Posted by Racer on February 26, 2004, at 17:01:12
In reply to Re: You're right, and I apologize » Racer, posted by Crooked Heart on February 26, 2004, at 15:50:38
If I go into all of what I have to say on this subject, it make this whole post unsuitable for the Psychology board, but here's a little tiny bite for you, because you're absolutely right. It isn't just young women, it is 9 year olds, and it is middle aged women and it is senior aged women. The size 10 model as the proper size in any meaningful way is wrong. Did you know that clothing companies have changed their definitions of size, by the way? During periods when big breasts are in style, the bra companies make smaller cups so that women can feel happier about buying more bras. Clothing manufacturers make the size ten about the same dimensions now as the size 16 to 18 back when the standards were first put in place. (That's why, if you sew, you'll be using about four sizes larger in a pattern than you buy off the rack.) When a woman gets to buy a size 10 instead of a size 12, she feels good and buys more. It's a conditioned response thing, and the manufacturers and retails know how to play the game.
And at the same time, you've got the corporate welfare programs that produce more corn than we can ever use, leading to corn syrup in everything, the obesity epidemic, *and* a "thin is the only acceptable body type" construct.
The bottom line is this: we are being told that what we are isn't good enough. It happens with men, too, although it's usually in other arenas, so we can't say it's just women who suffer from it. On the other hand, it *is* a major issue for many women, and it's hardly ever addressed in truly constructive ways. Instead, we're seeing pressure on small children -- who really need that nutrition and whose eating habits are being shaped for the rest of their lives -- to conform to an unreasonable standard.
Heheheh, I know, I know, but it just all came out...
(Oh, yeah, and while the first part -- about sizing -- sounds mostly like the sort of crank conspiracy stuff you hear sometimes, it really isn't. I sew a lot of clothes, and I have a lot of patterns from my mother and grandmother, and I've read about pattern size standards. There really was a standard agreed upon -- although I can't remember which decade, maybe 1940s -- and the patterns are sized according to it, although that's finally starting to change. I sew -- usually -- about a size 12 or 14 for myself. Off the rack, I'm a size 6.)
poster:Racer
thread:317321
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040225/msgs/317986.html