An Australian man has revealed that he wears six-inch stiletto heels to work every day. Ashley Maxwell-Lam recently shifted from Queensland to Sydney, Australia, and decided to change the footwear after a female colleague told him that "her heels made her feel powerful".
The project manager for a major bank now owns nine pairs that include five sparkly shoes for night-outs and four plain ones for work.
He told news.com.au: "Exactly what she [his colleague] said rang true. I've never felt more empowered than when putting on a pair of stilettos and walking through a marble lobby."
"When I decided to wear them at work, I told my (manager) and she said, 'Let me just confirm that's OK.' It was her making sure I wouldn't get in trouble, but I replied, 'This is not me asking, this is not a request, this is me telling you I'm going to be wearing heels.," he added.
He describes his look as "dapper feminine" and further explains that he doesn't want to become a woman.
"I love being a man. I just love the complete contrast between masculinity and femininity. It makes people question things, just because he's gay and wears nails doesn't mean he doesn't know how to use a chainsaw," he added.
He also admits that he likes all the attention but claims that he also receives abuse from people as well. Someone even said: "why are you wearing a heel, that's disgusting, you're a man?"
However, he said: "My mother taught me to be resilient — I have a thick skin. You have to take the good with the bad; you do get people who look at you with disgust but mostly it's curiosity."
He says that there're people, especially young girls, who stop him to have photos with him.
