Pride or Prejudice?

Susan J Douglas, author of ‘Enlightened Sexism, the Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done’ (2010) wants us to think again about what we buy and wear and consider whether wearing that ‘Bitch’ T-shirt or mesh and spandex body suits is really about girl power, or just self-delusion playing straight into the hands of a world where a woman’s place is often still in the control of men.

‘Hipster Sexism’ was a phrase coined in 2006 and, according to our friend Wikipedia, is ‘also known liberal sexism and ironic sexism’.  Apparently it’s increasingly in use to describe the growth in fashion images which depict women as sexual objects.  Douglas attributes this to the success of the media in convincing women that the way to gain and enjoy true power is through the ‘calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire and sexuality’ (on the Issues Magazine, Winter 2011), but warns that it’s all a big con – and the ‘clever’ bit is that women think that we are so far beyond discrimination that these clothes are witty, or clever, or ironic.  Admitting that feminism over the last fifteen years has become a ‘dirty word’ conjuring up images of unattractive man haters, Douglas warns us all, in the same article, that we are being sold a fantasy that ‘any woman can become a CEO (or president) and that women have achieved economic, professional and political parity with men’ and again that ‘purchasing and sexual power are much more gratifying than political or economic bower.  Buying stuff – the right stuff, a lot of stuff, has emerged as the dominant way to enact being an empowered female’.

Wow.  This is hard.  Because I do want to look sexy sometimes, I do want to shop and no, I don’t particularly want to spend a lot of time at this juncture to learn about politics and feminism.  But I have always said that what we wear is an expression of who we are, so I can see that it’s important we think a bit more about what we are saying in what we wear.  It’s not that long ago that a welcome offer of a shopping trip to boost my wardrobe had a hideously embarrassing moment when parents wandered into American Apparel looking for jeans and cotton Ts then started discussing whether they were in some kind of sex/fetish shop!  So how far is too far?  I don’t know.  But I’m going to think about it a bit more carefully. 

   

Time to think bigger?

No matter our size, we all want to look good, because that makes us feel good, right?  So why is it still so difficult to buy great clothes if you carry a few curves? Marks and Spencer may be one of the few high street stores to carry up to size 30, but it’s never going to cut it as a fashion hub for the younger market, even if they have just appointed a new  - it’s where my grandmother and her other (albeit reasonably stylish) octogenarian friends shop for goodness sake!  I hope Belinda Earl, new Style Director for M&S, will prove me wrong.

A Plus Size Fashion article in The Telegraph, 13^th August 2010, it is clear to see we are still significant and growing market in the clothing department.  The article, from the health section of this paper, shows size has been an issue for a long time and will continue to grow (pardon the pun): The plus- size market has grown by 50% in the last five years turning it into an industry worth £3.8 billion, with 6.2 million women falling into this category.  Demand for larger menswear is also on the increase, yet the fashion industry does not fully seem to appreciate that this is no longer a niche market.

So with such a large market out there why are the high street and high end designers not tapping into it?  Could it be something do with the training we are giving designers, always catering for the smaller sizes?  Are we trying to cling on to the idea that fashion is exclusive to the slender and not relevant in bigger sizes?  Either way, the nation is not going to get smaller any time soon so maybe everyone just needs to wake up and see that those plus size lines could be where the future (and the money) is.  After all, fashion is about the attitude we bring to the clothes we wear, and there’s plenty of attitude beyond size 6. 

Sexy or Slutty - Where do you stand on High Heels?

In an interview with Emine Sinmaz last month, French actress Catherine Deneuve, one of film’s all time sex symbols, challenged the notion that woman have no chance of being sexy without a pair of towering high heels.

The French actress said that mid heels are much more alluring and she consciously chose mid heels that weren’t too high when she played the role of a bourgeois housewife who became a prostitute in the film Belle de Jour (1967).  Despite an initially frosty reception from audiences and fashion experts, the shoes eventually became a huge hit with over 200,000 sold in one year to customers including Jackie Onassis and the Duchess of Windsor.  Deneuve says ‘It’s something that comes out of a slightly twisted desire which, for that matter, makes for a rather twisted way of walking.  I suspect that it has its origins in the minds of the designers, designers who have pushed the limits, who were imagining an extreme woman … nowadays a silhouette must be strong; it must create an effect, make an impact – all these powerful words.  She goes on ‘a simple well-made shoe with the perfect arch is such a pleasure.  It makes us walk differently; we feel free, emancipated, as if we can deal with life’s challenges’ and goes on to remind us that in the sixties, high-heeled shoes were ‘for women of ill repute.  They were reserved for those who were obliged by their profession to live up to a caricature’.

Well sorry Catherine, but I beg to differ:  mid-heels or flats are great for an average long day at work, serious shopping expeditions and trips to the beach, but when it comes to making a presentation at a sticky meeting, or a seriously good night out, it’s go high or go home as far as I’m concerned.  And kitten heels?  Please, destroy them all now.   Okay, so keep your high heels slender and keep them classy – these aren’t slag heels, these are weapons of power!  Victoria Beckham and Sarah Jessica Parker aren’t famed for being tarty, are they?  Seriously, once you have learned the secret of how to walk in them (toes down first, head high, hips forward), those heels are going to give you more value per inch than most other things on offer out there.  So come on girls – let’s get out there and strut our stuff whilst we can.