Donning high heels for a night out partying is the fashion equivalent of legal tender - the higher the heels, the richer you are and the faster a doorman lets you past the velvet rope.
But what if you decide to nix your Louboutins (don't we all own a pair?) in favor of more sensible footwear, like flats? Suddenly, your night out comes to a screeching halt.
High heels are a major part of nightclub culture because, aside from the sexiness factor, they help attract men with money. The law of the dance jungle goes like this: well-dressed sexy dames attract well-paying males, which elevates a club's popularity and status and - ultimately - its profits. Face it: in the club culture, women are looked at as pieces of meat on stilts - dancing shish kabobs.
When it comes to acknowledging the heel requirement, however, many establishments, particularly upscale Manhattan hotspots, keep mum about it. They'll never explicitly state, "Women must wear heels!" for fear of a discrimination lawsuit. Nightclubs know it would be the ultimate sexism to bar a female patron just because her soles are closer to the ground. Even posted dress codes stick to vague words like "smartly dressed."
All of this is a bit ironic since heels were originally created for men, not women. Dating back to 16th century Persia (now Iran), male horseback riders wore heels on their shoes to maintain balance while shooting arrows at their enemies.
The trend spread to Europe where noblemen wore heels to show status and to demonstrate machismo. The fanciful appearance of high heels set rich men apart from commoners.
"One of the best ways that status can be conveyed is through impracticality," Elizabeth Semmelhack, from the Canada-based Bata Shoe Museum, recently told the BBC. Women eventually adopted male fashion trends while men abandoned heels to a large extent. Once women began wearing them by the time the Enlightenment rolled in the 1700s, men decided heels were simply ridiculous.
One '20s-themed restaurant and club named ProAbition in California actually tried enforcing a heel rule last year.
"Ladies: No flat shoes or sandals. Must have heels. Exception will be made if injured," reads an advertisement for its June 2013 grand opening, according to The Press-Enterprise.
It wasn't long before the restaurant was forced to apologize and hastily reversed the dress code due to public outrage.
"When it happens to you and you're turned away, it feels sexist," said Menache, who along with a group of friends was once turned away from a club in Miami for not wearing heels. "It feels like you're being ostracized as a woman."
She's right of course. But Menache also summed up the culture of shame that comes with being that one woman who shows up to dance wearing sensible flats amid a sea of gals in stunning stilettoes.
"It's like a scarlet letter," Menache said. "It's like painted on your chest."
Sure, but, as Hawthorne himself wrote: "If truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom!" That goes double for achy feet.
