Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Shape Shifting
11:12 PM |
Recently, I made the unfortunate observation, using the television show “Mad Men” as a historical benchmark, that women haven’t made as much progress in the past few decades as we should have. For instance, we still earn only 75 cents on the dollar compared to men. There are only 15 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and it appears that we’re not gaining ground in that area, either. And this is despite the fact that women are graduating with business degrees at the rate of 2 to 1 over men. Figuring out why this is happening is the subject of a much wider and scholarly inquiry.
But what I want to address right now is one of the greatest indignities and inequities that is being perpetrated on women since foot binding: "shape wear."
For the blessed few of you who are not familiar with it, “shape wear” is the 21st century version of the corset or girdle – on steroids. It is in essence a garment that squeezes in or pushes-up flesh (read fat) that due to gravity or other circumstances isn’t residing where we – or society – think it should. So by sheer force (the miracle of Spandex), we are going to reposition it to a more aesthetically pleasing location.
Now, I’m all for looking the best a gal can, given her wherewithal (personal training, Botox, Mustafa), but squeezing the bejeezus out of the body’s largest and most malleable organ isn’t one of them. I mean, we’ve gone from burning our bras to now shelling out upwards of $75 to acquire, in the parlance of shape wear ad copy, “overachieving underpinnings” where “powerful compression” and “chic design” meet. The only place these two phrases should “meet” is in a hard drive, not your midriff. Oy.
 |
| Gallbladder, meet large intestines. |
Recently, I made the unfortunate observation, using the television show “Mad Men” as a historical benchmark, that women haven’t made as much progress in the past few decades as we should have. For instance, we still earn only 75 cents on the dollar compared to men. There are only 15 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and it appears that we’re not gaining ground in that area, either. And this is despite the fact that women are graduating with business degrees at the rate of 2 to 1 over men. Figuring out why this is happening is the subject of a much wider and scholarly inquiry.
But what I want to address right now is one of the greatest indignities and inequities that is being perpetrated on women since foot binding: "shape wear."
For the blessed few of you who are not familiar with it, “shape wear” is the 21st century version of the corset or girdle – on steroids. It is in essence a garment that squeezes in or pushes-up flesh (read fat) that due to gravity or other circumstances isn’t residing where we – or society – think it should. So by sheer force (the miracle of Spandex), we are going to reposition it to a more aesthetically pleasing location.
Now, I’m all for looking the best a gal can, given her wherewithal (personal training, Botox, Mustafa), but squeezing the bejeezus out of the body’s largest and most malleable organ isn’t one of them. I mean, we’ve gone from burning our bras to now shelling out upwards of $75 to acquire, in the parlance of shape wear ad copy, “overachieving underpinnings” where “powerful compression” and “chic design” meet. The only place these two phrases should “meet” is in a hard drive, not your midriff. Oy.
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