Dear Men In Malls Across America:
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving: we hope it was full of good food, good family, and lots of wine. Unless you're an alcoholic, in which case no wine. But now, we come to the holiday every man dreads: Black Friday.
It's not just that this is the worst day of the year to go shopping, because everybody and their mom goes shopping (literally) the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's because of that dreaded moment when your wife or girlfriend walks by a clothing store and the sale is too good to resist.
We all know that the stereotype about the husband/boyfriend being dragged along for shopping is true to an extent: men shop in a far different way than women when it comes to clothes. But that's not really because of gender. It's because of the fashion industry.
I can only speak for myself, but as a man, I am inherently lazy about clothes. 90% of my clothes were bought for me as gifts by somebody else, and I only rarely go clothes shopping. When I do, it's either because I care quite a bit (i.e. I'm buying a suit) or I absolutely have to (I'm down to two pairs of jeans). But I can't be bothered to buy clothes most of the time. My recent trip to Target pretty much sums it up: here's a hoodie, I need that, and here are two pairs of jeans in a wash my girlfriend won't mind, both in my measurements.
Women can't do that, and not because of some inherent brain function having a vagina programs into you: it's because of sizing.
Now, I get why women's clothes don't have the measurements written directly on them: years and years of work to make women hate their bodies and thus buy products would make actually putting a measurement on a piece of clothing fiscal suicide. Hence, sizes as numbers, not sizes by measurement.
The problem, as any woman knows and surprisingly few men do, is that women's sizes aren't standardized: one store's 5 is another store's 7. It will probably not shock you, my fellow dudes, to learn that many, many times, ego and vanity come into play for a store's clothing numbers, and a store that can convince a woman worried about her weight that she is thin will get quite a lot of money out of that woman.
So, as you sit in the mall, waiting for the woman you love to finish trying on her fourth pair of jeans, just remember: it's not her fault. It's the fault of people selling her clothes.
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving: we hope it was full of good food, good family, and lots of wine. Unless you're an alcoholic, in which case no wine. But now, we come to the holiday every man dreads: Black Friday.
It's not just that this is the worst day of the year to go shopping, because everybody and their mom goes shopping (literally) the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's because of that dreaded moment when your wife or girlfriend walks by a clothing store and the sale is too good to resist.
We all know that the stereotype about the husband/boyfriend being dragged along for shopping is true to an extent: men shop in a far different way than women when it comes to clothes. But that's not really because of gender. It's because of the fashion industry.
I can only speak for myself, but as a man, I am inherently lazy about clothes. 90% of my clothes were bought for me as gifts by somebody else, and I only rarely go clothes shopping. When I do, it's either because I care quite a bit (i.e. I'm buying a suit) or I absolutely have to (I'm down to two pairs of jeans). But I can't be bothered to buy clothes most of the time. My recent trip to Target pretty much sums it up: here's a hoodie, I need that, and here are two pairs of jeans in a wash my girlfriend won't mind, both in my measurements.
Women can't do that, and not because of some inherent brain function having a vagina programs into you: it's because of sizing.
Now, I get why women's clothes don't have the measurements written directly on them: years and years of work to make women hate their bodies and thus buy products would make actually putting a measurement on a piece of clothing fiscal suicide. Hence, sizes as numbers, not sizes by measurement.
The problem, as any woman knows and surprisingly few men do, is that women's sizes aren't standardized: one store's 5 is another store's 7. It will probably not shock you, my fellow dudes, to learn that many, many times, ego and vanity come into play for a store's clothing numbers, and a store that can convince a woman worried about her weight that she is thin will get quite a lot of money out of that woman.
So, as you sit in the mall, waiting for the woman you love to finish trying on her fourth pair of jeans, just remember: it's not her fault. It's the fault of people selling her clothes.
Hmm thats an interesting take on it but I have to disagree.
As a woman with a background in the fashion industry and as a dam good qualified designer / dressmaker / pattern-maker I know its true (even in Australia) that there is no standardisation in sizing. I also know what styles suit me and can tell by looking at something if it will fit me and this does make shopping easier for me.
However... All that doesn't mean I shop any faster though. Its fun to shop, it just is. For clothes, for homewares, for prettymuch anything. And yes, I think its because I was born with a vagina. The sexes are wired differently, thats just biological fact. I dont think either sex is better than the other, we are equal, just different. Not to say that some women think more like men and some men think more like women. Of course some women will hate shopping, some men will enjoy it, but on the whole I think women shop more often and longer because we enjoy it.
But if any man out there is getting peed-off at his woman for taking too long, disregard all this and just remember what Dan said :)
I love shopping. Part of it is that I have an inherrent desire to look at pretty things. I'm also a bargain shopper and that takes time and the willingness to go to store after store to find what you want, and to turn down what you don't want to spend. (This is made ever more difficult by expensive taste) Oddly, when I was growing my mother always sent my father shopping with me, she hates shopping and didn't have the patience to follow me around the stores. My father bought my prom dress AND haggled down the price for me by $200.
This is a give and take that all couples should do for each other. I have followed my boyfriend around while he shops hunting equipment, fishing stuff, Gander Mountain, Runnings, Cabela's, etc...he can wait while I try on some jeans!
RIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!! So freaking true!!!! (And frustrating!!!!!!!!!)