This fear of bare feet is uniquely American. In many other cultures it is considered much more disrespectful and disgusting to wear outdoor shoes inside a home.
It's not fear of bare feet, it's this official coming by, backed by cops, to take your shit, but then doing something that either reads as very familiar or else quite respectful (but in a pretty minor way).
It's like a burglar who takes your grandma's jewelry, and eats a sandwich out of the fridge while they're at it, but is careful to wipe up all the crumbs and load the plate in the dishwasher. WTF?
It's not some sort of footphobia (where does America even come into this? I am American and taking off shoes is the custom in any house that somebody makes a pretense of keeping clean. Do you think we all live in barns?) It's about the judge not having any of trappings of a judicial proceeding, she wasn't wearing a robe and was generally behaving very informally. Taking off her shoes was part of that. Taking off her shoes to protect the floor shouldn't have ever come up because she should never have been in the house in the first place. Since she wasn't acting like a judge, she wasn't entitled to judicial immunity.
> I am American and taking off shoes is the custom in any house that somebody makes a pretense of keeping clean.
I've watched way too many movies depicting americans wearing shoes not only inside their home but in bed. Always weirded me out and I always wondered if this was a normal thing.
> I've watched way too many movies depicting americans wearing shoes not only inside their home but in bed
This indeed is how Hollywood popularly depicted Americans, as wearing shoes to bed, in the bathtub or shower, while swimming, and so on. There's the famous line the the Humphrey Bogart / Katherine Hepburn film "A Time To Stand" where the robbers tell Bogie they're going to clean him out, and he says "you can take anything you want, but you're not getting my shoes!"
There was an episode of This American Life where they delved into Hollywood's preoccupation with people never (ever) taking off their shoes, and one of the things they go into is how Johnston & Murphy (old shoe company) was one of the biggest funders of the original Silver Age studios. It was maybe the first instance of product placement, right up there with cigarettes. Of course Congress eventually got involved in the late 50s and pushed the shoe industry out, paving the way for movies like George Pal's "The Time Machine" which scandalously showed Yvette Mimiuex's bare feet. The French were laughing at us, though, with directors life Truffaut and Godard already showing casual barefootedness in their experimental shorts ("La Pantoufle Perdue" being the best-known and most influential).
It is normal for Americans to wear shoes indoors, but it is also normal for Americans to have a no-shoes-indoors policy.
To a large extent, it depends on the local environment. In places that are snowy, muddy, or sandy, people are more likely to expect guests to not wear shoes past the mud room. But in places where shoes stay reasonably clean, people are less likely to ask guests to remove shoes.
I have never heard of anyone wearing shoes in bed. That's super weird. Which movies show that?
I don't think it is a fear of bare feet exactly, its more like Americans often wear shoes in their houses. Taking off your shoes is a bit more casual so it implies a sort of familiarity.
Americans also don't typically (you can't completely generalize) have rooms where you sit on the floor or a mat. In cultures where you do that it makes even more sense to take off your shoes. They also typically have really big houses compared to a lot of other places, with bigger lots that contain indoor or outdoor spaces. In my own house, you could walk in the front door, walk through the living room or dining room and just continue the conversation in the patio furniture in the back yard. I think its cleaner to take off your shoes, and people sometimes do when they come to visit, or ask if they should.
Wearing shoes in houses really depends on region. Do that in New England and somebody's going to (possibly literally) scream at you for tracking in the snow or mud.
She was making herself at home. There's video of this on YouTube. [0]
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVZFUiXkCEA