Here's To The Ladies
Feb. 23rd, 2011 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomstarcat_jewel points us to a superb column on sexism and its unwitting support system.In the same vein, the curvaceous Christina Hendricks had a hell of a time getting a dress for the Emmys. Why? She's not a size 2.
Women are half the species -- as far as I can tell, the better half by an order of magnitude. So, naturally, they get teh short end of the stick.
Today is hereby declared a day for celebrating the women in our lives. Anne, Leslie, my mom, my step-mom, my sister, so many friends here -- smart, caring, funny, wise, passionate, creative, stylish, beautiful. I adore you all. Sometimes you don't see that in themselves; sometimes we forget to remind you. But my world would be a stark, barren, awful place without you, and I thank you for everything you have done for me, for others, and for yourselves, because you make everything better.
Here's to the ladies! Without them, guys, all we'd have is each other. Shudder.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 10:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 01:57 pm (UTC)EDIT: I just read the article on Ms. Hendricks' Quest for the Holy Dress. Wow. I'm - obviously - a much, muuuuuch larger woman. And you probably have a clue how hard it is to find clothing. Which is why I make most of my garbing.
And, btw, HUGS!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 02:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 02:16 pm (UTC)And the first article points up one of the reasons that, though I agree with his politics for the most part, I stopped watching Olberman. One can take only so many shots of a female sports reporter getting smacked in the head with a ball, repeated with loving slo-mo detail before one gets the impression that somebody is still nine.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 02:26 pm (UTC)In another thread of thought, why do famous people insist on having formal wear made for them? Why can't they just go to the store like everyone else? Something I will never understand...
~*::Meow::*~
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 02:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 01:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 06:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:02 pm (UTC)Hee. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:15 pm (UTC)Or maybe they're just LAZY.
When I win the lottery, I'm going to, among other things, fund a startup that makes serious fashion for women of *any* size. From
*spit*
The song in my head is "Archetype Cafe"... most appropriately by
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 03:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 01:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 04:52 pm (UTC)I'm with
This is coming from a woman with curves.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 06:23 pm (UTC)One of my fondest daydreams is to make some clothes and then run a fashion show with my friends and family as the models. And the only skinny ones would be the little kids.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 06:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:18 pm (UTC)If we're doing posters, I've always liked this one.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:22 pm (UTC)I didn't link to some of the absolutely ghastly model shots I found on the same site (fortunately, as part of an article that said those women were basically in danger of dying young). There used to be a Midwest filker named Folly Smith, a delightful and wonderful woman who gafiated a long time ago, who had a hilarious song called, "Itty Bitty Titty Me".
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 01:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 04:02 am (UTC)Yes, actual plus size models in a catalog will fail to sell the goods to plus-size customers. The customers (it is claimed that this comes from customer surveys done by some of the plus-size companies) would rather buy a dress or a shirt hanging loose (as from a coat hanger) on a rather average-size woman, who is called plus-size in model industry terms. I understand the same can be true for women of other non-standard sizes, such as the petites. Whut??
So, when you see industry weirdness, you have to ask yourself, if a whole bunch of people are doing something odd, why are they doing that thing? I recall hearing an interesting NPR interview with a fashion mag editor who did deliberately set up and publicize a shoot using women who were, in the industry, considered fabulously large. The largest was a women's 16, as best I recall. (Pshaw, say I. Not that big, in my terms. Average, in population terms. Too big for fashion?) They had trouble getting clothes of adequate size in time, much of it had to be custom-done, and some of the designers refused to participate both because they couldn't get it done in time, and because they didn't want their clothing line associated with "that image", they were afraid of the customer bias.
Hmm. So we're all left going, where do we get off this prejudice merry-go-round?
Which may sound slight OT for the problem of silencing yourself/fear of revealing yourself online/really nasty misogyny, but it's tied together in a big ol' nasty knot all together on the self-hating level that so many women experience.
So many women are easily exploited and fearful and hate themselves because somebody found it a useful business model to generate anxiety and sell more product in women's media.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:01 pm (UTC)Here's to all of us ladies with the curves and the chutzpah to use them. :-)
And here's to you, Tom, for possessing the devilishly wonderful talent of making any woman of any shape or form feel like a million bucks!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:23 pm (UTC)Marilyn Monroe was a 16, people. Christina Hendricks is downright luscious. Her odyssey for a dress was just.... *sigh*
Thanks for this, hon! Hugs to you and all those who appreciate a girl with a figure!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 05:33 pm (UTC)Fit calves and shoulders also get in the way of finding women's clothing that fits *wry look.* It's one of many reasons I prefer men's shirts to women's and the men's are often much better made...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:02 pm (UTC)Same Penny's, only I'm a guy? I'm going to drop $300 easy. I'll have to have it tailored - short arms and *really* short legs - but that's considered normal and would add maybe $20 if at all... OTOH, even under heavy use five or six years is normal, and while some of the cutting edge trends change, most of the classic fashions haven't changed since I've been wearing suits...
Back to the tailoring thing: Why the heck is it men's tailoring is considered just something you do, but women are expected to wear something off the rack (unless it's a *real* specialty item like a wedding dress)? I mean, jeez, a tux is adjustable six ways from Sunday... some of it (like waistline) by the wearer...
Feh. Just nuts, I tell you. (As it were!)
(And for the record, I *like* fit calves and shoulders on a lady. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:22 pm (UTC)I wish it were that simple. It's not. "Size" is not standard in women's clothing to begin with, so it's basically irrelevant to fitting women's clothing; what we need to worry about is the cut. Also, there are only certain cuts that work on certain people -- I have to basically avoid pants where the legs are a particular shape, and boxy jackets with shoulder pads, and if there is not enough rise in a pair of pants, even a fairly thin woman is going to wind up with a bulge over her waistband (the ickily-named "muffin top" look). If there's too much rise, she's going to look the way I looked for the entire 1980s -- like her pants were competing with her bra for breast real estate.
Me, I'm so short through the torso it'd be a miracle if I had a waist indention, since my ribs sit on my hips and I have a muscular back. Also, there's about 4" (literally not much more than my handsbreadth) between my underbust and my navel. Contrastively, I need a very long (back) rise in a pair of pants, because I carry a lot of muscle on my rear end. (From the side, I sort of look like Jessica Rabbit. Unfortuntately, from the front, I sort of look like a fire hydrant.) The stupid fashion industry has decided that jeans cannot come in reasonable rise length unless they are boot cut, which always means that the legs look dorky on me, because if they fit around me, they're about 4-6" too long, so the swoop inward that's supposed to hit my knee doesn't.
I'm fuckin' lucky if I can find a suit at all, and I sure as hell don't shop at discount places for clothes that have to fit worth a damn, because if you want to find a shitty cut where the manufacturer has cheaped out on fabric, shop at a discount place.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 07:38 pm (UTC)Jeans in *general* are a bitchkitty. I've got Scots legs, which look like scaled-down fire hydrants - short and stocky. You *cannot* find 26" inseams *anywhere* on the rack... Thankfully, Eddie Bauer and Land's End both hem-to-order as short as 22". But there goes the mens' vs. womens' dichotomy again, I betcha six bits they don't do that if you're ordering by "size" rather than waist-X-inseam...
*seriously* need women designers and women tailors.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 08:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 12:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 10:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 10:49 pm (UTC)Like your mom, I plan on making much of my kid's clothes if/when I have one.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-23 08:34 pm (UTC)But only in suits.
A woman who needs the sleeves shortened on a dress? Pays for it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 03:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 04:08 am (UTC)I get really goddamn sick and tired of that "women hold the wealth" lie. Yeah, a few heiresses, maybe.
You do notice that all the loud shiny expensive useless electronic shit is marketed to MEN, right? Because Men. Have. The. Money. To. Waste. On. That. Crap.
Men get hired more and paid more than women. Period. The ONLY exception is prostitution, to this day.
But I'll just go and tell all the women in middle-management who are never ever considered for management because they're women that they actually hold all the wealth.
I'll tell the women working YOUR job for 2/3 of YOUR salary - if they got hired for it at all, and not fired when the new boss came in and got rid of the female staff (talk to
I'll tell the women who are the sole financial support of kids whose sperm donors have plenty of money for their new sportscars and jewelry for their new bimbo, but "can't afford the child support this month" - again - that they should blow a month's grocery money on a really nice outfit from a small operation, so they can go to their third-shift data entry position.
I'll tell the women who aren't even considered for the better jobs because they foolishly left a female name on the resume.
The ones who watch the men they trained get promotions and raises while they get downsized for getting middle-aged.
The ones who watch the men parrot back their suggestions in the boardroom and get the raises and promotions because the boss only hears it coming out of a man's mouth.
The ones doing the shittiest work for the shittiest pay, with the most financial burdens.
We don't buy the crap on the catwalk. We'd settle for clothes made decently, that fit us well and last a good time, that are low-maintenance, for a good price.
Do you know where I have to go to find those clothes? The men's department.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 04:36 am (UTC)You do notice all the shoes and clothing stores in the mall cater to women right? Who has the bigger clothing sections in stores? Because Women. Have. The. Money. To. Waste. On. That. Crap. At least men don't complain about how their "useless electronic shit" makes it hard to run or hurts their feet. Most men don't willingly buy new outfits every season when they have perfectly good clothes at home. That's why we can afford to buy "useless electronic shit". Check out the closets of men and women. Who has more clothes? Oh where do they get the money to spend on them? Their jobs maybe? Even those who make less money than their boyfriends/husbands are still the ones who SPEND the money. In the end, that's all that counts, not who makes it but who puts it back in the economy. Yes, that's being stereotypical, but so are you.
I moved into a co-worker's office this week when she went on maternity leave (yes, she has the job when she comes back in 3+ months) and I found 6 pairs of shoes under her desk and another 2 pair under a table. I don't know much about how much shoes cost, but I'm pretty sure she left the equivalent of a PS3 just lying around her office. And you're telling me the idea that "women hold some of the wealth" is a lie?!
Where I work, the majority of the positions are held by women. And FYI, the women in my department make more than me. That line about 2/3 salary has been dis-proven. Once you compare working hours and what the work actually is, the salaries are pretty close together.
Stop making excuses and playing the victim. Stand up and quit taking crap from businesses. You won't get instant gratification but nothing good ever came instantly. Some men can be part of the problem, but that's no excuse for you to tell women to effectively roll over and give up.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 04:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 01:28 am (UTC)*sigh*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 03:52 am (UTC)In any case, it's irrelevant to the topic of clothing. Adults buy their own clothes. They make choices. They influence what stores sell. If people stop buying clothing you have to be a supermodel to wear, then they'll stop making that clothing.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 05:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 01:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 01:44 am (UTC)