Sunday, January 01, 2006
Oh For Pete's Sake
I have always retained a firmly-seated suspicion that TigerHawk likes to live dangerously, but when I received this story in my Inbox, I began to suspect I was about to become the butt of one of his little jokes:It is one of the most fundamental -- and, for men, potentially hazardous -- questions of modern life, for which academics now hope to provide the definitive answer: "Does my bum look big in this?"
"You have got to be kidding me", I thought. Where is Mo Dowd on this one?
The School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have begun what is believed to be the world's first-ever study on how women's clothing affects the bottom.
Models with variously sized posteriors will wear different types of clothing as part of the research, which will examine how designs, colours, patterns and fabric types affect perception.
Others will be asked to assess how big or small each model's backside appears to look in the outfits.
I started out to write something funny, and then it started to turn into one of my patented post-feminist rants, if only because I has already made my poor husband suffer through the mini version of one whilst shaving yesterday morning. According to my Distributive Theory of Justice, I then posited that if he was thus made miserable, the rest of the blogosphere should have to suffer too. Pain should be liberally and equitably distributed.
Why are women so hung up on body image? I think it's mostly because everywhere we look we're surrounded with airbrushed 19 year-old supermodels. But if the concern is that men won't like the way we look, in my experience most men (with the exception of very young men) don't really mind a little extra weight on a woman so long as she stays in proportion. Studies have shown men are attracted to women with a waist-to-hip ratio of .7, so in many cases it's not necessarily a question of how big your caboose is so much as of not putting too much weight on around your middle. But it was this line that really offended me:
"There's much discussion in the media of clothing styles that flatter the body and it's generally accepted that enhancing body perception can improve confidence and self-esteem.
Now I don't doubt for one moment that this is true. But good nightshirt! After all this time, can't we find a better way for American womenhood to enhance our self-esteem than by stretching the right kind of fabric over our collective tuckii? How about taking a class down at the local community college, or going after that big promotion at work? How about doing some volunteer work, or learning to paint? Or here's a concept for you: how about joining an exercise class and working off some of that excess avoirdupois instead of camouflaguing it with yards of spandex?
Bottom line: after taking a highly scientific survey I concluded that I'm not qualified to comment on this topic, having never asked the question under discussion. I will admit to having asked, "Does this make me look fat?".
But I don't think the words, "Does this make my butt look big" have ever crossed my lips, despite the fact that I fall under definitively into the J-Lo category of woman. There must be something wrong with me...
Or maybe, being married to a Marine, I'm just afraid of the answer.
8 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Jan 03, 09:57:00 AM:
Just don't wear your thong in public.
And for goodness' sake, spackle and sand all those dimples in your thighs and tuckus.
heh.
By 
Cassandra, at
Tue Jan 03, 12:10:00 PM:
Yeah, well you're married to another Capricorn, so I'm sure you can sympathize.
I *never* ask a question unless I want to hear the unvarnished answer :) He doesn't lack for guts, that man... heh. Runs fast, too.
By Cardinalpark, at
Tue Jan 03, 12:18:00 PM:
By Cassandra, at
Tue Jan 03, 01:25:00 PM:
But do you run fast? :D
Most of them I've known, (and I've known quite a few) have to...
By , at
Tue Jan 03, 05:12:00 PM:
Running fast and walking where angels fear to tread seems to be a Goat thing.
They know not the meaning of fear.:)
heh.
Being a Virgo means I am supposed to split hairs. Can't do it. I just scrub the kitchen and the bathrooms and alphabetize the spices....
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Jan 03, 10:28:00 PM:
Uh, I'm a Capricorn, too. Heh. But CP almost certainly runs faster than I do.
Cass, you will be relieved to know, I think, that Charlottesvillain is a Leo.
By Cassandra, at
Wed Jan 04, 02:11:00 PM:
Yes, I knew that TH. Partly why I've been snarking away.
And dear Lord. I'm deathly afeard of Leos :)
By Cassandra, at
Wed Jan 04, 02:13:00 PM:
Actually I shouldn't say that. I have Moon in Leo, which supposedly explains my dramatic streak.
My parents used to call me Sarah Bernhardt when I was a little girl.
