It is not difficult to gain a lowly self-esteem these days. All it takes is one trip to a shopping mall to look for clothes. In particular, the female section of the store. Forget the horrendously small sizes of clothes available for Canadian women for a moment to take a look at the styles. Or rather, style. In a world where feminists are screaming for equality, the rest of us slip on skinny jeans and crop tops to be admired and fashionable.
The first thing that comes to mind in reference to women’s clothes is always size. Size is so often talked about since it is the aspect women are most sensitive about. Here we have the mainstream media pushing images of skinnier-than-real-life models onto us, making us feel bad about enjoying the luxuries of life; shaming us and guilting us into consuming the weight loss industry. The topic of sexism often crops up, blaming men for the unrealistic standard of beauty for women. We blame men for wanting us to look skinny, for wanting us to wear layers of makeup, for wanting us to look fashionable.
What we should be looking at first is the style of clothes available for women. I know I find it extremely difficult to find clothes with length since I am taller than the average girl, but it is even more difficult for me to find respectable clothes that I can comfortably wear to work. I am bombarded with low cut shirts, see through tank tops, circulation-choking jeans, Daisy Duke-style shorts and peek-a-boo dresses. If I decide not to wear these styles of clothes, I don’t feel accepted. I feel that because I want to cover up, I want to hide something; like my body isn’t good enough to show off. This thinking is so skewed. I see young girls who haven’t hit puberty yet, and are wearing bandeaus with a barely there crop top, complete with butt accentuating shorts. We are sexualizing our girls. We have sexualized ourselves. How can we be taken seriously in a workplace setting if we’re wearing clothes meant for a hot date night? How can we be taken seriously in general with this style?
The widely believed answer is sexism again. We blame men for putting these clothes out on the market because they indulge their fantasies. If we aren’t putting out, we aren’t worth chasing after. I believe the answer actually lies closer to home. And by home, I mean our own gender. I believe what we fail to realize is that sexism starts with us. How many women see another woman and think something positive right away? For example, imagine you are walking down the street and you look up to find a woman in a form-fitting dress walking towards you. Is the first thought you get positive or negative? Most likely, it’s negative. Sure, we have been conditioned to believe that we are in competition with other women for the attention of men, but that’s still only part of the problem. It’s gotten to the point where we compete with other women solely for attention and jealousy within our own ranks. Furthermore, in regards to the clothing industry, businesses are about profit. Men do not run the industry, money does. It’s all about supply and demand, so guess what? Since it’s women that buy these racy clothes to feel accepted, feel sexy, etc., the clothing companies see it as a profit. They see the demand, so they supply us with more. It is women who are primarily perpetuating this trend. We are going backwards in our progressive march towards equality.
In order to begin changing the way things are, we should first be aware of the situation as a whole. If we point our fingers towards men for the slinky outfits available for women, we are no better than children. Competing against other women for attention in general is wasted energy. Instead of wasting time on our looks, we could compete against each other productively, say for example job prospecting. Forget petty competitions, and let’s take it to the big dogs. Come on ladies, let’s do this.
