Shoeless on Campus?

Shoes apparently destroy your ankles.

Like clothes make you get Vitamin D deficiency.

Or they could just be contrarian.

Not particularly bothered.

Because their stupid

because they can

I am one of those people that walk around with no shoes. I do it primarily to feel the ground. Several years back I read an article (that I can not find now) that stated the obvious fact that feet are not just stumps of meat, they have nerve endings that feel. Whether it is grass, gravel, brick, dirt or concrete, the added stimulus is exciting and adds a different dimension to any trip that I take on foot.

The longest trip I have taken barefoot was from the Sehome Haggen to downtown Bellingham and back. The only injury that I have ever gotten from walking without shoes was a small, easily removed splinter.

Gravel and snow can suck a little bit, but unless you start bleeding or losing circulation, it really is mind over matter.

And yes, I am a Fairhaven student.

You people are in college and should know the difference between "their" and "they're" by now. If you don't, then I demand that you drop enrollment.

I am not a devoted barefoot-er, but I do enjoy letting my toes feel the air around campus. Shoes are uncomfortable and stuffy... and our skin needs to breathe!

WOW totally agree. P.S I always have to wear shoes so it's weird to me. But that's just cuz I get sore without them. Um... shoes are bad for ankles? disagree... I would be in BAD shape without my shoes

I too am a shoeless kid on campus and my reason is that it feels good to go shoeless. Try it some time!

I am not a fairhaven kid.

 because they want to. i'll sometimes slip off my shoes to walk in the grass back to my dorm, it feels nice.

 dude, the entire campus is brick and grass... that's pretty much optimum barefoot terrain.  so why not?  it's fun.

you really are going to make a statement like this?! I think you are enrolled at the incorrect college. This campus is about diversity and supporting others.  Whether someone's opinion and belief is different than yours, be someone that can just be there to support diversity and respect that everyone is different.

don't be rude!!

that was in response to the post "I Know" by udontknow!!

I would just like to point out the irony in saying what essentially amounts to "we don't want your kind here" and then going on about supporting diversity and respecting differences.

So saying that people do it cuz they are stupid is stupid.... But any physical therapist is going to tell you that wearing shoes with ARCH support is the best thing you can do for your feet.  If we lived in a world where the ground was not consistenly paved flat, then walking barefoot would be good becuase of the uneven surfaces.  Anyway, some of us are genetically just blessed and can go barefooted or wear flip flops and never ruin our arches... most of us however will bust the ligament in our feet doing so and become flat-footed... then arthritic in that spot.  So go, be free, do what you want... just know which surfaces are good for going bare footed. 

I don't know about walking barefoot on gravel or brick, but nothing feels better than playing Ultimate Frisbee barefoot and covering your feet in mud and grass :)

If someone started laying Hepatitis-laced needles on the ground, that would change.

I feel like it's a slippery slope from you walking barefoot (especially in the snow, what the hell), to you just slithering around naked like a mammalian snake, since the rest of your body ALSO has "nerve endings that feel", as opposed to nerve endings that don't.  What happens when you walk indoors?  It's only a matter of time before you pick up some freaky fungal infection or hepatitis from a carelessly discarded needle.  Then you track it indoors where it can flourish in our shared space, and frankly, that is both disgusting and rude.
My professional recommendation is to quarantine these types of people together into Fairhaven for a period of no less than forty days, cut them off from the outside world, and see what kind of fungal resistant subspecies the survivors eventually form.

"Be humane...be open". These are the guidelines for the forum you decided to ignore. While you have a valid point you could have executed it in a nicer way that didn't involve hepatitis threats.

 Whether those that go shoeless wear shoes or not, is their issue. I don't understand why people feel the need to hate on or even comment on this. Who cares? Let people do what they want without passing judgement. Sheesh.

Whoa, whoa whoa... there was NEVER an implicit hepatitis threat in my previous post.  I don't have any idea what you are talking about.  All I am saying is that if somehow, some hepatitis laced needles were scattered around campus, by whatever means, it sure would suck to be barefoot.   That's all.

Furthermore, the "be open" guideline is pretty open to interpretation.  I have thought long and hard about this issue before I rendered judgement.  That is all the guideline requires.  I have decided that shoeless individuals are making a stupid decision that negatively impacts me on a dailiy basis.  So let it be written, so let it be judged.

 not your feet,

not your problem.

I'm not taking any side in this but I have a response to this.

Smoking in public: Not your lungs, not your problem?

I think cole_edward's point is similar.

i never said "we don't want your kind here".  i would much rather a campus full of differing opinions, especially from my own.  I just feel there are far better ways to express those than calling someone "stupid" because their opinion differs

People spit all over the place around here.  It doesn't seem like a good idea to increase the amount of body surface that is in contact with bacteria, viruses, etc...  Someone running around barefoot in public areas seems more likely to contract or spread athlete's foot.  That's a form of herpes. 

You know what really grinds my gears?  Shoeless people.

Well, see, that's the double-edged sword of open-mindedness.

No, you didn't exactly say, "we don't want your kind here", but that's the implication of what you wrote. By asserting the mission statement of this school you're implicitly assigning those characteristics to yourself, then transitively denying these positive characters from the person whom you were criticizing, by a "this isn't what we stand for", immediately placing him outside of the set "people who should be enrolled in this school and respect its mission".

Literary analysis. Amidoinitrite? :D

But seriously.

People will disagree with what you agree with, and the method they will use to make it known is, quite possibly, to be a dick about it. If you're only willing to hear a sanitized, kid-friendly "differing opinion", then that might not be a differing opinion at all, just a perfunctory social performance mimicking "dialogue", "openness" and "multilateralism".

Sometimes differing opinions just aren't compatible. Fundamentalist Muslims in Europe want to be ruled by religious laws and not secular laws. European laws state that everyone is bound by secular laws with no exceptions. Is it possible to reconcile these differences? Quite unlikely. What to do? "Agreeing to disagree" is the "diverse" thing to do, and judging by the number of riots and face-palm-worthy incidents in the news, it's not working very well. On the other hand, the handful of countries that said, live by our laws or GTFO, don't have this problem.

Diversity isn't the be-all and end-all. Diverse viewpoints should be examined only on their own merits, and not because of any incidental status of "alternative"ness. There's no need to respect an obviously stupid opinion, and there's no need to weasel in a generic statement supporting "diversity" when the sensible thing to do is not to be supportive of a particular diverse opinion.

TL;DR: Saying "I support diversity, but not yours", weakens your own position, when you simply could have said "I don't support your opinion" and you'd be just as right.

uhm..hepatitis threats?  my boyfriend and i both used to walk barefoot on a regular basis until we learned that you could very easily get hepititis and other shitty shit through small cuts that you may not even know are on the bottom of your feet.  so, even without needles strewn across the ground, that can actually happen.

but, i'm all for barefootedness, its nice.  and really, why does it matter to people who choose to wear shoes?  i mean, really, why does it matter?  i can understanding how smoking would bother people who don't, but seriously..not wearing shoes?  i'm just confused as to why some people actually have a problem with this.

(i'm not trying to be rude, i'm just genuinely dumbstruck by it.)

with all the "slippery slope' and "quarantine them!' talk, i get the distinct feeling that you love Glenn Beck... why don't we quarantine everyone that is a miniscule threat to public health????   We could all just be like bubble boy!  Awesome.  Get some thing real to be this inflamed over.

damn hippies.

in response to anyone who claims barefooters pose a health threat to others: you are idiots. are you trying to tell me your shoes are cleaner than my feet?  what makes your shoes so magical that they have become less susceptible to bacteria or a fungus?

and to anyone who is bothered by barefooters: dont knock it til youve tried it.  its wonderful.

have a lovely day.

after reading this post and being annoyed by my shoes, when i left class and was headed back to my dorm (yes, fairhaven) i decided to walk barefoot and while i didnt find the experience invigorating, i was unpleasantly surprised by the dirty looks that i recieved. as i walked past one group of girls i heard a girl say "why isnt she wearing shoes" and another girl just gave me a disgusted look. maybe it is because i do not look like some of the other people walking barefoot or maybe it was because i was holding my shoes in my hand... no matter the reason, i couldnt believe people's reactions... its not like im touching them with my feet. im simply walking where they are walking, if they are wearing shoes as most students are, it really isnt affecting them at all.

I feel like it's a slippery slope from you walking barefoot (especially in the snow, what the hell), to you just slithering around naked like a mammalian snake, since the rest of your body ALSO has "nerve endings that feel", as opposed to nerve endings that don't.  
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i think that "cole_edwards" also needs to realize that people began by walking barefoot, we did not evolve from slithering around naked on the ground to walking on our feet wearing shoes... besides i would pretty surprised if the people walking around in shoes (like i normally do) and giving me and im sure other people dirty looks for walking barefoot, do not wear their shoes 24/7, so why does it matter?

I have a hard time understanding how walking barefoot can impact anyone but the barefooter. Shoes or not, the ends of our legs are coming in contact with the same surfaces and tracking the same substances.

Where do you draw the line? Are flip flops acceptable? It's just a silly social stigma about what we're allowed to do based on nothing but a fleeting cultural preference.

"No shirt, no shoes, no service." I have a hard time understanding that as well. Anyone care to explain?

I L'dOL at the fact that there are entirely too many overly-scholar comments on this thread

You totally beat me to putting that ridiculous quote in your signature! Awesome.

I don't really have an opinion on this, I don't care really if people wear shoes or not around campus but

As to the "no shoes, no shirt, no service" remark I used to work in a gas station mart, a fairly busy one and there have been plenty of times I'd like to have refused service to someone without shoes or a shirt on. It doesnt matter when you're outside, sure but when I'm the one that has to clean up the track of whatever you brought in on your feet, thats not okay. Not everyone cleans themselves as well as they should for going into public places. I've seen more gross, uncared for feet (and stomachs/chests) then I care to think about. Children often play, touch, drop things that they put in their mouths on the floor. I'm just saying. People have to follow certain rules in public.

You might be clean and maybe good looking so you without shoes/ a shirt is okay. Think about someone you do not want to see without clothes on. And those are usually the people coming in half naked.

There are a lot weirder, scarier, whatever things going on around campus. Let the shoeless people go!

 Glenn Beck is hilarious.

No it isn't.  Athlete's foot is caused by a fungus, herpes is caused by a herpesvirus.

Ok so to everybody that thinks I was making fun of these kids, I'm not!  I was just curious; when I see multiple people walking around with no shoes in 50 degree weather I wonder what the hell is going on.  And frankly to the grammar freaks out there....get a fucking life.

Feet are meant to feel and I love going foot-commando every once and a while

 They go shoeless for the same reason people wear shoes :)

Personal preference

K that's RUDE... Don't consider myself a "hippie,"  I wear shoes, and I still know that this is RUDE

[Comment removed by moderator for guideline violation.]

Personally, I don't like the sight of bare feet.
But I don't care about the barefooters on campus, as long as they're not propping their feet up on tables or chairs.  (not saying it's not equally gross when people with shoes do it)

But I see no reason to get so upset about just seeing people walking barefoot on campus.  It's not something that can spread, like cigarette smoke.

Some people just need to relaaaaax.
You'll live happier.

they do it cause like, man, its like totally liberating. society holds us back with shoes, so I'm fighting against it, cause like, man, like, i just am cause i don't like society? Get it?

Not wearing shoes can be detrimental to your foot's arch, unless you are flat-flooted that is; in which case you are a caveman.

HAHA!

Sometimes it's just more comfortable/exhilarating.

If we're questioning shoelessness, why not the polar bear dip, firewalkers, any one who does an "unusual" activity, etc.

I don't wear shoes when it's convenient, as well as when I feel like doing so. I also wear shoes quite a lot (to the point where I no longer have any storage space for them). They both have their advantages/disadvantages (ie sand in shoes or frozen heels = no fun). Plus, since I have tats on my feet, I like to see 'em when I don't have to be professional-like :)

As the person(s) above have said, it's personal preference. And it doesn't hurt anyone (except for maybe the foot-phobics). Feet aren't any dirtier than shoes, and in fact, they're probably CLEANER. How often do you wash your shoes compared to your feet? (My opinion.)

To all those who argue that not wearing shoes is detrimental to the structure and arch of your foot: so is wearing flip-flops, Converse shoes, any type of heel, and a number of other shoes without arch support.

And who cares if some people don't wear shoes? Nobody is asking you to eat off the ground they're walking on (I wouldn't reccommend that anyway, it would be pretty gross). You don't have to worry about them "contaminating" you because your shoes protect your own feet.

So what is the big deal? Being barefoot is wonderful. Anyone who hasn't tried it obviously was never a kid, or had a moment of clicking-your-heels-happiness.

i haven't seen that as a response at all actually.  most people have been saying they do it because it feels nice.  because they enjoy it.  not all "hippies"  are about "fighting society."  and not everything people who are "fighting society" do, is to fight society. 

i find you offensive and i thought this was unecessary.  but hey, maybe i just can't take a joke.  jamin thought it was funny. 

I see some people too and I think it's amazingly cool! However, I haven't because I wasn't sure how prof's would feel about it.. so I guess it's okay then?

I did find it funny, didn't think he meant for it to be taken at face value - or that it is worth taking at face value. haha