When asked why she ditched heels during the film’s promotion, Ms. Gadot told USA Today that it was a matter of health and safety. “I love wearing high heels — I think it’s beautiful, it’s sexy, whatever,” she said. “But at the same time, especially stilettos, it puts us out of balance. We can fall any minute. It’s not good for our backs. Why do we do it?”

Similar questions inform Prof. Engeln’s research. “Why do the things we do for ourselves have to hurt?” she asked. “Why do the shoes we choose for ourselves make us less able to run away if we need to run away? You only need to spend a few minutes on the internet these days to see that, yes, there are quite a lot of times when, unfortunately, it would help to be able to run. Why do the things that we do supposedly for ourselves cause us long-term physiological damage?”

Last year, in The New Yorker, the writer Mary Karr called for the uninvention of high heels. It seems more likely that they will be reinvented. Two companies led by women have developed ergonomic high heels whose insoles are designed to promote stability and even weight distribution, and prevent heel-related hospital visits (provoking, for those of a certain age, amused memories of the Easy Spirit “Looks Like a Pump, Feels Like a Sneaker” commercial, echoed in a 2014 McDonald’s commercial that featured a group of women dribbling a soccer ball in platform heels).

In the film “Jurassic World” starring Bryce Dallas Howard, her character outruns a Tyrannosaurus rex in high heels.

But in the sequel, she’s given a solid pair of boots.

If Ms. Hutchinson has her way — she will receive a verdict on her emoji proposal in January — the high heel as a signifier of femininity will soon be going the way of the dinosaur. She spoke of the ballet flat as an artifact, positioning it alongside another emoji candidate for 2018: the brick wall.

“If you’re a historian in 50 years time, and you start going through emoji with a fine-tooth comb, you’ll be able to say, this brick wall must have happened in 2017,” she said. “You can look at the flat shoe and say that was the year women decided to find their voice and collectively protest gender-stereotypical norms.”