{"id":21990,"date":"2011-10-19T12:24:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T17:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=21990"},"modified":"2013-11-09T05:30:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T10:30:55","slug":"a-fashion-advice-counterfactual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/10\/19\/a-fashion-advice-counterfactual\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fashion Advice Counterfactual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I am re-posting this fun counterfactual in honor of October 19th <a href=\"http:\/\/loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Love Your Body Day<\/a>. Crossposted at <a href=\"http:\/\/jezebel.com\/5509912\/a-fashion+advice-counterfactual\" target=\"_blank\">Jezebel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/04\/Capture15.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-32704\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/04\/Capture15.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"97\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI was thinking the other day about fashion advice for women with different body types. The advice is almost always aimed at getting women&#8217;s bodies, whatever shape they might be, to conform with one ideal body type: the (skinny) hourglass figure. The advice video below, sent in by Tara C. and aimed at women with &#8220;pear-shaped&#8221; bodies, does exactly this (excerpts and commentary after the clip):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/IdNw78pONhE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>So, the advice, as I mentioned, is all about trying to hide the shape of her actual body and make it appear to be more hourglass. To &#8220;transform it into an hourglass,&#8221; they say:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>slim<\/em> your hips and thighs&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;draw attention to the upper part of your body&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>balance<\/em> your figure&#8221; with shoulder pads<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;a roomy top will <em>de-emphasize<\/em> your bottom&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>offset<\/em> your hips&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;avoid side pockets, they add bulk where you least need it&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where the fashion industry encouraged us to &#8220;emphasize&#8221; our differences from one another, instead of trying to make us all look the same. If you were pear-shaped, for example, the advice would be all about highlighting that awesome booty and tiny waist and shoulders. Work that pear-shape!<\/p>\n<p>If you were broad-shouldered and thin-hipped, the advice could all be aimed at broadening your shoulders (shoulder pads and fancy necklines) and thinning your hips (dark colors and no pockets)! Work that triangle-shape!<\/p>\n<p>If you were apple-shaped, advice would be aimed at looking rounder with even skinner arms and legs. Work that apple-shape!<\/p>\n<p>If you were petite, advice could be aimed at looking smaller; if you were tall, advice could be aimed at looking larger.<\/p>\n<p>If you had short legs, advice would tell you how to elongate your torso; if you had long legs, advice would tell you how to shorten it.<\/p>\n<p>I think this would be a super fun world to live in.<\/p>\n<p><em>Title slide image from <a href=\"http:\/\/lemondropclothing.com\/body-shapes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lemon Drop Clothing<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am re-posting this fun counterfactual in honor of October 19th Love Your Body Day. Crossposted at Jezebel. I was thinking the other day about fashion advice for women with different body types. The advice is almost always aimed at getting women&#8217;s bodies, whatever shape they might be, to conform with one ideal body type: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,225,55,2103],"class_list":["post-21990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-clothesfashion","tag-gender","tag-gender-bodies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21990"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58657,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990\/revisions\/58657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}