I Don't Know Many Average People

I’m providing you with my train of thought on how I got to this post.

I was over at Refractional Darkness, where S. had commented on his good fortune while thrift shopping. (I can’t find his damn permalink, so you have to scroll down to Thrift Shop Bonanza.) Thrift shopping is really big down here. With Palm Beach, man you get some great clothes for next to nothing. Then Little Joe commented about how he thought he should write a post about the Frankenstein store where large men have to shop. (Little Joe is 6’6”.) Oh and slightly off topic, Little Joe also has a post on things he has been mistaken for. People are so damn dumb. Someone actually tried to take shelter under him once. I hate to admit it though, that one made me laugh. (Sorry, Joe.)

So I am now thinking about how difficult it is in our society to buy clothes if you do not fit the exact mold of ‘average’. For God only knows how many years, Plus sized women were subjected to having to wear clothes that could have been mistaken for a tent, covered in flowers or horribly awful patterns. I’m not kidding. It was disgusting stuff. And when I was pregnant, how many times did I say to my husband after I left a maternity store, “Why is it that these yahoos think that just because I am with child I suddenly have the urge to wear little lambs and bunnies on my clothes? And lace! Ditch the frickin' lace!” Get a damn clue. I’m a woman carrying a baby, not a baby! Stupid idiots.

For the longest time, it was very difficult for us women of below average stature to find clothes. Now, just as the Plus sized women, we have our own stores, and our own little corners of the department stores. It is more than just an issue of the pants are too long, as a distinction between average sized clothes and shorty clothes. Pockets don’t hit in the right places… things are out of proportion for us.

For example, in men’s terms, Grau is 6’ tall. Little Joe is 6’6”. If Grau had a sports jacket and wanted to have it altered to fit LJ, beyond the fact it can’t be done, you would never say, “Oh, lets just add 3 inches of coat length to the bottom”. The pockets would be too high for Little Joe’s arms. Proportion is more than just body length, it is arm length too.

I went to this fashion thing a long time ago for small women, before the fashion jerks realized how much money they were missing out on shorty people like me, and they said things like “Go shop in the children’s departments. Their earrings are more proportionate and so are their purses. You don’t need to be carrying big handbags. Little girl bags are your size.” Wrongo! I’m sorry, but I’m way the hell past wanting to wear tiny cute heart earrings and I like my handbags to look like a damn woman’s handbag. I don’t need a tiny white purse with the gold clasp and fake pink flower, that looks like it’s only big enough to hold a spare pair of panties in case I pee in mine. (Update: I reread this and realized it made it sound like I am not potty trained! Obscure reference to the fact that's what some little girls carry in their little girl purses!)

Anyway, in women’s fashions they have come a long way to cater to those of use who are not ‘average’. I don’t know about men’s fashions (I hate to shop), but if they haven’t gotten a clue yet, let us hope they do soon. No more Frankstein stores. A section in the corner of a department store suits most of us fine.