Friday, February 17, 2012

Pretty vs. Practical

There is a product at my house that my husband will never use, at least not for its intended purpose:  double-sided fashion tape.  I feel sure that he could possibly encounter some situation when it would provide the perfect solution, but that situation would not involve what he was wearing at the time.

It's made to attach women's clothes to their bodies.  We first purchased it to make a prom dress behave.  Recently, I've discovered a shirt that I really like has a misbehaving shoulder.  A little double-sided tape keeps the shoulder of the shirt where it belongs, arresting its attempt to slide down onto my arm.

That got me to thinking:  Would a man put up with clothing that had to be coaxed or constrained into place?  With the possible exception of belts and suspenders (which are not uncomfortable), I'm guessing No, they would not. 

So why are women willing to go to such great lengths to get one shirt to perform?  Why will we tape it to our shoulder?  Why will we wear a spandex undergarment that hampers our breathing to get that shirt smooth around the middle?  Why will we wear shoes that require us to install additional comfort zones in the soles?

Why?

Because it's pretty, that's why.

1 comment:

  1. I always thought it was because of the pressure women have been put under for years to always be the social norm of pretty and proper or sexy (which is always changing. Think about the evolution of the woman's image from Peter Paul Reubens' paintings to Marilyn Monroe in the 50's.)
    Not that men haven't been under this kind of pressure as well, but it just hasn't been as heavy. It's interesting when you think about the fact that women didn't really start shaving until skirts started getting shorter and sleeves disappeared in clothing fashions because it was considered more hygienic. (But you didn't see men shaving much more, except for celebrities maybe).
    I guess I got off into a bit of a tangent, I apologize. Haha, but you brought up an interesting subject.

    ReplyDelete