Have you ever noticed how shy American men are about displaying their feet?  About displaying any part of their bodies, really?  Go to any shoe department or store at any mall, and watch as men go through what appears to be - for them - a painful experience equal only to the yearly proctological exam.

They sit there, their shoeless feet curled in a fetal position under the chair or bench upon which they sit, scanning the room to see if anyone is looking at them or their feet.  It's as if seeing them shoeless makes them, like Clark Kent after a healthy dose of kryptonite, completely powerless.  And watch them when the salesman returns with the shoes.  How many actually allow the clerk to slip the shoes on?  Probably 1 in 100 - and that one is definitely a candidate for our club!

Why do you suppose that is?  And why do you suppose that it's not the same way in Europe, where men seem willing to bare their soles and other bodily organs at the drop of their pants?  Is it that European men are just more liscivious?  Or, is it simply that they are more comfortable with their bodies?

Europe, existing in some form for thousands of years, has been through it's puritanical period.  Many of them, in fact.  Just look at the Spanish Inquisition.  They've had their moments of censureship in the name of piety.  But, they got over it.  And fact it, Europeans have been looking at the naked body for as long as there have been naked bodies.  The Greeks conducted the first Olympic games in the buff, and one can't stroll a street or a square without finding at least one naked man or woman crafted in stone or plaster adorning a building or monument.  And with plumbing being what it is in some of the older cities, it's not uncommon for both men and women to be seen in the courtyard, performing their morning ablutions in the fountain.  With all of that nudity going on all around you, who has time to be embarrassed by bare feet.  Hell, European men will strip down to nothing to try on shoes - if that's what they'll be wearing when they put on that particular shoe.

Not so, in America, which was founded by Puritans (pure people) who were trying to escape the randiness of the homeland.  Actually, the less pure in Europe just got tired of the bullshit and kicked them off the Continent, but that's another story alltogether.  The fact of the matter is, though, that America was founded as the conservative alternative to the hedonistic lifestyles of the Europeans.  And, as we see with Mr. Bush, nothing has changed.  We are still a nation of prudes and perditionists, all incapable of displaying even the most basic of human body parts - the foot - without screaming "pervert!"

Fortunately, the Internet has allowed us access to our European cousins across the big pond, and we need not be denied the feet that are so important to our brotherhood.  As the attached photos prove, the European male has no problem baring his soles and other tasty tidbits because it's simply the way that it's always been.....