920 The male's advantage,

Listen up Harvard. You don't need your President to suggest that maybe men and women have different brains. Just look at their feet!

I saw an ad in USAToday (3-18) for Zappos.com (sells shoes). It was a simple, classy black and white ad with a powerful message at several levels. The shoe on top was a man's dress, slip-on business shoe. I wiggled my toes. I breathed deep. Casual, but dressy. Youthful, but with the message, "I know a few things."

The second, lower shoe was an ankle-breaking, corn-festering, 4" sling-back for women. My feet hurt just looking at it. I frowned. Hers had a message too, "I'll look good no matter what, no matter the price."

The bold words screamed from the page, "You're going places." Yeah. But the men will get there faster and be more rested and comfortable.

The March issue of Nature has an article about the X chromosome factor in the brains of women and men. As they further investigate how the X factor affects social behavior, maybe they'll come up with a foot-fetish clue that causes male designers and women consumers to think alike.