I want to not wear heels and being forced into them is not cool regardless of how you decide I should feel about it.

What's a strawman argument? I've looked it up but still don't get the context you're using.

@Vassal Zeren - Thanks for the explanation

Not really.

A little annoying, but so is (or are...) the Prequel Trilogy. I still watched them... and enjoyed bits and pieces.

Thank you for the general air of polite discourse, rather than the hostile smelling Vestiphobia.
(Vestiphobia is the fear of clothing, shoes in this case)

A pity, she seems a lovely being otherwise...

Stereotypes are defined by their context to society.
If you remove them from their context in that society, they cease to have meaning.

CCP has not defined high heels as being sexist in this game.
The presumption that this social context in our reality also exists inside the game goes too far.

You may as well say I pilot a raven in real life. Simply ridiculous to consider, although I might get through traffic faster...

This is a game.

While I might sympathize with someone else's real life associations to things, they should not be my burden or problem.
It would be more appropriate for her to leave her real life baggage at the door, and focus on playing EVE instead.

Not being edgy here, just blunt and to the point.
I am specifically avoiding making any assumptions, to be fair to her.

She is acting as if our character pictures mean something in the game, so far as what shoes we are wearing.
She is defining the shoes themselves as a type of label that demeans women.

I respect that in real life she has the right to stand up for herself, and socially reject standards for footwear that she finds offend her.

This is a game.

For all you know, I have clown shoes on in my picture.
Unless you make a female character, you probably have no idea what shoes we wear, or what other options we have.

That is my point.
I can't see the shoes having any affect, but I am willing to let her attempt to make her case, and listen when she does.

Why do I bother, you might ask?
She is only going on about shoes demeaning her... right?

Because frivolous content can be as demeaning as shoes, and I want her to look good.

For that, I need to feel like I can stand behind her on this.
Which means this has to make sense to me first.

I know I am wearing the high heels , what other people know about my character isn't really important, I would have the same complaint if this was a single player game.

During character select I was forced to choose high heels , and that pissed me off. The fact that it's a game doesn't really mean much . If someone made a video game about being a paedophile it would still be offensive even if the entire game took place in an imaginary universe where paedophilia was standard.

Now I understand, thank you for explaining.

I support your logic. There is no reason for you to be pushed into any one single mold by anyone, and EVE is supposed to be a sandbox.

That being said, I doubt they will bother changing what to them possibly seems like a trivial detail at this stage.
If they should follow through and let us walk in stations, etc, that may change. It then becomes significant how we are seen, because we will be seen at that point.

I have no interest in being judged on details unrelated to my piloting ability.

+1