OK, I know everyone is going to pounce on me for this, but the kind of trauma some women are willing to put their feet through these days is a mild version of footbinding. I have a friend who has worn heels since high school. She would wear crazy stilettos, pointy toes, strappy shoes, and soaring heels to school. She wears them everywhere and can't bear the thought of wearing flat shoes, or even low heels (unless they're strappy or have a pointy toe). Let me tell you, her feet look postiively ghastly. Bunions, hammertoes, little cuts, nicks, blisters, and bruises. And she definitely isn't alone. A lot of women will wear shoes that are hideously painful to look alluring.
Of course, footbinding was a horror and I don't mean to diminish that. But at that time period, and in that culture, it was considered perfectly normal. Maybe centuries from now, people will look back at the footwear we force ourselves into and wonder what we were thinking.
