This man "stunned" Londoners.....allegedly...

That's me in the picture.

I don't recall anyone looking particularly 'stunned'. Apart from whoever took and posted the photo (who, in my opinion, probably needs to get out more !) I don't recall anyone taking a blind bit of notice - which is usually the case.

I also have to say that I didn't find any of the published responses particularly 'hilarious' either.

 

Experiments have shown that about half of people don't notice much of anything, even if it is outrageously out of place. And these were conducted before smartphones. Nobody's damned business what you wear on your feet. Taking surreptitious pics is offensive.

 

I grew up in Hawaii where I ran around in nothing but a pair of shorts for five years, and wearing more would have drawn attention.

 

Those Southerners! - It's a different World down there!
They just don't get things - For instance:-

 

How much do you want to bet they wouldn't be terrified if he was wearing a $5,000.oo suit and waving money in the air?

 

Overreacting to overreaction is more overreaction. If we take the search for acceptance to be, on some level, part-and-parcel of the business of eschewing the wearing of shoes and socks in public spaces, then within that that must be an ability to accept with good grace 'funny looks' or the odd sceptical word, since these still constitute an acceptance of sorts (acceptance isn't always, or even particularly frequently, going to come packaged in the way we'd ideally like - you have to take what you can get when you can get it). Since we're never going to live in a world where the majority walks around sans shoes and socks, the onus has to be on the ones that do this to identify and accept acceptance in whichever form(s) it comes. Reacting with indignation or touchiness to unenthusiastically expressed tolerance (even within a 'gated community', so to speak, such as this Hip Forums sub-forum) tends to make the searcher for tolerance seem a bit, well, intolerant. A lack of surprise expressed with calmness and measure can be refreshingly surprising.

 

Trust mally to upset someone

 

We are doing a London barefooters meet-up this Saturday 9th November. Meet under the clock at Waterloo railway station @ 11:30. We can then decide where we’d like to go. If fine, a walk along the river perhaps, let’s see! See Facebook page - Barefoot Living UK.

 

A reminder, pets are required to wear shoes upon entering many establishments.