.

"I wear shoes in classrooms and other public places," Smith said. "Mainly because I respect that people don't necessarily like feet."

The weather does bother Smith some, she said, and in addition to being in buildings, cold weather is the only thing that makes her put on shoes.

Smith said she gets comments about her feet, but with purple hair, she is used to comments about her looks and said they don't bug her.

"I'm so used to it by now," Smith said. "There's not much I can do. If they want to stare, let them stare."

McNeill said she also gets comments from people who see her on campus.

"People make comments all the time and say things such as 'why is this crazy hippie not wearing shoes?' and 'aren't you cold?'" McNeill said.

She said that while she gets such comments all the time, she has just started to ignore it.

"I'm a very opinionated person and more than willing to share my opinion," McNeill said. "People have assumptions about me-some correct and some not-but there would be assumptions about me regardless of how I dress."

As far as the dangers of stepping in something, McNeill said she's not worried about it and that, like everyone else, she just watches where she's walking.

"Sometimes I walk in mud, but you can just wash it off," she said.

In fact, McNeill has even begun to step on her own cigarettes to put them out.

"My feet are so calloused now that it doesn't hurt," McNeill said. "And now I sometimes will do it for show and to get a reaction if a group of people are looking at me strange."

Smith also said she isn't scared of what she could possibly step on, though she has run into a few minor problems.

"I got a huge cut this summer and I've stepped on nails before," Smith said. "It's bound to happen and I don't think I'm going to learn my lesson."

Though their actions may be odd to others, they said there's nothing weird about not wearing shoes to them.

"I'm a normal person," McNeill said. "And I do shower. Some of it just stays (on my feet) and my feet are darker than what most people's are."

Smith said she actually believes her feet are cleaner than others'.

"I wash my feet at least every night, and it's the first thing I do," Smith said.

Both women are also supporters of self-expression.

McNeill said that all people choose to express themselves in some way, be it the kind of shoes they wear, make-up, jewelry or the way their hair is styled.

"People are going to judge you no matter what, so do what you want," McNeill said. "If it's misinterpreted, then it's their problem, not yours."

Smith agreed, and said that self-expression is something she feels everyone should experiment with.

"You shouldn't be worried about what other people think," Smith said. "I'm actually considering shaving my head just to see how it feels."

McNeill said that it's time people start accepting others for who they are.

"If you're really that ignorant by judging people on looks then go back to high school with all the rest of the immature people," McNeill said. "Don't judge people on what they wear-or don't wear-and get over yourselves."


Pic: Media Credit: Nate Daymut
Junior political science major Alex McNeill says the only places she wears shoes on campus are in the dining halls and the health center.

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/pa...ls/t4518w43.jpg

Nice find, DG...and great looking feet. Over here in Germany it`s not seldom to find real-life barefoot girls at the universities.

-Hal-

Hi Hal

Thanks for your comments. Here in Peru it's IMPOSSIBLE to find real-life barefoot girls in universities :-(

I love this article you put up here. These barefoot college girl articles are such a turn on because it is the real deal. I am always looking for articles like these. I find a few but they usually do not have a great picture like this article does. I love how Alex bares her dirty soles to the camera and does not care. That is so hot.

Here is another barefoot college article:

http://www.oxyweekly.com/home/index.cfm?ev...9a-5c898551493d


It has a great dirty sole shot so I highly recommend this.




No Shoes, No Problem
Oxy students bare their feet and their soles in the wake of national attention.
Kelly Neukom



On July 29, Occidental students across the country did a double take while flipping through the Education supplement in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. However, the college didn't attract nation-wide interest for its professors or classes, but rather for its students and their tendency to walk barefoot.

Brennan Lake (junior) is one student who prefers to live life free of shoes. "I walk around pretty much everywhere barefoot, indoors and outdoors," he said. "People always ask me why I don't wear shoes and I never have a clear answer, but I suppose it has a lot to do with convenience. It's one less thing to worry about before you walk out the door. I also like being aware of what's beneath me - you really get to know your surroundings."

Tessa D'Arcangelew (sophomore) agrees. She started wearing soft-soled moccasins and realized she enjoyed the sensation. "I like feeling my environment on [the] bottom of my feet," she said. "It's an all-dimensional experience of world. I'm more aware of where I'm walking. I like that. I notice more. My toes get claustrophobic in shoes."

Joe Statwick (junior) also prefers to walk barefoot, but has a very simple reason why. "It's pretty much the same reason I don't usually wear a hat," Statwick said. "Most of the time, I just don't really feel like it."

Kyna Shilling '07 found that many students were similar to Statwick in this respect when she was approached by a Times editor to take pictures of barefoot students on campus.

"The first half of the assignment consisted primarily of barefoot subjects photographed in the quad, Marketplace and Cooler," she said. "I was surprised at how many people I found without shoes wandering around campus during lunch! The second batch of photos was indoor shots, taken during my classes and in the library. Sometimes a third of students in my classes would take their shoes off during lectures or come barefoot to class. The quad and the library were the two places I found people without shoes most frequently."

Lake said there are very few times when he does wear shoes - walking to the taco truck ("it can get pretty grungy around there what with all the taco residue splattered about the sidewalk"), at fancy restaurants ("although sometimes I like to elude the employees of these establishments; it's pretty funny wearing a full suit and tie with no shoes!") and when he sees his grandmother.

"The only person who really tries to get me to put shoes on is my grandma, and I usually submit to her because Italian grandmothers are really good at guilt tripping," Lake said.

"I wear [shoes] when I have lab and closed-toed shoes are required or when I have to go off campus to some sort of place where they'll kick me out for not wearing them," Statwick said.

D'Arcangelew said she wears shoes for "interviews and important things." "No matter what type of candidate I was, people interviewing me would say, 'She wasn't wearing shoes!'" she said. "It's too radical for some people."

As for the hazards of going shoeless, both Lake and Statwick have stepped on glass (Lake three or four times, Statwick once) and cite stepping on bees and breaking toes as other casualties. "I've had my tetanus shot and I've never in my life gotten athletes foot or anything like that, so I'm really not too worried," Statwick said. Lake is quick to add that the times he stepped on glass were when he was drinking and likes to think that is what caused the accidents.

And for D'Arcangelew? "There are a lot of things I'm more concerned about than my feet," she said simply. She said her feet actually stay cleaner when she walks barefoot in comparison with when she wears flip-flops. "My feet don't get dirty because I walk through so many different environments," she said. "It cleans them off. My feet look dirtier when I wear flip-flops because they get sweaty and the dirt sticks to them."

The Wall Street Journal article "Is Barefoot Better?" reported that some experts now believe exercising barefoot is much better for a runner's health than wearing expensive sneakers. "[Athletic shoes] may actually be making your feet lazy, weak and more prone to injury," it said. "As a result, barefoot training is gaining more attention among coaches, personal trainers and runners. While exercising without shoes may sound painful, the idea is that your feet need a workout, too. Proponents believe running barefoot changes a runner's form and body mechanics to prevent some common athletic injuries."

In fact, Nike is now marketing a shoe called Nike Free that claims it imitates the feeling of running barefoot. It has three different versions of the shoe (7.0, 5.0 and 3.0) and the smaller the number, the closer it is to being barefoot.

"Since [the Nike Free] simulates what happens out there barefoot on grass, you're getting more of a range of motion at the ankle joint… [and] at the ball of the foot," Senior Biomechanics Researcher Jeff Pisciotta said in a video on the website. "Having that enhanced motion is going to help enhance flexibility. You're also utilizing some of the very smaller, intrinsic muscles of the foot that don't normally get utilized in everyday training or in typical footwear."

Despite students' enthusiasm for walking around with nothing on their feet, none of the students interviewed consider it a trend.

"Think about it - it was the status quo for thousands of years," Lake said. "I've never been there, but I hear that a lot of people in Fiji don't wear shoes by choice. I don't think you could call that trendy."

Statwick agrees. "There are a lot of people all over the world who just don't have shoes to wear, so I'd be hesitant to call something that's associated with extreme impoverishment 'trendy,'" he said. "Though some might argue that looking like you are dying of starvation is 'trendy' too, so I don't really know."

Shilling used to go sans shoes in high school, but said, "I think it is more a product of laziness than fashion, although it's a great way to show off a cute pedicure."

She was surprised to find that colleges in colder climates than Occidental have also reported students roaming barefoot. "What I think is interesting is that the other school selected by the [Times] to profile this 'upcoming trend' was Reed College in Oregon, where, unlike southern California, the average temperature is 50 degrees and raining," she said.

"If students in Portland report bare feet as a campus trend, then it seems likely that colleges in warmer states would happily adopt the fashion statement in a more comfortable climate!"

But D'Arcangelew doesn't expect everyone to suddenly become barefoot converts. "It's more of a phenomenon," D'Arcangelew said. "It's not like a lot of people will participate, but it's become normal to them to see other people barefoot. Not having shoes is accepted rather than trendy."

"I guess I would recommend walking barefoot to others if they were considering it," Lake said. "Otherwise, heck - rocking shoes is fine too."

Great article jwdf88! Thanks for sharing, hope you can post some more.