While a Chinese friend of mine was reading the story, *[The Standard of Living](https://www.esuus.org/esu/programs/english_in_action/newyork/BookClub/The_standard_of_Living_by_Dorothy_Parker_and_Girls_in_summer_dresses_by_Irwin_Shaw:en-us.pdf)* by Dorothy Parker, she came across this sentence: 

> 
> Annabel and Midge passed without the condescension of hurrying their
>  pace; they held their heads higher and set their feet with exquisite
>  precision, as if they **stepped over the necks of peasants**.
> 
> 
> 

My friend asked me if “stepping over the necks of peasants” was some sort of idiom. I am not a native English speaker. And I couldn’t find such a phrase in any dictionary. I assume this is just a simile, but I failed to see the exact meaning behind this description. So could you please help analyze the phrase?