I used to use "barefoot driving" as a topic in critical thinking classes.
I'd ask the students to write on "The Reasons Barefoot Driving Is Illegal,"
and immediately the students' brains would begin to conjure up these
reasons, man being the rational animal he is. After they've finished the
essays, which contain all sorts of insights like "because your foot could
slip off the pedal," etc., I'd tell them that in fact it isn't illegal, and
then get into the subject of why they assumed it was illegal, and where
those reasons actually came from, and the like. Good discussions ensued,
having nothing to do with barefoot driving, like this post.

There's something vaguely threatening about a person going barefoot outside
a "proper" context  like the beach, as if civilization itself is being
threatened in some tiny way. That's why bare feet are often subjected to
ridicule, even more so than the bare you-know-what's of Paris Hilton and her
ilk. Bare feet are subversive, which is perhaps why we assume the illegality
of barefoot driving. Ask any hippie.

As we say, LVC.