Oh, the Bovinity!
Aug. 18th, 2008 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsAs I mentioned earlier, Kouryou-chan and I walked into the local mall. The weather outside was the hottest it had been all year, but enough Seattlites had gotten past their heat-induced coma to drive over and try to revive in the air-conditioned splender of our newly rebuilt shopping center. I was desperately looking for a single, out-of-season item. Kouryou-chan was tired and hot. We were already exhausted from the heat and the effort of the day.
The shocked bovinity of my fellow mall-goers told a single, sad story. Nobody looked happy to be in this huge crush, nobody smiled. My normally lecherous instincts were completely tamped: despite the Abercrombie torsos, the Victoria's Secret and Aerie breasts, the Sephora smiles that blared out of animated displays from every wall, from hanging flat screens and dangling banners, from even the floors, nobody who finds the shopping mall a natural habitat is attractive. High school girls flaunting every square inch of skin they could legally expose destroyed any sexuality or attractiveness they might have had with vicious mouths and vapid eyes. Every child was whiny and overwhelmed, every adult man and woman drained and demonstrably capitulating ahead of schedule to the inevitable degredations of cruel time and megacalorie Starbucks Frappucinos.
Architects call malls "machines for selling," and never have I seen a mall fit that description so well as new Westfield wing of Southcenter Mall. Men and women waddled about, cognitively staggered by the alternating zones of bright and dark, color and monochrome, the blaring, braying advertising, the shiny the sexy the tall thin buxom built handsome beautiful you're So Damned INADEQUATE! message.
No wonder I have trouble finding clothes for my tall, fit little girl: the place is geared to servicing the needs of XXL-Jamaba Juice-sucking porcine mouth breathers.
And of course, for that moment, I was one of them.
Yech.
The shocked bovinity of my fellow mall-goers told a single, sad story. Nobody looked happy to be in this huge crush, nobody smiled. My normally lecherous instincts were completely tamped: despite the Abercrombie torsos, the Victoria's Secret and Aerie breasts, the Sephora smiles that blared out of animated displays from every wall, from hanging flat screens and dangling banners, from even the floors, nobody who finds the shopping mall a natural habitat is attractive. High school girls flaunting every square inch of skin they could legally expose destroyed any sexuality or attractiveness they might have had with vicious mouths and vapid eyes. Every child was whiny and overwhelmed, every adult man and woman drained and demonstrably capitulating ahead of schedule to the inevitable degredations of cruel time and megacalorie Starbucks Frappucinos.
Architects call malls "machines for selling," and never have I seen a mall fit that description so well as new Westfield wing of Southcenter Mall. Men and women waddled about, cognitively staggered by the alternating zones of bright and dark, color and monochrome, the blaring, braying advertising, the shiny the sexy the tall thin buxom built handsome beautiful you're So Damned INADEQUATE! message.
No wonder I have trouble finding clothes for my tall, fit little girl: the place is geared to servicing the needs of XXL-Jamaba Juice-sucking porcine mouth breathers.
And of course, for that moment, I was one of them.
Yech.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 08:07 pm (UTC)don't laugh, my skinny daughter was the one who got us buying pricey clothing. it's the only stuff that fits! for a while, gymbo and gap were the only people around with adjustable waists, and now are the only ones who consistently offer slim bottoms. i think limited 2 also runs slim, but i do find much of their clothing to be more.... immodest? ok, they are one step above "prosti-tot." my friend's daughter's bmi is even lower than eve's (bmi of 13)and she like justice for girls.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 09:59 pm (UTC)Actually, I can tell you from experience that fat folks aren't well served at malls either. BellSquare has only 6 stores that carry women's size 24 (for reference Rosie O'Donnell was a size 14/16 in Exit to Eden; Camryn Manheim is a size 22; I'm between 28 and 34 depending on manufacturer). There's also no store explicitly for tall women, big men, or tall men.
Short (petite) women's clothing is carried in a lot more stores than clothing for fat or tall women. I'm not sure if short women are more common or if they're just more acceptable to clothing designers!
In your daughter's case, the drawstring option sounds like a good one. Is she tall enough to start looking at teen sizes, possibly at consignment stores?
no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 10:38 pm (UTC)I have no idea who the clothes at stores are for, but "not anyone I know" seems to be the answer.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 11:35 pm (UTC)Indeed!