Today I gave a friend a dress that I never wore. I bought it on EBay and it turned out to be a Junior Size 14 and not a Woman's Size 14. Oh well. If I had bought it directly through a store like I should have, instead of being cheap about my wardrobe then I wouldn't have gotten conned so I have only myself to blame for this phony dress. Well, it's not a phony dress, it's a real dress...just not my size.
So this dress was just folded on a shelf in my closet with the original tags on it and I thought that I should just give it to someone who would enjoy wearing it and so I did and she tried it on immediately and it was like it was made for her it because it really fit perfectly. It's black velvet and it's beautiful. And everyone in the office was oohing and aahing and all she could say was, "Oh my God I'm not a size 14!" And I said...who cares you're just going to rip the tag off anyway. Tell people it's a size 8 and forget it. But no...she was close to tears because the tag had a number 14 on it.
Yes she did thank me and yes she does love it and yes she is going to wear it but I have to say that I was just horrified by her reaction to that tag.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Size 14 = Size Anxiety
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10 comments:
That's really sad. I used to be that way too. Maybe (this worked for me) I went around looking at size charts for various companies womens juniors and misses then finally got the point that the numbers are random at best.
That was sweet of you to give her the dress though. Hopefully she will wear it and feel beautiful.
I find that its the skinny chicks that have this reaction to sizes.
nudiemuse, thanks for coming by again. It's always good to hear from you.
evel, I find that negative body image affects women of all body types. Now that a couple of days have passed I am seeing that her reaction was totally normal and even exactly what was to be expected considering the importance that is placed on the size of your body and how important it is to be small.
I wish there would be some sort of law requiring clothes manufacturers to abide by a certain standard of sizes, so that if you wear a size 12, it doesn't matter which brand you buy, a size 12 will always be a size 12.
As it is, women now are willing to pay scads more money just for an article of clothing that reads sizes smaller than what she truly is.
With all these "vanity" sizes out there, who can really say what size they wear?
Yeah I definitely agree with Rachel... if all size 12 clothes came in the same measurements it would make life so much easier! I hate it when girls have this reaction about sizes... get a life it's just a number. As long as you look good, and it fits, who cares?
Don't we all do this though, as ridiculous as it is, and regardless of what size we think we are? If I were a size 22 and in a particular pair of jeans I could only squeeze into a size 28, wouldn't I have the same reaction? Of course I would. I've lost weight and I still do this. Old habits are hard to break.
I guess we grow up obsessed with sizes and shape our entire self worth based on how we look and what size we wear which is truly sad but it happens. One has to battle long and hard to escape from that mind-set... I know!
They've screwed around with dress sizing AGAIN!? Juniors always used to be the odd sizes 3,5,7 etc. I was a 7 for so many years. Now, I must be an 18, except I can't find it. Sizing always was dependent on price range, too. If you were rich, you wore a tiny size. If you had to shop at K-Mart, much larger. *shrugs*
I totally understand that reaction. It took me a few years to get over it. I am a size fourteen and, you know what? People don't think I'm much smaller when they look at me. The key is looking at the parts of your body that you need to be aware of - my hips are big and designers fit pants and dresses on women with no hips. Therefore, I must buy bigger size pants or dresses and skirts with A-Line shapes. Maybe if women learned how to shop correctly for their body type, the tag shock wouldn't happen so much.
No matter what size we are we still obsess about our size. I have thin friends (really thin - not anorexic thin - but really thin) who will stand in front of a mirror in tears because they gained a pound. The issue is not with us - it's this crazy society we are living in that places negative psychological reasons on our appearance.
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