Felicia's take on Reefing in Heels

Since posting the Reefing in Heels blog on CORAL magazine, we've had a lot of people ask questions about #reefinginheels like, “why the focus on footwear?” Well, it’s not about the heels, exactly. Our friend @MetroKat noticed the guys ( @scoobytu ) posting pictures of their sneakers in front of their reefs, and she decided to join in and post pictures of her famous heels in front of her reef. The focus is less on the heels, and more on the fact that women in reefing exist! Let’s face it, women are still far less common in the saltwater aquarium hobby when you look at any statistic. But we are here, and we are passionate about what we do. Many of us have faced some stereotypes and negative experiences just for being women in a male dominated space. I would argue that the women hobbyists and women aquarium professionals I know have experience and talent equal to (or in some cases greater than) their male counterparts. 

Kat and I and many other ladies chose heels as our footwear in our #reefinginheels posts because that's what we like. To me, equality is not "being exactly like men." It's "being myself and still being treated equally." If I want to wear dresses and heels every day, that doesn't make me a less capable aquarist. I can do a water change, properly set up a quarantine tank, run a bandsaw, identify marine creatures by scientific name, raise seahorses, help you troubleshoot your protein skimmer, use scientific instruments to test water, write articles about complex reef chemistry and biology for CORAL magazine, and I can do it ALL IN HEELS.

Click here to see more women reefing in heels and read what these women have to say here: 

https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2021/08/02/reefing-in-heels/