Racked: All Posts by Lux AlptraumThe National Shopping, Stores, and Retail Scene Bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52809/32x32.0..png2018-02-28T09:32:00-05:00https://www.racked.com/authors/lux-alptraum/rss2018-02-28T09:32:00-05:002018-02-28T09:32:00-05:00Two Animal Costumes, Two Very Different Reputations
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hW7CgHKBOAx5kQoEqwRbB7bfePM=/0x0:2464x1848/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58716505/unnamed_5.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A group of Kigurumi wearerers. | Photo: Kigurumi Shop</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>Why is the kigurumi popular with celebrities and concertgoers, while the fursuit is derided?</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="TQmUm9">In the video for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35u16pDlf3Y">Paper Mache</a>,” rapper Miss Eaves’s ode to being, as she puts it, “single AF,” a middle-aged woman makes her way through Brooklyn, beset on all sides by happy, lovestruck couples. When she finally makes it home, she stages a solo dance party in celebration of her singledom, busting out bowls of snacks and a giant tray of alien-eye cupcakes, then donning a full-body dinosaur onesie, complete with tail.</p>
<p id="ZdJeFD">That onesie, commonly known as a kigurumi, isn’t just some outrageous music video fashion. It’s identical to one that Eaves owns — and is wearing while we chat on the phone. “I wear them about 50 percent of the time,” she tells me, explaining that the dinosaur is one of three kigurumis in her collection (she’s also got a cat and a skeleton). “I have more fun when I’m wearing them.”</p>
<div id="y75fug"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/35u16pDlf3Y?rel=0&" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no"></iframe></div></div>
<p id="qe7ZjY">What’s the appeal of kigurumi? For Eaves, they’re the perfect blend of comfort and style. “Sweatpants are also equally comfortable, but they’re not as funny,” she says. “When people look at me, I want them to smile. When people see me, I want them to be like, ‘That’s fun, that makes me happy.’”</p>
<p id="GMOyjS">Like many things whimsical — Tamagotchi, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=4R55Wo_2K4Om5gLAka3ICQ&q=kawaii+bento+box&oq=kawaii+bento+box&gs_l=psy-ab.3...0.0.0.87384.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c..64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.BjaFTkkppP0">elaborately adorable bento boxes</a>, Pokemon — kigurumi got their start in Japan, as a short-lived youth fashion trend that peaked in the mid-aughts. Although the word “kigurumi” can mean many things in Japan, the animal garments Americans associate with the term were developed by loungewear company SAZAC in the early aughts; not long after their initial debut, teenagers turned them from indoor wear to outdoor wear, sparking a whole new fashion trend.</p>
<p id="P6Wgzy">According to Brian Ashcraft, senior contributing editor at Kotaku and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Schoolgirl-Confidential-Teenage-Nation-ebook/dp/B00J75N5BA"><em>Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential</em></a>, the height of kigurumi fever was 2004. “You might still occasionally see them at Universal Studios Japan or Tokyo Disneyland,” he tells me, “But that’s different, because in summer 2004, [teens would] be out roaming the streets dressed in those PJ-type outfits.”</p>
<p id="lQ2QPq">In Japan, the trend was a way to combine a cultural love of cute animal characters with a rebellion against rigid fashion norms. “A huge importance has long been place in Japan on proper dress, so wandering around the streets in these outfits is a pushback on those norms,” Ashcraft tells me. “These [kigurumi wearers] were so comfortable with themselves that they wore these inside clothes outside.”</p>
<div> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pKTp__0fDZFZ723Q8cmJ5HWNTEA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10239253/unnamed_7.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Edwina Hay</cite>
<figcaption>Miss Eaves performing in a Kigurumi.</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p id="GwhVXK">How did kigurumi get from the streets of Japan to Miss Eaves’s Brooklyn bedroom? Their first stop outside of Japan seems to have been the UK music scene, where concertgoers realized that kigurumi could be a fun, colorful way to stay warm during a long day outside. “People started wearing kigurumi instead of ponchos,” says Atsushi Miyamoto, one of the co-founders of Japanese gift distributor <a href="http://www.cleveridiotsinc.com/">Clever Idiots</a>. As kigurumi found footing in the UK, Miyamoto and his co-founder Michael John Adams began to wonder if the garments might do well Stateside — and after some discussions with kigurumi creator SAZAC, the Los Angeles-based <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkigurumi-shop.com%2F&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2018%2F2%2F28%2F17018222%2Fkigurumi-fursuit" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Kigurumi Shop</a> was born. Around the same time, Canadian entrepreneur Maria Pham-Beaupré launched <a href="http://kigurumi.com">Kigurumi.com</a>; together, these shops have helped grow and develop the North American kigurumi market (and, Pham-Beaupré tells me, worked with SAZAC to ensure its offering designs that meet the size and style needs of the Western consumers).</p>
<p id="MZQreg">As kigurumi made their way west, they started popping up in a variety of celebrity Instagrams (and even the occasional fashion spread). <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2269513/Cara-Delevingne-onesie-queen-Model-start-fashion-line-snapped-big-babygro.html">Cara Delevigne</a> declared herself a huge fan, as did <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/UCM3_4i1Ez/?utm_source=ig_embed">Lena Dunham</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDRORgoZxZU">Meghan Trainor</a>, and even <a href="https://www.kigurumi.ca/blogs/blog/die-antwoords-banana-brain-onesies-on-jimmy-kimmel-live">Die Antwoord</a>; in 2014, Boing Boing published a piece declaring it to be “<a href="https://boingboing.net/2014/12/16/the-year-we-all-wore-kigurumi.html">the year we all wore kigurumi</a>.” Though acquiring a kigurumi used to require going through specialty shops<a href="https://www.kigurumi.com/">,</a> these days they’re easily available through Amazon: A search on the retail size reveals <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=kigurumi&index=blended">over 2,000 results for kigurumi</a>, a seemingly definitive sign that these animal onesies have gone mainstream.</p>
<p id="9hMIMr">(Another sign? During YouTube star Logan Paul’s <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/904025/logan-paul-s-whole-trip-to-japan-was-pretty-disrespectful">much maligned trip to Japan</a>, he terrorized locals while wearing a Pikachu kigurumi, an ugly signal that the trend had gone full circle.)</p>
<aside id="BjTu4B"><div data-anthem-component="actionbox" data-anthem-component-data="{"title":"Like what you're reading?","description":"Get the Racked newsletter.","label":"SIGN UP","url":"https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/59F5932428C4E6CD"}"></div></aside><p id="zbb0bP">In some ways, it’s unsurprising that kigurumi have found such a thriving fandom on American shores. They are, after all, something along the lines of an IRL Snapchat filter crossed with a Snuggie; a way of looking super cute while staying ultra comfortable. Could there possibly be a better garment for our social media-obsessed era? </p>
<p id="zUrXRA">But in other ways, there’s something odd about the American embrace of kigurumi. Because as more and more of us find our way into these full body animal suits, we’re closing the gap between mainstream fashion and a group that’s long been treated as little more than the butt of a joke.</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="uwHHip">
<p id="ekvizE">“I’ve always had a huge love of both anthropomorphic (animal) characters and animal-based movies,” Katie, a 25-year-old from the New York area, tells me. “Growing up, I was <em>The</em> <em>Lion King</em> kid while my siblings loved the Disney princesses and cars... There was just something much more interesting and magical about animals being the star of movies.”</p>
<p id="0sfPqW">Katie’s other love? Costuming and cosplay. “I loved the process of creating the costumes and the pride of wearing them around thousands of people,” she says, telling me that, as a shy person, “having any sort of costume with a mask helps me relax and just goof around.”</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><div id="zGOd2L">
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfHmQ5mhAjU/" data-instgrm-version="8" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div>
</div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfHmQ5mhAjU/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">I got to met and take photos with a bunch of people at TFF here are some of them. #tff2018 #texasfurryfiesta #fursuiter #fursuit #furry</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/snowlilyzoe/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Samantha Howard</a> (@snowlilyzoe) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-02-13T01:38:30+00:00">Feb 12, 2018 at 5:38pm PST</time></p>
</div></blockquote>
<script async="" defer src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
</div></div>
<p id="dfaESr">Eventually, Katie’s love of animals drew her to the furry community. And her love of cosplay inspired her to explore <a href="https://www.racked.com/2015/7/9/8913071/inside-fursuits-anthropomorphic-cosplay-costumes">fursuiting</a>, a costume-focused corner of the furry community (“Furries are people who love anthropomorphic characters and art,” Katie tells me; fursuiters are furries who also love costuming and cosplay). Six years after her first fursuit venture, she’s now a professional suit maker, selling suit parts and taking commissions for custom designs.</p>
<p id="OJeNci">When Katie talks about fursuits, she doesn’t sound that different from Miss Eaves talking about kigurumi. Like Eaves, she’s an artist; like Eaves, she enjoys the way her whimsical outfits inspire joy and happiness in the people around her. But unlike Eaves, Katie has to contend with some nasty stigma and stereotypes around her animalwear.</p>
<p id="l4mZ5r">“I’m sure you’ve seen the <em>CSI </em>episode,” says Bill, another fursuit aficionado, referencing a 2003 episode of <em>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation</em> titled “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fur_and_Loathing">Fur and Loathing</a>.” If you haven’t, you can probably guess the gist: while investigating a murder, the show’s stars wind up at a furry convention, where they quickly discover a seedy underside to all the festivities (read: people boning in their fursuits). That sort of characterization, combined the vast array of furry porn available online, has led to a skewed perception of the fandom that, Bill tells me, has long made the fur community the “punching bag of the internet.”</p>
<p id="TDuBrg">(A brief note on the above: Do people have sex in fursuits? It’s likely that someone, somewhere has, but it’s not particularly common. Fursuits “are hot, heavy, limit your vision and movement, hard to clean,” Katie tells me, making them ill suited for sexy times. Plus, if you’re a known fursuit fornicator, “you will be blacklisted from all of the major fursuit artists — we don’t want our giant art pieces being used that way!” </p>
<p id="xZaGmA">And, yes, furry porn is a thriving community, but that’s hardly something to write home about: If there’s a fandom, it’s got an erotic subset, as a quick browse through the sexy stories of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/media">fan fiction site Archive of Our Own</a> handily proves.)</p>
<p id="7N9Um8">It’s a frustrating reputation to be saddled with, and one that’s made many a fur-curious person shy away from exploring the community. But as kigurumi become increasingly mainstream, is it possible they’ll help fursuit wearers find a little bit of understanding?</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><div id="FRcMIF">
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfPHpannXWZ/" data-instgrm-version="8" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div>
</div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BfPHpannXWZ/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Her!!! - #fursuiting #fursuit #furryfandom #angeldragon</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thimbleleaves/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Thimble </a> (@thimbleleaves) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-02-15T23:44:54+00:00">Feb 15, 2018 at 3:44pm PST</time></p>
</div></blockquote>
<script async="" defer src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
</div></div>
<p id="ARaqVM">Katie certainly hopes so. Granted, even without the sexual stigma, fursuits are likely to remain a niche garment. Not everyone has the stamina to drape their entire body in something as hot and heavy as faux fur and polyfill padding, and giant, full head masks seem unlikely to become on trend anytime soon. There’s also the price factor: commissioning a fursuit can run you a couple thousand dollars; even if you’re skilled enough to make one, they require a hefty investment of time and materials. (In contrast, kigurumi are usually between $50 and $100.)</p>
<p id="VIQVtW">Those factors are intimidating enough that fursuit wearers are a minority even within the fur community — though, interestingly, kigurumi have become an affordable way for non-suiters to join in the animal outfit fun, and for fursuiters to stay in character while getting an escape from the heat and a chance to eat. “People like wearing kigurumi on the last day of [costuming conventions],” Pham-Beaupré explains to me. “They spend all this time making these elaborate costumes that aren’t the most comfortable. For Sunday they just want to be relaxed and have a lazy day.”</p>
<p id="0NwF6a">But even if kigurumi don’t make fursuits a household item, as cute animal outfits become more and more normalized, it can only help out fursuit fans, by making their hobby feel a little less out there. The feelings that kigurumi inspire — the lack of inhibition, the whimsy, the thrill of inhabiting a whole new identity — aren’t all that different from the things that draw people to fursuits. And the more appreciation we develop for the former, the easier it will be to understand the latter.</p>
<p id="Y1PlAc">Miss Eaves, for one, is convinced that kigurumi are only going to get more popular. “Once you start wearing them, I guarantee you’re going to keep buying them,” she says. And once we all start buying them, maybe fursuits won’t seem that strange.</p>
https://www.racked.com/2018/2/28/17018222/kigurumi-fursuitLux Alptraum2017-09-19T09:32:00-04:002017-09-19T09:32:00-04:00What If Clothes Were Made to Fit Bodies?
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uKUPfMLt-A8qLekh_44hY2DTfaA=/278x0:4715x3328/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56546459/GettyImages_136645043.1504726158.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Paper Boat Creative/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>How limited sizing reinforces the myth of the perfect body. </p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="2OmZQz">From the time we’re young, women are taught to believe that our bodies should serve our clothes — and that if we can’t find anything that fits, it’s our fault for having bodies that are, in the words of designer and member of the <a href="https://www.jumpsu.it/">Rational Dress Society</a> Abigail Glaum-Lathbury, “noncompliant.” But, she notes, “it doesn’t have anything to do with body compliance. It’s really just a totally arbitrary sizing.”</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="8CV5N6"><q>“It doesn’t have anything to do with body compliance. It’s really just a totally arbitrary sizing.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="fdD0NU">Women’s sizing feels particularly arbitrary in comparison to menswear, which is built on the assumption that clothes are there to serve your body, whatever shape it may be. “The standard is more variation in menswear,” Glaum-Lathbury tells me. It’s a difference that goes deeper than who has an easier time finding XXXL clothes. Men’s pants, for instance, tend to recognize that waist size and leg length don’t go hand in hand. These <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eddiebauer.com%2Fproduct%2Fmens-legend-wash-chino-pants---classic-fit%2F10307484%3FshowProducts%3D%26color%3D241%26sizetype%3D%26size%3D&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2017%2F9%2F19%2F16263324%2Fsizing-clothes-plus" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Eddie Bauer slacks</a> offer men with 34-inch waists four different length options in order to optimize fit; women’s pants rarely provide such a courtesy. </p>
<p id="6OvdJt">The contrast between mens- and womenswear gets even more apparent at the larger end of the spectrum, where gender can determine whether you’re viewed as a niche — but still desirable — market or a body type that brands <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-05-10/plus-size-could-save-retailers">avoid at all costs</a> (quite literally, when you consider how much of the market they’re ignoring). </p>
<p id="IHoHWq">My college boyfriend was a big guy: tall, broad-shouldered, and stocky, with massive feet. He was thrilled when we discovered a branch of Casual Male Big and Tall, finally able to acquire some essential clothing items (like socks!) that were actually his size.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><div id="INlkm7">
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.5% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div>
</div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BWvqXKDliZk/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">#girlgang </a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by plus BKLYN (@plusbklyn) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-07-19T22:21:23+00:00">Jul 19, 2017 at 3:21pm PDT</time></p>
</div></blockquote>
<script async="" defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>
</div></div>
<p id="bg0X73">In some ways, the joy my ex felt upon discovering that store was comparable to the reactions I’ve heard from friends who’ve found <a href="https://plusbklyn.com/">Plus BKLYN</a>, a Brooklyn-based boutique specializing in clothes from 1X to 6X (or, if you prefer, sizes 14 through 32). There’s a universal joy in getting access to clothes that are truly made to accommodate your body, particularly when those clothes are incredibly hard to find.</p>
<p id="zw7eqg">But in other ways, the two couldn’t be more different. Plus BKLYN is more than just a specialty store, it’s a part of an activist movement, one that encourages women to embrace and even love their bodies, no matter their size. The ethos of Plus BKLYN, owner Alexis Krase tells me, is that “all bodies are good bodies, there is no wrong way to have a body, we all have different bodies.” Various aspects of the store — including what Krase refers to as a “body-positive wall,” covered with inspirational messages about loving your body — are set up to reinforce that message. </p>
<p id="GM9XOM">In contrast, outlets that serve men at the larger end of the market don’t seem to be quite as concerned about boosting their customers’ self-esteem. Men’s stores don’t have to remind their larger customers that a hard-to-find size is nothing to feel ashamed of, because men don’t constantly get the message that their worth is directly connected to the size and shape of their bodies. And that difference points to one of the most frustrating aspects of femme fashion and the way women are taught to think of our bodies.</p>
<aside id="YCkSLA"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"racked_national"}'></div></aside><p id="7axjJ5">One source of this anxiety? The “standard” clothing sizes that populate stores across the country; a standard that fails to accommodate the needs of most women’s bodies. But where does that sizing come from? Strange as it may sound, our modern conception of what women’s bodies are “supposed” to be shaped like comes from the work of the United States Department of Agriculture. </p>
<p id="0Jzso8">In 1939, the USDA, in partnership with the Works Progress Administration and Bureau of Home Economics, embarked on the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8YUoAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">first scientific study of women’s body measurements</a>, with an eye toward providing garment manufacturers with a universal set of sizing guidelines to which to adhere. Commenting on the state of women’s clothing at the time, the report notes that “the measurements used [to construct garments] have grown up in the industry, apparently chiefly by trial and error, based on a few women by various inaccurate procedures. As a result, there are no standards for garment sizes, and retailers and consumers are subjected to unnecessary expense and harassed by the difficulties in obtaining properly fitting clothes.”</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="1YBXm0"><q>One source of this anxiety? The “standard” clothing sizes that populate stores across the country.</q></aside></div>
<p id="O7ksH4">Yet though the USDA promised to remedy this untenable situation with science, their methods for collecting data were somewhat suspect — specifically when it came to whom the USDA deemed worthy of measuring. The report notes that the 14,698 women included in the study were “white residents and visitors in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.” </p>
<p id="CyS7nK">The fact that the thousands of women included in this study were white wasn’t an accident: Later in the study, it’s specifically noted that, the rare times that nonwhite women were included in the study (apparently so they wouldn’t feel left out when their white friends were getting measured), their measurements were promptly deemed unusable and discarded. If you’ve ever felt that jeans that refused to accommodate your ample ass might be a little racist, well, yeah, it turns out you’re right. </p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="RJ9z4m"><q>Many of us still dream that we’ll one day be able to squeeze into a pair of size zero jeans, even as we know, in our heart of hearts, that our skeletons alone are more like a size six.</q></aside></div>
<p id="U4m7vp">The original sizes created by the USDA have been updated over the years, but the general principles they put forth persist in modern clothing. Yet understanding that retail sizes don’t reflect the range of bodies in the real world offers limited comfort — even without knowing the specifics of the USDA study, most of us are already aware that something’s not quite right with off-the-rack clothing sizes. It’s not particularly shocking to know that clothes aren’t made to fit actual bodies: The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17543266.2016.1214291?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=tfdt20&">average American woman</a> is solidly plus-size, yet few stores stock above a size 14. And even as we know that the clothes that are available don’t reflect the range of bodies that exist, we still hold ourselves to that limited, unrealistic standard.</p>
<p id="q8d1sp">The fantasy body sold to us by retail impacts our views both of what our bodies are and what they should — or one day might! — be. Many of us still dream that we’ll one day be able to squeeze into a pair of size zero jeans, even as we know, in our heart of hearts, that our skeletons alone are more like a size six. And that conditioning can impact our clothing purchases: Glaum-Lathbury points to a particularly dispiriting example in the retail world. “Levi's did a little experiment with the curvy fit,” she says, noting that a recent line offered women a variety of options for fit and style. “They were definitely attempting to actually fit bodies,” Glaum-Lathbury tells me; regrettably, the line has since been discontinued (Levi’s did not respond when reached for comment).</p>
<p id="0Fy2vS">“I don’t know what that means, but that hurts my feelings,” Glaum-Lathbury says. “If we as consumers choose to not have that,” it suggests our problems run deeper than mere availability of options: “Was it that there were too many sizes, and that it was sort of overwhelming? Or was it that we were not wanting to be confronted with our actual bodies instead of our ideal bodies?”</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><div id="AG65iR">
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div>
</div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYoBbFzjhqV/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">#laborday bike ride in @hipstiktights - It's possible when they're Hip-Happy comfort that doesn't squeeze and always stays put! Get on out there in style this fall & RIDE! Ching Ching!</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by hipstiktights (@hipstiktights) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-09-04T16:11:46+00:00">Sep 4, 2017 at 9:11am PDT</time></p>
</div></blockquote>
<script async="" defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>
</div></div>
<p id="teeRg5">We may soon find out. While Levi’s may have abandoned variable sizing, other brands are still deeply invested in the model. Hosiery line <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhipstiks.com%2F&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2017%2F9%2F19%2F16263324%2Fsizing-clothes-plus" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Hipstik</a> invites women to select their hosiery based on body type rather than a combination of weight and height — which founder and CEO Laura McGuire notes doesn’t account for where a woman carries her weight. In the UK, online boutique <a href="https://www.saintbustier.com/">Saint Bustier</a> offers a selection of clothing that caters to women with larger breasts. “Most women are, one way or the other, unique,” Saint Bustier founder Ana Lesiak tells me. “We have different body types… A lot of people feel walking into a shop that, you know, ‘Fashion doesn’t cater to me’” — and brands like Hipstik, Saint Bustier, and Plus BKLYN hope to make a few more of those consumers feel catered to.</p>
<p id="J4OMKd">But increasing options in retail is only half the battle. To Glaum-Lathbury, the issue of clothing size is ultimately a “society problem as well as retail problem.” Krase agrees with the sentiment. While the fashion industry is certainly at fault — “All of these designers keep perpetuating the same thing, where we build clothing for this unattainable girl,” she says — it is merely reinforcing a message that’s already promoted by TV, fashion magazines, and movies. The USDA standard sizing guidelines certainly reinforced the racist idea that white women’s bodies are the standard to which we should all aspire, but the guidelines were racist because we, as a society, already believed that about white women. Expanding the range of clothes available, making it possible for all of us to love our look no matter what size we are, is a huge step forward, but so long as we’re still being told to aspire to a limited range of body types, we’ll only get so far.</p>
<p id="iMCySm">“Women are just put under a tremendous amount of scrutiny that differs from men,” Krase says. The difference between Casual Male Big and Tall and Plus BKLYN is fundamentally rooted in how we, as a society, view men’s bodies versus women’s bodies. And until we truly give women the same freedom that we give men — to be large, small, fat, thin; to be able to exist in a body without that body determining our fundamental worth — our clothing options will continue to reflect our cultural values.</p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/9/19/16263324/sizing-clothes-plusLux Alptraum2017-07-20T12:02:01-04:002017-07-20T12:02:01-04:00Stop Giving Me Advice About My Big Boobs
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jhn-l4JSMhHVLwNhxEDdn0p5_Rg=/208x0:3664x2592/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55745165/GettyImages_543517688.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Sculpture: Francesco Camilliani / Photo: Education Images/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>No matter how well-meaning, it’s overwhelming, contradictory, and totally unnecessary. </p> <h3 id="MKe7ow">“Always wear a bra if you don’t want your tits to reach your knees.” “Wearing a bra is bad for your boobs – it actually makes them sag!” “You know, if you worked out more, you wouldn’t even need to wear a bra.”</h3>
<p id="bbWK7r">I got my first bra at the age of 10 and rapidly ran through the alphabet until eventually reaching the unwieldy F cups I sport today. I’ve had big boobs for most of my life and, as a result, I’ve spent over two decades fielding unwanted commentary about the contents of my bra.</p>
<p id="c9RmpM">I don’t just mean sexual comments (though I’ve certainly gotten my fair share of those). No, the comments that truly drive me batty are the ones that position themselves as advice intended to help me keep my breasts looking their best — by which, of course, I mean keep them from sagging.</p>
<p id="aLLaXX">Because as everyone with breasts knows, there’s supposedly nothing worse than having a saggy pair of tits. With rare exception, the boobs we see on TV, in film, and in adult entertainment are of the round, pert, and perky type; ones that stand upright and point their nipples forward in a proud salute to youth. Breasts that give in to gravity are said to be due to old age, motherhood, or, you know, being a woman who’s committed the grave sin of not keeping it tight. </p>
<p id="2mIzB5">And this obsession with a certain sort of breast isn’t just a product of our Photoshop-obsessed modern era. Back in my early teens, a bit of art criticism informed me that Western paintings had long reflected a female subject’s character through the depiction of her breasts: a “civilized,” highborn white woman would always be painted with round, pert boobs; her “savage” non-white counterpart, on the other hand, would reveal her animalistic nature through long, saggy tits.</p>
<p id="V3Z6fY">All breasts are held to this standard, of course. But since smaller breasts have an easier time staying aloft naturally, well-endowed people like myself are the ones most likely to not be living up to that gravity-defying ideal. And that’s where the advice I despise so much tends to come into play.</p>
<aside id="AtepDR"><div data-anthem-component="actionbox" data-anthem-component-data='{"title":"Like what you’re reading?","description":"Subscribe to the Racked newsletter for more great stories, every day. ","label":"Sign up here!","url":"http://newsletters.racked.com/h/d/C4595F1D5E0088D6?_ga=1.36581730.373041903.1487623315"}'></div></aside><p id="QSUV7p">Over the years, I’ve heard all sorts of crackpot theories about how to get the best, most beautiful breast shape. Some people (like, for instance, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/style/halle-berry-talks-to-yahoo-c1414359850789.html">Halle Berry</a>) will tell you that it’s all about getting the right bra — or, I should say, right <em>bras</em>, since those who swear that bras have the power to prevent (or potentially even correct) sagging usually suggest wearing one all the time, even when you’re sleeping. One of my shittiest exes was a proponent of this theory. While describing a particularly pert set of breasts belonging to another woman, he told me that the shape of her breasts seemed to suggest she was always wearing a bra — the implication, of course, being that mine could have benefited from the same sort of rigorous regimen of bra-wearing.</p>
<p id="Lz4xE7">Not everyone swears by the bra, of course. In fact, there’s a whole other camp that will tell you that bras are actually the enemy. Members of the anti-bra camp, who pen “helpful” articles with titles like “<a href="https://www.bustle.com/articles/163020-7-ways-bras-can-make-breasts-sag-prematurely">7 Ways Bras Can Make Breasts Sag Prematurely</a>,” invariably cite a 2013 study conducted by sport science researcher Jean-Denis Rouillon. The study — which followed 330 women for 15 years, and which Rouillon himself notes is not conclusive — argues that bras promote sagging by weakening the tissue of the breast, offering further ammunition to those who want to couch breast sag as a moral issue rather a fundamental aspect of physics and biology. If only I’d abstained from bras as an adolescent, the theory goes, I could have strengthened my breast tissue and had youthful, upright breasts forever — never mind that even my youthful breasts were of the low-slung variety.</p>
<p id="t1ENJi">While these two camps may be the loudest, they’re far from the only tips that have been thrust my way. Lush sells <a href="http://www.lushusa.com/body/body-lotions/lovely-jubblies/03077.html">Lovely Jubblies</a> cream, a product that’s “packed full of tightening meadowsweet infusion and firming tiger lily petals to help fight the forces of gravity.” New Age types will swear by <a href="https://www.totalcurve.com/info/3-ways-to-use-hydrotherapy-for-better-boobs/">hydrotherapy</a>, arguing that immersing your breasts in cold water will shock them into an upright position. Others argue that it’s a matter of doing enough push-ups: if my pectoral muscles are strong enough, they’ll manage to give me a <a href="http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/breast-lifting-exercises">surgery-free boob lift</a>.</p>
<p id="tBBSQI">But, of course, none of it works, because the shape of the breast isn’t actually a product of behavior. It’s mostly a matter of whatever breast shape you happen to be genetically blessed with. And while some of my big-cupped siblings happen to be blessed with miraculously self-supporting sets, there’s a substantial contingent of us who have always had relatively saggy tits — and there’s nothing we can do to change that.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="boONm8">And to be honest, I’m fine with it. (Though I’d be lying if I said I never felt a twinge of jealousy at the sight of some DDs that don’t move an inch when the bra comes off.) My breasts have given me a lot of good times, and I love them dearly, imperfections and all. I just wish the world around me would stop peddling all this breast “improvement” snake oil — and I wish we could all realize that there’s more than one way to have beautiful, wonderful breasts.</p>
<p id="vUtIQh"></p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/7/20/15983518/big-boob-advice-bra-no-bra-ugh-shut-upLux Alptraum2017-06-22T09:32:00-04:002017-06-22T09:32:00-04:00Zipping Your Own Dress Shouldn't Be a Problem
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/asoM7HpXu4vIEevO5hB7mjoPpo8=/0x0:4545x3409/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55295053/GettyImages_557475349.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: JGI/Jamie Grill/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>Putting on women’s clothing has always been hard, and it hasn't really gotten much easier.</p> <p id="3PR2vo">A couple of years ago, while out of town for a work event, I found myself in the unenviable position of having to zip up my own dress — a task that was something of a nightmare, given the length of the zipper, the awkwardness of its back placement, and the tightness of the fitted garment. Yet after a few minutes of struggle, I managed to complete my mission. Glancing at myself in the mirror, I felt liberated and accomplished; a confident, successful professional who didn’t need no man to help her zip up her chic sheath dress. I could almost hear strains of “I’m Every Woman” playing in celebration of my empowered womanhood.</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="bgOLPf"><q>I could almost hear strains of “I’m Every Woman” playing in celebration of my empowered womanhood.</q></aside></div>
<p id="KRDC4k">The celebration was short-lived. Mere minutes into my self-congratulatory festivities, it dawned me that — however proud of myself I felt that morning — the thing I was crowing about was such a tiny, pathetic little achievement. Being able to dress yourself? That’s an ability we expect grade schoolers to have mastered. How was it that, well into my 30s, I still felt pride at my ability to put clothes on my own body?</p>
<p id="WFD92f">If you’re someone who dresses in womenswear — particularly dresses and other high-femme items of clothing — you probably already know the answer. With rare exception, clothes for women prioritize form over function, treating comfort, accessibility, and even wearability as secondary considerations. When I reached out to women asking for examples of clothes that are nearly impossible to get into alone, I got a litany of complaints: Complicated, strappy tops that get twisted up when you put them on. Bracelets and necklaces with lilliputian closures. The ridiculous design of bra hooks, which many women told me they’re forced to put on backwards and then adjust. And, of course, there were tales of zippers, which can be as difficult to unzip as they are to zip up. Over Twitter, writer Lilly Dancyger offered up a quip that summed up the state of affairs for most of us: “The real reason women are so into yoga: the shoulder flexibility to zip your own dress.”</p>
<div class="c-float-left"><aside id="NMFB5p"><q>“The real reason women are so into yoga: the shoulder flexibility to zip your own dress.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="FJ5ApO">Men may huff and puff over pants pockets that don’t accommodate their lifestyles — remember the fury over the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/24/iphone-6-plus-bend-pockets-complain">discovery that skinny jeans might warp iPhones</a>? — women, on the other hand, treat <a href="https://www.racked.com/2016/9/19/12865560/politics-of-pockets-suffragettes-women">pockets</a> like a luxury item, and often one we don’t really deserve. How did we get to a place where so many of us see clothes that meet the most basic level of functionality — easy to get into, able to carry our stuff, and actually made to fit real human bodies — as aspirational at best, and unattractive at worst? </p>
<p id="wJvgnC">According to <a href="http://www.saic.edu/profiles/faculty/abigailmariaglaum-lathbury/">Abigail Glaum-Lathbury</a>, a designer and member of the <a href="https://www.jumpsu.it/">Rational Dress Society</a>, my sartorial woes have deep roots. Many elements of clothing design are merely the legacy of a decision some designer happened to make a few decades — or centuries — ago. </p>
<p id="imaxAf">Button closures on women’s clothing, for instance, began as a luxury of the rich; because rich women were generally dressed by other people, the buttons were placed on the left side, for the ease of (presumably right-handed) servants. Men, on the other hand, were presumed to be dressing themselves; as a result, men’s buttons are on the opposite side of a garment. Dress-pant closures operate in a similar way: Women’s pants have a closure that’s the opposite of men’s, favoring a second-party stylist over the actual wearer of the item. (Jeans, interestingly, have the same closure regardless of gender — perhaps because they were adopted by women much more recently than most other garments.)</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="AWNCpv"><q>Because rich women were generally dressed by other people, the buttons were placed on the left side, for the ease of (presumably right handed) servants.</q></aside></div>
<p id="ZGIl1e">My foe the dress zipper has a more complicated history. In the mid-20th century, zippers were most often found on the left side of dresses, where they’d be hidden by the arm, preserving the line of the dress. As zipper technology advanced, with bulky metal zippers giving way to more subtle nylon coil and invisible variants, concerns about zipper placement shifted. Suddenly, the center back became the preferable location. Though the move seems baffling to me, Glaum-Lathbury points out that center-back zips do have their merits: side zippers don’t play nicely with sleeves, for instance, and as convenient as a left-side zipper might be for me, it can be nightmarish for left-handed dress wearers. Unless we embrace front-zip dresses, dress zippers will always cause some degree of accessibility issues — Glaum-Lathbury, for her part, suggests avoiding the whole mess entirely by opting for a wrap dress.</p>
<p id="fKo6KQ">But while some accessibility issues are due to legacy design elements or unavoidable structural issues, underlying these design dilemmas is a deeper tale of our ideas about gendered apparel. Even in the modern era, women are still seen as things to be looked at, while men are treated as people with things to do. As a result, women tolerate inconveniences in the name of fashion and aesthetics — if a dress that’s impossible to put on is celebrated as beautiful, some women will flock to it no matter the pain or suffering it might cause.</p>
<div class="c-float-left"><aside id="0N0MhW"><q>Glaum-Lathbury, on her part, suggests avoiding the whole mess entirely by opting for a wrap dress.</q></aside></div>
<p id="NTS0Pr">Granted, not <em>all</em> women prioritize form over function — and when customers treat wearability as a necessity, clothing designers pay attention. Lizz Wasserman, who serves as fashion director, vice president of fashion and concept at Modcloth, tells me that, although their in-house line is inspired by vintage styles, they’ve radically simplified many of their designs and improved their wearability and accessibility, largely because of community feedback. “We’re constantly on the site reading what [the typical Modcloth customer] has to tell us about what we’ve made already made for her, so it can be better in the future," she tells me. </p>
<p id="Y5dU9Y">Wasserman offers up a particularly memorable user comment as an example of the feedback process: “One woman wrote about a bestselling dress, what we would have considered a really easy piece. She was like, ‘Do you think I have a handmaiden? How am I supposed to button those two buttons at the back neck?’” In response, the Modcloth team took another look at the buttons, examining what could be done to improve their accessibility (larger buttonholes? Elasticized openings?) in future versions of the dress. </p>
<p id="IyWv1c">But while Modcloth shoppers may advocate for more rationally designed womenswear, from what Glaum-Lathbury’s seen, most women aren’t. She illustrates this point with an anecdote about a buyer who was interested in a pair of canary-yellow pants that Glaum-Lathbury had designed: “She was like ‘I love these, they’re great; we’re good to order them. Can you take the pockets out?’” </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="oKKyBU"><q>“Do you think I have a handmaiden? How am I supposed to button those two buttons at the back neck?”</q></aside></div>
<p id="7mjoAU">Glaum-Lathbury was baffled by the request, but after a bit of back and forth, she ascertained that the issue lay not with the line or design of the pockets, but with their perceived bulk. According to the buyer, her boutique clientele would almost certainly take the pants to the dry cleaner to have the pockets stitched up and the pocket bags cut out. “Heaven forbid that you see the outline of a pocket bag,” Glaum-Lathbury sighs.</p>
<p id="ytRc0m">As much as I want to scoff at those self-sabotaging women, prioritizing the silhouette of their legs over the ability to eschew a purse, I know that my dresser is stocked with pair after pair of super-tight skinny jeans, whose pockets are more decorative than functional. Sure, I <em>could</em> act in my best interests and wear pants that actually accommodate my lifestyle. But I look so cute in skinny jeans – and purses aren’t <em>that </em>bad, right?</p>
<p id="HOE09U"> </p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/6/22/15816608/cant-zip-dressLux Alptraum2017-04-21T11:32:01-04:002017-04-21T11:32:01-04:00The Myth of Choice When It Comes to Female Beauty
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uyL0QlaF_-6SH9NGcYnWLO1F4q8=/118x0:2003x1414/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54336909/GettyImages_684639975.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Guido Mieth/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>All our “options” look suspiciously like roads leading to the exact same place. </p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="Zutr6y">In my mid-20s, feeling flush with cash and finally ready to commit to something big, I made a life-changing decision: I lasered off all my underarm hair.</p>
<p id="R4nsJi">Over the course of 11 sessions, I paid a technician at a salon hundreds of dollars to shoot concentrated beams of light at my hair follicles, damaging them until, finally, I was left with nothing more than a few wisps of hair under each arm. It was, I felt, the sensible, adult choice to make. Regular shaving left my skin irritated, and waxing was far too painful to endure, particularly given the short-term results.</p>
<p id="8s7sv1">What never really occurred to me, however, was the possibility that I didn’t have to remove the hair at all.</p>
<p id="k6VScq">I started shaving my underarms at the tender age of 10, less out of a sense of choice than one of necessity. The brief few months that I didn’t shave, I learned some painful lessons about what kinds of secondary sex characteristics were considered acceptable for women. In the waning weeks of fifth grade, a boy cornered me in the hallway and offered to give me a few bucks if I’d keep my arms raised for a full minute. At summer camp, my cabin mates relentlessly made fun of my unshaven state. Although my mother discouraged me from shaving — the only reason she even shaved her legs, she told me, was because she wore stockings — newly pubescent me was loathe to take beauty advice from a middle-aged woman, particularly when it ran so counter to the norms enforced by my adolescent peers.</p>
<p id="DH18uW">More than 20 years after I committed to regularly removing my underarm hair, little has changed when it comes to our acceptance of female body hair. A BuzzFeed piece from a few years back noted that, even in dystopian survival narratives, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/arianelange/armpit-hair-ew?utm_term=.mmp9MD9pv6#.vaB1O512XW">women in movies always remember to shave their underarms</a>; a recent trailer for <em>Wonder Woman</em> made clear that even an Amazonian warrior raised in an all-female society is presumed to be <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffilms%2F0%2Fwonder-woman-faces-wrath-fans-digitally-blurred-hairless-armpits%2F&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2017%2F4%2F21%2F15246854%2Fchoice-autonomy-female-beauty" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">taking the time to eradicate her pesky body hair</a>. Although female body hair pops up as a trend from time to time — as with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/fashion/women-who-dye-their-armpit-hair.html?_r=0">brightly colored underarm hair</a> fad from a few years back — it’s almost always presented as a statement or call for attention, rather than merely a way of existing naturally within a female body. (Notably, a <a href="http://www.glamour.com/story/dyed-underarm-hair"><em>Glamour</em></a> piece on dyed underarm hair ends with the dyee noting that, when she’s tired of pink underarms, she’ll probably go back to shaving — merely having natural, unaltered underarms doesn’t seem to be on the table.) And, of course, even when female body hair <em>is</em> acceptable, it’s usually in the delicate, wispy iteration most often found in white women; the coarse, heavier body hair that grows on many female bodies — particularly on those of women of color — is rarely, if ever, presented as cute.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="XEx933"><q>We have options, yes, but they’re mostly just different paths of arriving at the same goal.</q></aside></div>
<p id="JLsXjz">In some ways, the story of female underarm hair is a frivolous and unremarkable thing, a footnote in the larger story of what it means to be a woman in America. But it’s also a microcosm of the larger narrative about female beauty. We have options, yes, but they’re mostly just different paths of arriving at the same goal. You can shave or wax or Nair or laser your legs, but you’d best make sure they’re silky smooth; if you’re a woman with facial hair, bleaching, waxing, and threading are the “options” you’ll get to pick from. (Pubic hair, at least, is a realm where women seem to actually have choice — but that hasn’t prevented writers from penning trend pieces that present hairless pudenda as a universally expected situation.) Women may have a wide range of body types, but we’re all expected to dress for our body shapes in an attempt to hide “problem areas” and create a visual illusion that mimics the arbitrary “ideal” body we’ve all been taught to aspire to. And the oxymoron that is a “natural” makeup look is yet another reminder that even our “natural” faces are expected to come complete with flawlessly clear skin, well-defined lips and eyes, and lustrous long lashes — expectations that, of course, men are largely free from.</p>
<p id="cBZLKu">It’s difficult to quantify the effect these expectations have on our conceptions of ourselves, on our ideas of what is normal and desirable and what kind of image we want to cultivate. Anti-Photoshop campaigns have raised awareness of how being bombarded with unrealistic images of bodies can <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/photoshop-american-medical-association_n_882958.html">damage our self-image</a>; but even without photo editing, being shown the same type of “ideal” body type over and over can do a number on one’s sense of self (particularly when that “ideal” body can <a href="http://greatist.com/grow/100-years-womens-body-image">quickly shift from one largely unattainable body to another</a>). When we’re constantly told that there’s a “right” way to be, it’s hard to tell how much of our own personal aesthetic is, well, truly personal, and how much exists as a response to everything we’ve been told about the proper way to be.</p>
<p id="cayO43">So many of these notions of what it is to be a woman are so ingrained, we don’t even think of them as socially constructed. When I tried, for instance, to ask a male friend to imagine what it would be like to grow up in a world where growing a beard was considered shameful and disgusting, where being clean-shaven was presented as the only acceptable male option, he thought I was making a point about pubic hair. The thought of women having underarm hair was such a foreign one, he hadn’t even considered it.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="dkWAcX"><q>So many of these notions of what it is to be a woman are so ingrained, we don’t even think of them as socially constructed.</q></aside></div>
<p id="d58Sbc">It’s true, of course, that men also face a limited range of options when it comes to fashion and beauty: Shaving underarms and legs has yet to be normalized for men, and those who choose to wear makeup, or pursue feminine fashion looks, are likely to be seen as odd. But there’s a difference between being shamed out of altering your natural body and being shamed into spending copious amounts of time and money remaking yourself in the shape of some arbitrary ideal. There’s certainly an “ideal” buff and muscle-bound male body that’s celebrated in the media — one that requires an immense amount of effort to attain and sustain — and the reality of men who struggle with body dysmorphia and feelings of inadequacy should not be overlooked. But the range of acceptable body types always seems to be broader for men; the amount of work men are expected to put in in order to merely be considered acceptable is always less than what is expected of women. To be an American woman is to exist in a culture where the scale is heavily weighted against just being yourself — and whatever “choices” we make must ultimately factor in the social cost of going against the grain.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="hB449F">I don’t regret lasering my underarm hair. Shaving was always a hassle, and it’s rare that I feel any pang of longing for my eradicated body hair. But I still wish I could say for sure that it really, truly was my choice. I wish that I had been presented with a variety of equally acceptable options and been allowed to choose the one that felt the most in line with my personal style. I wish I had grown up feeling like my natural body was acceptable on its own, without any cosmetic intervention. I wish the sartorial “options” society presents women with actually included just being as we are.</p>
<p id="fkPUNF"></p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/4/21/15246854/choice-autonomy-female-beautyLux Alptraum2017-03-23T09:32:01-04:002017-03-23T09:32:01-04:00Makeup Can Give Trans Women Freedom — But It Can Also Take It Away
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uCI-dNn5OuI173uh5zSPrc0F1ZM=/0x0:4992x3744/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53715495/GettyImages_592267075.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Fiorella Macor/EyeEm/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>The ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ relationship most women have with makeup gets turned up a notch when you’re trans.</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="eboMay">On most mornings, Riley Silverman prepares for her day with a simple makeup routine: BB cream, maybe some light foundation, eyeliner, occasionally a little lipstick. It’s a daily ritual that’s familiar to many women, and the way Silverman talks about her favorite beauty items — describing her eyeliner as “war paint” that armors her against the outside world — is of a piece with how other makeup aficionados (like, for instance, <a href="http://www.oystermag.com/interview-lorde-on-heroines-makeup-as-warpaint">Lorde</a>) discuss their cosmetic habits. But the idea of makeup as a protective force isn’t just a metaphor for Silverman: As a trans woman, she relies on makeup to have a very real impact on how she’s perceived in the world, and on whether people out in the world respect and affirm her identity.</p>
<p id="qkDd6v">Among cisgender (or non-trans) people, makeup is often assumed to be a significant component — if not the entirety — of trans women’s gender confirmation. The idea of “becoming a woman” through careful application of lipstick, foundation, and fake hair is fetishized across pop culture; countless movies and TV shows have played up the trope of gender transformation through makeup and clothing alone. In <em>The Danish Girl</em>, Lili Elbe has her trans awakening while <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/movies/tom-hooper-narrates-a-scene-from-the-danish-girl.html">putting on stockings and holding a dress</a>; movies like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXNfifKQU0"><em>The </em><em>Silence of the Lambs</em></a> signify characters’ gender identities through elaborately staged makeover scenes.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="LiLuNs"><q>The idea of “becoming a woman” through careful application of lipstick, foundation, and fake hair is fetishized across pop culture.</q></aside></div>
<p id="C21rSI">And that perceived relationship between superficial signifiers and gender identity also forms the basis of one of the most common criticisms lobbed at trans women. When Caitlyn Jenner told Diane Sawyer that she was looking forward to being “able to have my nail polish on long enough that it actually chips off,” some critics latched onto this as proof Jenner was cherry-picking the fun parts of femininity and confusing them for the whole of womanhood. “Nail polish does not a woman make,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/what-makes-a-woman.html?_r=0">Elinor Burkett noted in the<em> New York Times</em></a>, a line echoing the persistent criticism that trans women conflate external femininity with “true” womanhood.</p>
<p id="j4oy8L">But there’s a cruel irony to Burkett’s statement, because the idea that external appearance is what makes someone a “real” woman is the very thing that many trans women have committed themselves to fighting. To the extent that makeup is an essential part of any trans woman’s gender identity or notion of her womanhood, it’s largely because that’s the message the rest of the world aggressively forces upon her.</p>
<p id="cFVSh0">It’s certainly true that makeup can play an important role in easing the dysphoria that trans women feel around secondary sex characteristics — Silverman told me that using foundation to hide stubble makes her face feel more like her own, for a much cheaper price than laser hair removal. And for some trans women, makeup, feminine clothing, and other superficial trappings of womanhood can feel like powerful totems of one’s authentic identity — though more because coming out as a woman means finally getting unrestricted access to these items than because the items themselves have the power to confer womanhood. "It’s very, very silly that when I put on a blouse it feels different than when I just put on a man’s shirt,” comedian <a href="https://twitter.com/aedison">Avery Edison</a> tells me. “That’s silly, but it is a thing. And having to do that in secret versus getting to do that in public, it’s such a powerful difference.”</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="uEwh46"><q>"It’s very, very silly that when I put on a blouse it feels different than when I just put on a man’s shirt. That’s silly, but it is a thing. And having to do that in secret versus getting to do that in public, it’s such a powerful difference.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="kkfO3a">But, perhaps most importantly, many trans women consider makeup an essential part of their daily routine for the same reason cis women do: It simply makes their lives easier. In the same way that cis women might spend every morning applying a “natural” face that’ll help them be taken more seriously at the office, find success on Tinder, and move through the world with relative ease, trans women turn to makeup to craft an appearance the rest of the world will read as “acceptably” feminine. As Ashley Lauren Rogers, host of the podcast “<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/is-it-transphobic-podcast/id1164189859">Is It Transphobic?”</a> and a veteran of the beauty industry, puts it, makeup is “looked at as a necessity if you’re going to be taken seriously as a woman in the world.”</p>
<p id="UZMg0k">Yet while makeup’s benefits may be a universal aspect of womanhood, for trans women, “failing” at makeup can have much higher stakes. When writer <a href="https://twitter.com/1demerith">Meredith Talusan</a> began her medical transition 15 years ago, a trans woman’s failure to use makeup could literally derail her transition process. </p>
<p id="xH7DqD">When Talusan turned to online communities to learn how to navigate the medical system as a trans woman, the tips she found included things like: “Be as stereotypically feminine as you possibly can, wear a dress that isn’t too revealing but is unquestionably feminine. Wear your hair [in a feminine style] and put on the appropriate amount of makeup.” </p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="lX7RNh"><q>Makeup is “looked at as a necessity if you’re going to be taken seriously as a woman in the world.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="ZafKgZ">In theory, these guidelines were put in place to ensure that trans women would have easier lives after transition. But in practice, it meant that the medical professionals with the power to commence or deny a trans woman’s medical transition — who, Talusan tells me, are primarily men — created a “feedback loop” around questions of what it means to be a woman, placing an arbitrary emphasis on superficial aspects of femininity like makeup, jewelry, and clothes and constraining trans women’s ability to express their womanhood in the process.</p>
<p id="K9NNeB">That rigid gatekeeping process is no longer universal — Silverman pursued transition a few years ago at an <a href="https://www.susans.org/wiki/index.php/Informed_consent">informed consent clinic</a>, an increasingly common resource that allows people to pursue transition without “proving” that their gender identity adheres to a rigid and limited standard of femininity. But the legacy of transition experiences like Talusan’s still cast a shadow over the way many trans women understand their identities today. In order to be taken seriously and respected as women, they must adhere to a rigid and arbitrary standard of womanhood, but by adhering to limited standards of femininity, they’re accused of reducing womanhood to something superficial.</p>
<p id="S22I9n">“When I’m putting makeup on, it’s not just to look 'more like a woman,' but also to make sure people know that I’m trying... and that I’m meeting them halfway,” says Edison. She notes that, given the way trans women are routinely mocked in pop culture, she often fears that she’s perceived as ridiculous, or that if she doesn’t try hard enough to conform to societal expectations of women, people might think she’s being willfully bad at womanhood. Makeup is an easy way of flagging that — whichever body she was born into — she’s willing to do the work that femininity entails. </p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="hgvOcX"><q>“If my gender isn’t going to be validated anyway, I’ll just wear it when I feel like it.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="29cs1t">And that idea of femininity as something that takes work, something that can be failed at, may be the crux of the fraught relationship many trans women have with makeup. Cosmetics may not make the woman, but using cosmetics makes being read as a woman easier. And when not being read as a woman means harassment, unemployment, assault, and even death, makeup goes from being optional to being essential.</p>
<p id="prQ9li">But as complicated as makeup was for every woman I spoke with, they all noted that, as they’ve gotten more comfortable with their identities, as they’ve gotten used to living openly as women, their relationship to makeup has been able to relax a bit. Edison — who, years ago, wouldn’t leave her bedroom without makeup, let alone her house — is now willing to at least run some errands without putting on a full face; Rogers noted that she’s taken a break from elaborate eye makeup, because “if my gender isn’t going to be validated anyway, I’ll just wear it when I feel like it.” </p>
<p id="9XueIS">The more comfortable trans women feel with themselves — and, more importantly, the more accepting society is of the diverse range of ways there is to be a woman — the more makeup becomes a fun aspect of femininity rather than a requirement of womanhood. And that, frankly, is what we should want for all women.</p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/3/23/14937266/trans-women-makeupLux Alptraum2017-02-14T10:02:00-05:002017-02-14T10:02:00-05:00Who Is Self-Care For?
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DIsMnH3Tgm2KPVA94HweOLMt3us=/320x0:5440x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53223415/GettyImages_556453515.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Westend61/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>Self-care has never been more necessary, or more misunderstood. </p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="omINmb">Ever since the election, there’s been a question that perplexes Taz Ahmed, campaign strategist for <a href="http://18millionrising.org/">18 Million Rising</a>, an organization dedicated to increasing Asian-American civic involvement. It’s not how to move forward at a time when the government is unleashing attacks on Muslims and immigrants, or what kind of work she needs to be doing to safeguard her community. No, the question that Ahmed can’t quite figure out how to answer is much more simple: "What's your self-care regimen?" </p>
<p id="EfemqA">A <a href="http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com/podcast/2017/1/31/025-large-groups-of-angry-people">recent episode</a> of #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, the podcast Ahmed co-hosts with comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh, begins with the two women dissecting the deceptively simple query. “My self-care regimen is sitting on my carpet and crying while I look at the popcorn ceiling,” Ahmed jokes. “Is that what they mean by self-care regimen?”</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="GqOBxm"><q>“My self-care regimen is sitting on my carpet and crying while I look at the popcorn ceiling. Is that what they mean by self-care regimen?”</q></aside></div>
<p id="APC9Js">When I call her a week and a half later, Ahmed explains that it’s not that she’s opposed to self-care; she just finds the question baffling. “As a daughter of immigrants, my parents were always just trying to get by and figuring out where the next paycheck was coming from, just trying to get food on the table,” she says. “There wasn’t ever a point where my mom was like, 'Every day you need to breathe intentionally for 15 minutes.’ That wasn’t something I was raised with."</p>
<p id="woX5kk">And at a time when self-care is being used to refer to everything from <a href="http://coolmompicks.com/2016-holiday-gift-guide/self-care-gifts/">cashmere socks and pricey pencil sets</a> to staying hydrated and remembering to breathe, the conversation can get even more confusing. Is self-care an essential survival skill or a collection of luxury lifestyle accoutrements? Who is self-care for, and how are we supposed to talk about it?</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="uaOoLQ">
<p id="2P3Z1M">Ahmed isn’t the only one noticing an uptick in talk about self-care. Searches for the term, which <a href="https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=self%20care">have been rising for the past few years</a>, spiked up in November and are currently at an all-time high. Essays with titles like “<a href="http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/136943/self-care-ideas-sara-benincasa-trump-presidency">Self-Care Will Be More Important Than Ever In The Age Of Trump</a>” offer a fairly succinct explanation for the increased interest in the practice.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="PHbuUZ"><q>“‘Self-care’ is any practice that you initiate and do yourself for the purposes of maintaining your own physical and mental well-being.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="nDqFEH">Despite its current status as something of a bougie buzzword, the concept of self-care predates celebrity-helmed lifestyle blogs and cutesy slogans. <a href="http://www.longwoods.com/content/16342">An article</a> from the December 2003 issue of <em>Nursing Leadership</em> notes that self-care is as old as humanity itself; the term has been pretty widely used in healthcare, therapy, and social work spaces for years. As Irene Malatesta, marketing director for wellness startup <a href="http://www.lifedojo.com/">LifeDojo</a>, puts it, “‘self-care’ is any practice that you initiate and do yourself for the purposes of maintaining your own physical and mental well-being.”</p>
<p id="W7qnMb">Although there are guiding principles to self-care — staying mentally and physically healthy, taking time to recharge and relax, maintaining good boundaries — there’s no one set of tasks or behaviors that can concretely be considered self-care for everyone. </p>
<p id="4lz1dJ">And that open-endedness may be why it was so easy for the term to get co-opted. Early online mentions of self-care hewed close to its traditional meaning, like this TED <a href="https://www.ted.com/playlists/299/the_importance_of_self_care">playlist</a> labeled “The importance of self-care” that largely focuses on tried-and-true topics like meditation and nutrition. But in recent years, it’s morphed into something along the lines of consumerism masked as wellness; an excuse to engage in selfish indulgence while claiming to pursue self-improvement. Twenty-three dollar <a href="http://hellogiggles.com/bath-tea-is-a-super-trendy-form-of-self-care-you-should-absolutely-give-a-try/">bath tea</a>? That’s self-care. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Self-Care-Z-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1539970361">Adult coloring books</a>? Sure, why not. A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1312786051?ie=UTF8&tag=bustle2443-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1312786051" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">$30 journal</a> claims to be chock-full of self-care prompts and activities that’ll aid you on your journey to greater wellness, so long as you’re able to afford $30 for a journal. Even <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2Flisting%2F262567256%2Fself-care-nail-decals-by-hannah-daisy&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2017%2F2%2F14%2F14600538%2Fself-care" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">nail decals</a> have gotten in on the self-care act — and let’s not forget virtually every overpriced bauble <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514733&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgoop.com%2Fthe-beauty-detox-guide%2F&referrer=racked.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racked.com%2F2017%2F2%2F14%2F14600538%2Fself-care" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">hawked by Gwyneth Paltrow</a>, who’s never met a $40 body scrub she couldn’t position as an opportunity for relaxing self-care.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="nnNwF3"><q> “Openly discussing self-care is socially acceptable if it fits within the context of conspicuous consumption but is much less socially acceptable when it indicates genuine vulnerability.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="r78NQU">Malatesta suspects that the popularity of this consumerist take on self-care is rooted in the sadly persistent stigma around wellness and mental health. “Openly discussing self-care is socially acceptable if it fits within the context of conspicuous consumption (i.e., manicures, spa days, or even luxury shopping) but is much less socially acceptable when it indicates genuine vulnerability (i.e., seeing a therapist or taking anxiety medication),” she notes. “People are really afraid of being judged or seen as less capable if they admit they’re struggling.”</p>
<p id="TwrLzB">And while there’s certainly an argument to be made that even the most bougie, eye-roll-y expenditure is, or at least can be, self-care — if it renews and reinvigorates you, why not? — the positioning of self-care as an item to be purchased, as an aspirational lifestyle hawked to the kind of women who read Goop in earnest, has the perverse effect of making self-care feel less accessible to the very people who need it most. </p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="cG5q9S">
<p id="ZpcHAJ">For all the misgivings Ahmed has about being expected to have some detailed, point-by-point self-care plan, she openly acknowledges that the increased focus on individual wellness has had tangible benefits for people — particularly in the burnout-prone activist spaces where she works.</p>
<p id="scgzRD">In the early aughts, Ahmed was working in environmental activism; in those days, she tells me, no one was talking about self-care at all. To the contrary, she says, “You had to work 20 hours a day to show that you were really, really an activist” — and as a result, there was a great deal of turnover as people burned out. In an environment that put an emphasis on devoting all of one’s time and emotional energy to caring and advocating for the needs of others — with little to no time left over for one’s self — many found that they were unable to make activism a long-term, sustainable lifestyle.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="0nu0o4"><q>“I think it’s kind of annoying to be asked if I’m drinking water. That’s the one silliest question that I’ve been asked the most since Election Day.”</q></aside></div>
<p id="tKsaQM">In contrast, the organizing spaces she works in now are very focused on self-care and sustainable action. When we spoke, Ahmed told me she was currently reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Stewardship-Everyday-Caring-Others/dp/157675944X"><em>Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others</em></a><em> </em>as part of her work. Organizations like <a href="https://twitter.com/vigilantlovela">Vigilant Love</a> do group breathing exercises before each event; <a href="http://www.peirsac.org/peirsacui/er/educational_resources10.pdf">grounding techniques</a> intended to help people maintain a sense of focus and engagement have become a regular part of the Los Angeles Asian-American activist community.</p>
<p id="Rm6GVG">Yet even still, Ahmed tells me, “I just don’t think that people have figured how to really talk about it.” The intentional, explicit approach that many people have been relying on — <a href="http://www.compassionstrengths.com/Self-care_Checklist.html">bullet point lists</a>, asking how much water people are drinking — can feel a bit awkward. “I think it’s kind of annoying to be asked if I’m drinking water. That’s the one silliest question that I’ve been asked the most since Election Day.”</p>
<p id="4IiL8h">But perhaps it’s all a part of the process of making self-care an expected, natural part of American culture. Aspirational, consumerist self-care helped bring the concept into the cultural conversation; the stressful political climate created a widespread need. Hopefully, as the conversation of what sustainable, long-term self-care looks like continues, we’ll stop thinking of it as “self-care” and start thinking of it as just a part of living.</p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/2/14/14600538/self-careLux Alptraum2017-02-08T09:32:01-05:002017-02-08T09:32:01-05:00How Reddit's Anti-Feminist Women Talk About Clothes
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R834zWrnQ1pTbvrbkZn2i6dQpk0=/220x0:1980x1320/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53145383/Reddit_feature.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p class="c-entry-disclaimer"><i>Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods">The Goods by Vox</a>. You can also see what we’re up to by <a href="https://vox.com/goods-newsletter">signing up here</a>.</i></p>
<p>When it comes to makeup and clothing, Red Pill Women don't always follow their captain.</p> <p id="8b1qaa">All across the internet, there are websites, blogs, Facebook groups, and forums devoted to offering fashion advice to a wide array of women with their own unique needs. Fashion-forward mom? Dapper queer? Fat and fabulous? The web is loaded with resources for you.</p>
<p id="CmtDbk">And if you’re looking to craft an outfit that says “I’ve rejected feminism, bought into the idea that men and women are just naturally different, and am looking for a good, reliable man to be the captain to my first mate,” then there’s Reddit’s <a href="http://reddit.com/r/redpillwomen">Red Pill Women</a>.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="r1A8uv"><q>Red Pill Women is for ladies who are choosing a traditionally feminine path — and, in keeping with that, believe that heterosexual relationships work best when the man is in charge.</q></aside></div>
<p id="e9fPqy">Launched in mid-2013, Red Pill Women is a female-focused offshoot of <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/">The Red Pill</a>, a popular Reddit board devoted to the idea that feminism has tricked men into abandoning their fundamental masculine nature, leaving them sexless and frustrated in the process. Where The Red Pill encourages men to embrace their natural masculinity and learn how to be an alpha male, Red Pill Women is for ladies who are choosing a traditionally feminine path — and, in keeping with that, believe that heterosexual relationships work best when the man is in charge, that women are naturally sexual gatekeepers, and that women who look good and act demure are best positioned to attract a worthwhile mate. (Notably, Red Pill Women is <em>not</em> a forum for ladies looking to date dudes who post in The Red Pill — men from that community are frequently derided as “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/2lbgd5/the_anatomy_of_a_plate_spinner/">plate spinners</a>” more interested in hooking up than settling down.)</p>
<p id="TC8b7T">Perhaps unsurprisingly, Red Pill Women isn’t as popular as its dude-oriented counterpart: The forum boasts just under 16,000 members (about 10 percent of The Red Pill’s subscriber base), with substantially fewer posts. Page back through 1,000 posts on Red Pill Women, and you land 11 months in the past; over on The Red Pill, you’ll still see posts from that very day.</p>
<p id="W0TtVh">But what Red Pill Women lacks in size, it makes up for in dedication. It’s clear that women who’ve “swallowed the red pill” genuinely believe that they’ve tapped into the keys to relationship success and sexual fulfillment, and they’re grateful to have a community of like-minded women to help them through the various struggles of finding and keeping a man who will respect, love, and stick with them for many years to come. Together, they <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5o63ly/do_i_need_to_trust_my_husband_to_lead_on_this_or/">sort through relationship struggles</a>, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5n5otl/ideas_for_spicing_up_sex_life/">chat about how to keep things interesting in the bedroom</a>, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5n7fiw/im_feeling_depressed_about_liberalism/">mourn what they see as the rise of liberal ideas about gender and relationships</a>. And, of course, they’ve got a lot of opinions on clothes.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="35IdAJ"><q>Within the Red Pill community, looking beautiful and feminine doesn’t mean much if you haven’t accepted the “fact” that women are better off being submissive to their partners.</q></aside></div>
<p id="uloBmA">Red Pill Women isn’t a beauty forum per se. As <a href="https://www.forums.red/p/RedPillWomen/1041/explaining_the_rpw_sub">one explainer notes</a>, the subreddit is much more focused on internal, rather than external, change; within the Red Pill community, looking beautiful and feminine doesn’t mean much if you haven’t accepted the “fact” that women are better off being submissive to their partners. </p>
<p id="DMlAwU">But while attitude adjustments are seen as more critical than superficial makeovers, appearance is still seen as a vitally important part of securing — and retaining — a relationship. Much of The Red Pill philosophy revolves around the notion of SMV (that’s “sexual market value”); the higher your SMV is, the better your chances of getting the partner you want. And since for women, SMV is <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5n6oq8/how_to_gauge_your_smv/">pretty much all about looks</a>, it’s hardly surprising that the discussion not infrequently ventures into sartorial terrain. </p>
<p id="7aPmh1">So what, pray tell, is a Red Pill Woman to wear? For most members, the operative word is “feminine” — meaning soft, non-threatening, conservative sort of feminine, specifically. Dramatic high-fashion styles and punky riot grrl aesthetics, girly though they may be, aren’t really what these women are going for. Instead, they gravitate toward looks that follow a few simple rules. Long hair is better than short (according to the group, men prefer it because healthy hair indicates fertility); minimal, natural makeup is preferable to “cake face;” skirts win out over pants; and — in a sartorial spin on the age-old prude/slut dilemma — clothes should hug and showcase one’s fit physique without veering into overly-exposed territory.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="bfWIsZ"><q>Long hair is better than short (according to the group, men prefer it because healthy hair indicates fertility); minimal, natural makeup is preferable to “cake face;” skirts win out over pants.</q></aside></div>
<p id="LPuOBZ">Thread after thread solicits advice on how to maintain one’s femininity in a variety of situations. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/51hqbo/clothing_rules/">At work</a> or <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5lath1/new_years_resolutions/dbuoob0/">at home</a>, whether overhauling an <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4nx2c6/how_do_you_dress_feminine_as_a_rpw/">entire wardrobe</a> or securing <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5fvd5q/good_qualityvalue_foot_wear/">a single item</a>, and especially when <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/581ejt/how_to_present_myself_as_feminine_in_the_winter/">it’s cold</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4y4q44/dressing_femininely_in_the_winter_or_springfall/">outside</a>, a high priority is placed on presenting oneself as stylish, fit, and, yes, feminine. </p>
<p id="CyIBOg">For the most part, this devotion to feminine clothes is a matter of strategy. It is, according to the group, the style that good men find most attractive in their partners. Baggy pants and athleisure suggest a girl is slovenly, unkempt, and uninterested in taking care of herself (and, by extension, her partner); a girl who’s willing to go the extra mile and don dresses and heels and prioritize her partner’s tastes over her own physical comfort is showing herself to be a devoted partner who’ll continue to keep up appearances (literally) long after she’s locked down a relationship.</p>
<p id="8MB3wA">At times, fashion even takes on an almost magical quality: In one thread, dresses in particular are granted a mystical power as the poster details the ways that <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4s84im/nsfw_7_days_of_dresses/">wearing dresses every day for a week</a> substantially improved her life.</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="m5oOOx"><q>I was surprised by how often I found myself coveting many of the outfits offered up as aspirational examples of red pill style.</q></aside></div>
<p id="YaKl02">If a classic, feminine style is your bag, then the fashion advice doled out on Red Pill Women, while a bit constrained, is actually pretty solid. There are plenty of good recs and useful information to be found on Red Pill Women, with shops like ModCloth and ASOS routinely getting name checked, and fleece-lined tights — a must for any pants-eschewing cold weather wardrobe — routinely listed as a must-have wardrobe item. I was surprised by how often I found myself coveting many of the outfits offered up as aspirational examples of Red Pill style, and by how much in common my sartorial strategy has with many of the women on this board.</p>
<p id="nTcTdX">Also surprising? The group’s broad acceptance of diverse fashion styles and looks, even ones that veer away from what you might think of as traditional, conservative, and feminine. The most important fashion tip, posters remind each other, is to wear something that makes you feel comfortable and confident — even if it bends the rules of traditional feminine style. A poster who <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4rqnvy/can_i_attract_a_man_with_smv_while_dressing_goth/">fears that her goth style will prevent her from attracting high-value men</a> is told, over and over, that so long as she’s a pretty, feminine goth (as opposed to an “I’m going to kill you in your sleep” goth or overly masculine goth), she’ll be perfectly fine. In <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/52l6b0/smv_and_short_hair/">another thread</a>, a black woman worries that she won’t be able to achieve the long hair men supposedly desire without turning to extensions (fake, and therefore a no-no) or aggressively damaging her hair; in response, she’s assured that hair <em>health</em> is far more important than hair <em>length</em> — even if she’ll never attain lustrous mermaid locks, she still has a chance of securing a quality captain.</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="mmUgiU"><q>And at times there are even moments of clarity that venture into — dare I say it — near feminist territory.</q></aside></div>
<p id="iwjME2">Even a fat woman who frets that her body — which, by not being toned to perfection, is committing something of a Red Pill sin — makes dressing in a pretty, feminine style an exercise in futility is met not with scorn, but <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5ngqkq/is_it_worth_dressing_feminine_when_youre_still_fat/">with encouragement</a>. While the overall message isn’t exactly one of body positivity — no one’s telling her to love herself as she is, or to stop worrying about losing weight — there is broad agreement that there’s no need to put off living her best life just because she’s not at her goal weight. As a moderator reminds her, “it’s worth dressing and <em>feeling </em>feminine in your own skin always, not conditionally upon some future condition;” other group members chime in with similar advice, encouraging her to explore and embrace her femininity even if she’s not quite where she wants to be, weight-wise.</p>
<p id="VBihSV">And at times, there are even moments of clarity that venture into — dare I say it — near feminist territory, particularly when the topic turns to makeup. More than one poster has turned to the group for guidance on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/3t9e6u/how_much_makeup_is_usually_not_considered_trickery/">how to make use of makeup</a> without <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5nf041/how_should_i_approach_makeup/">being deceptive</a> or turning into one of those women routinely derided by men who urge their colleagues to “<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=take+her+swimming+on+the+first+date&espv=2&biw=1382&bih=678&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjjmN6f98bRAhVL4yYKHX5yBREQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=W4OzpYqzgPLjZM%3A">take her swimming on the first date</a>.” </p>
<p id="WVUHBt">Rather than echoing some manosphere line about the evils of makeup, the women in this group tend to see men’s professed views on makeup for the trap that they are. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4x1f29/men_say_we_prefer_natural_women_do_they_really/">One particularly insightful thread</a> examines the idea that men prefer “natural” women for the lie that it is, noting going makeup-free is only in your best interest if you’re genetically blessed with perfect skin and conventionally attractive features. “You can play fair all you want, the system is cruel,” the poster concludes. “You are judged on things that you have no control over. Your desire to be ‘natural because you don't want to deceive’ can be detrimental in the path for success.” (Elsewhere, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/3t9e6u/how_much_makeup_is_usually_not_considered_trickery/cx4j3h4/">commenters note</a> that men who crow the loudest about hating makeup often have no idea what they’re talking about; the “makeup-free” looks celebrated by men often involve heavy amounts of product carefully applied to look “natural.”)</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang"><aside id="IQG1pl"><q>While male attention and approval, particularly within the context of a committed relationship, is valued, it’s made clear that its value has its limits.</q></aside></div>
<p id="q5Unut">And while male attention and approval, particularly within the context of a committed relationship, is valued, it’s made clear that its value has its limits. In <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/4mzt17/my_husband_wants_me_to_color_my_hair_blonde_and/">a particularly harrowing thread</a>, a 24-year-old writes about being pressured to get breast implants by her husband, who blames her post-pregnancy breasts for his lack of sexual interest. Rather than tell her to default to her partner, or insist that if he wants it, it’s inherently his right, group members caution her against making such a drastic change to her body — particularly given that it’s hardly guaranteed to save her relationship. The community reminds her — as they reiterate in other threads — that the Red Pill philosophy isn’t about submitting to all men, all the time, not matter what they want; it’s about using your femininity and SMV to attract a man who’s worth submitting to. In these moments, as the members of Red Pill Women demonstrate a deep understanding of the raw deal dealt out to women, their mission and philosophy starts to seem almost relatable.</p>
<p id="gYPlQB">But whatever pearls of insight reside within Red Pill Women, it’s impossible to escape the forum’s ultimate fixation. “Dress for your man, not other women,” one <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/5h5c2q/dress_for_your_man_not_other_women/">particularly popular thread</a> admonishes group members, noting that twee accessories and designer brands might curry favor with other women, but aren’t particularly interesting to the all-important male gaze. And that perspective — the one that suggests that male approval is the ultimate currency, that your clothes and appearance should ultimately be for a man’s enjoyment and not your own — is where Red Pill Women loses me.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="f7s7H7"></p>
https://www.racked.com/2017/2/8/14390892/red-pill-women-styleLux Alptraum