What is shoegazing? I've seen this word used derogatively, as in "the band that started the whole shoegazing movement...." Does it mean being overly interested in the footwear of oneself and others, or does it imply shyness (staring down at your shoes instead of making eye contact)? Or something else entirely?

http://www.allmusic.com/index.html

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When I was about 11 years old, best beloved (with apologies to Kipling), we had a school leaving party. The headmistress (spinster of that parish) gave instructions on deportment to the girls. The girls told us that this included the advice to avoid wearing patent leather shoes because the boys would be able to see the girls' underwear reflected in the highly polished surface. We accepted this at face value at the time, as kids did in those golden, olden days, but I have since wondered about her state of mind!

patent leather shoes

And we always had the same "advice" attributed to the Catholic nuns who taught us in school. Apocryphal, I thought.

patent leather shoes

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

One of the most outrageously funny musical-comedies ever written for the American stage. This show leaves me ROTFLLMAO every time I see it. It chronicles the rigors of young love in the ridiculously strict environs of Catholic School, circa late 50s/early 60s, where I was once a victim...er, student ...for 3 long years. But you don't have to be a Catholic School alumnus or RC to enjoy this show...all the non-Catholic friends who I've seen it with were equally delighted without fail. A great production to mount if you're involved with community, dinner, or regional theatre. A great draw and a blast to do! But, as with any crackling comedy, it has to be done right or it falls flat...though none of the productions I've ever seen have fallen short.

http://www.eur.com/musicals/rec.cfm?TNumber=149&RNumber=278

Is this in the same category of boys having to keep one foot on the floor when they're in the girls' dorm?

jj

Patently it is.

category of boys . . . when they're in the girls' dorm?

For goodness sakes - when did this ever happen?

In all of the situations (when I were a lad) where there was even the hint of a possibility that a boy could get within three hundred yards of a girls dorm, they were given very firmly to understand that any boy nearer that that (i.e, 300 yds) would be shot on sight, then publicly flogged before being hung, drawn and quartered, all this beiong preparatory to a trial by jury that would precede an inevitable, mandatory twenty years in jail. (with hard labour, of course! On release, the delinquent would be transported.)