It’s really all about expectations.
The Arnold Sports Festival was this past weekend here in Columbus. On Saturday, the Columbus Dispatch had a front page picture from it.
Of course you’ll see a lot of bare feet there. Despite gyms having so much opposition to it (“If someone were to drop a weight on their toe, and they don’t have their shoe on, their toe is going to explode.”), Arnold, and a lot of bodybuilders, really do train barefoot. The competitions are barefoot, too.
Well, they are for the men. For women, they’re expected to contort and damage their feet.
Competitions
Anyways, here’s the picture from the Dispatch.
Men’s physique competitors head downstairs after check-in at the Greater Columbus Convention Center during the Arnold Sports Festival. Events also are being held at the Ohio Expo Center, since Veterans Memorial is no longer available.
[Caption by the Dispatch. Photo Credit: Brooke LaValley of the Dispatch.]
Can you generally imagine a downtown building okay with shirtless, shoeless men walking around. Now, this was at the convention center, and I’ve been in there barefoot before (at volleyball tournaments).
But notice that they are even using the escalators barefoot. Yes, they are barefoot—you can see it in this closeup.
Barefoot on the Escalator
In any other situation there would almost assuredly be security guards causing trouble. There would be excuses about “nobody wants to see bare feet”, or “escalators are too dangerous”.
But . . .
It’s all about expectations.
In this particular instance, it is expected to see shirtless, shoeless men walking around. So it doesn’t bother anybody, and no objection list arises in their minds.
It is kind of like a restaurant on a beach. People expect bare feet there, and thus have no problems with it. Yet, put those same barefoot people downtown somewhere and suddenly folks are “concerned” about (non-existent) health codes, or contaminating the food. If that were really a problem, the food would be just as contaminated at a beach.
What people unreasoningly object to is the situation, and then they make up some reason to support their prejudice.
What we hope we can do is make being barefoot just “normal” enough that just about any situation will allow it.
Ahcuah 
I think the life lesson here is that conformity is incredibly hypocritical.
If you look at the female bodybuilders here, the high heels don’t just contort their feet. Their entire stance looks stiff and unnatural. They certainly don’t wear high heels for training, so why should they for show? Isn’t bodybuilding about sports?
A curious, annoying, anachronistic double standard. I’m not a bodybuilder, not a female, but if I were … I would refuse to put on heels for the show!
(It doesn’t help that bodybuilders blow up certain parts of the body hugely while neglecting others, it seems like currently men must have huge biceps and women really slim arms, even if both are totally out of proportion to the rest of their bodies … I must admit that none of the models seen here look beautiful or attractive to me.)
Being barefoot outside some very limited areas (like the beach, certain sports) does not make sense to most people. And they are surprised to see someone barefoot where they would not be. Unfortunately, many people do not like surprises …
I’m sometimes asked: “Why are you barefoot?” A reply like “I like it” really does not help them understand. They mostly tolerate it, but it still seems illogical to them.
I guess they took off that enormous pants afterwards.
In men’s physique they wear enormous shorts, because in that category it’s about upper body muscles only.
Keeping in mind that I am quite ignorant of the differences in these contests, why would they all be barefoot, then? If for that contest it’s about upper body muscles only, how do bare feet come into play? (Not that I’m objecting.)
I’m guessing it might be because they’d be too self-conscious walking around in a posing suit (for that contest), but that bare feet don’t rise to that “level” of bareness?
I would guess it would look pretty stupid if they wore socks and shoes. It just doesn’t mix well with bare upper body.