not quite in the same league but conceptually the same as

SMOKING

not that I would decry sartorial self-expression. Heavan forfend. But colour is a cloak, a mask. High heels are a gamble, and a gambol if you have an inadequate male sense of ballance. It is a well known phenomenon that the longer the legs (real or artificially artworked) in ads sell more product. But we are folkies, and tend towards the natural, practical, safe, and comfortable end of the spectrum.

FWIW I see high heels as an artifice, and treat them as such. Denim jeans were a work-a-day item but since becoming a fashion I guess they would be associated with each other.

Mini-skirts were an exciting fashion but just as impracticale as the long skirts that replaced them.

I wonder if the fashion for high heels will survive a well understood statistic in the shoe trade. The average size of womens feet in western society is increasing and nearer to mens averages. Reason it how you will, the shoe trade HAVE to respond.