Blogger is being a horse's patootie and won't let me post a comment, but this is what I had to say re: Foundation Garments and Body Image, borrowed from Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing.
I agree with Baroness Von Vintage way up there that extreme body modification is much older than the 1960's, but I do think that the decades since the 1960's have idealized a body type that is far less easily "created" by means of clothing. You can fake curvy or bosomy but you can't fake rail-thin, which has basically been the ideal since the late 1960's (except possibly during the 1980's when clothes were huge and padded). I can stuff my bra and tighten my girdle to create an hourglass, but there's nothing I can do to create narrow hips and skinny thighs where I have a broad pelvis and meaty legs.
It's a lot easier to feel badly about the body you have when it's impossible to disguise how far it is from the ideal. I feel much better about myself in a big 1950's skirt that hides my extremely-unfashionable pear shape than I would trying to conform to the current skinny-jeans ideal.
Learning to sew and being able to make clothes that actually fit me--I happen to have a build that lends itself to "unliberated" 1940's and 1950's styles--has allowed me to stop fighting with my clothes, with the whole concept of clothes, and in large part with my body image. I don't know if I think about clothes more now, but I definitely think about them positively far more. I used to think about clothes a lot because I dreaded getting dressed, knowing that nothing fit, would be comfortable, or would look good.
I think looking and feeling good is a basic human thing. People have been ornamenting themselves and clothes for pretty much as long as archaeology can tell us anything about what they wore. Remember the Ice Man they found in the Alps in the early 1990's? He was wearing a black-and-white striped fur vest.
I continue to believe that feminism means choice. I don't want to be forced to wear certain clothes, but if I choose to wear a corset and long skirt, it's nobody else's business.
I agree with Baroness Von Vintage way up there that extreme body modification is much older than the 1960's, but I do think that the decades since the 1960's have idealized a body type that is far less easily "created" by means of clothing. You can fake curvy or bosomy but you can't fake rail-thin, which has basically been the ideal since the late 1960's (except possibly during the 1980's when clothes were huge and padded). I can stuff my bra and tighten my girdle to create an hourglass, but there's nothing I can do to create narrow hips and skinny thighs where I have a broad pelvis and meaty legs.
It's a lot easier to feel badly about the body you have when it's impossible to disguise how far it is from the ideal. I feel much better about myself in a big 1950's skirt that hides my extremely-unfashionable pear shape than I would trying to conform to the current skinny-jeans ideal.
Learning to sew and being able to make clothes that actually fit me--I happen to have a build that lends itself to "unliberated" 1940's and 1950's styles--has allowed me to stop fighting with my clothes, with the whole concept of clothes, and in large part with my body image. I don't know if I think about clothes more now, but I definitely think about them positively far more. I used to think about clothes a lot because I dreaded getting dressed, knowing that nothing fit, would be comfortable, or would look good.
I think looking and feeling good is a basic human thing. People have been ornamenting themselves and clothes for pretty much as long as archaeology can tell us anything about what they wore. Remember the Ice Man they found in the Alps in the early 1990's? He was wearing a black-and-white striped fur vest.
I continue to believe that feminism means choice. I don't want to be forced to wear certain clothes, but if I choose to wear a corset and long skirt, it's nobody else's business.
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