Sometimes I wonder if you deliberately play devil's advocate on livejournal.
I had no choice but to go into the Knickerbox - there wasn't anywhere else immediately obvious to buy a bra from. (I know my way round Wimbledon but only to find the bus stops - wouldn't ever choose to shop there because it has a lousy selection of shops.) I went in knowing that whatever I got from there would be crap. However, I was shocked by how crap it was.
Put it this way. If you go into McDonalds, and pay £2.50 for a burger, fries and Coke, you know it's going to be crap. If you were to go into McDonalds and they tried to charge you £15 for the same meal, you'd feel rightly pissed off. If the shitty bra was £10 normally and £3 in the sale, I'd have felt that I got what I paid for. But at £25 normally and £12 in the sale, I feel offended.
A bra can be "pretty" (a colour other than black, perhaps with a pattern, perhaps with the lace that my skin regards as itchy and uncomfortable but other people like), yet still well-enough made to do the job for which it is intended, i.e. support breasts. The bras in Knickerbox were not even pretty - many of them were in completely bizarre colours that I couldn't imagine any conventional (i.e. non-geek) trendy (fashion-following) heterosexual girl or boy finding attractive. And then on top of that, the combination of poor manufacture and extremely high price was insulting.
I think also that you misplace my offense. I'm not offended for myself. I was in a hurry, it was an emergency bra, it lasted the length of my lecture. I would throw it away but that's too wasteful, so if I have spoons I'll rinse it through and give it to a charity shop. Whatever. The people I feel offended for are Knickerbox's standard clientele - the girls who shop there because they simply don't know better. They haven't been well enough educated in textiles to know that those fabrics are dirt cheap, make you sweat horribly and can cause skin rashes; and they haven't been well enough educated in physics to know that those bras will only "hold up" breasts that can already hold themselves up. They're so used to itchy, uncomfortable, impractical, unwearable female clothing that it hasn't occurred to them that it's possible to have comfortable clothing. They may be so keen on brand names that they overlook decent, well-made garments. I feel sorry for them, and insulted that they have to put up with such tat.
Occasionally I'll play devil's advocate, but not always. I like presenting other angles of an argument though.
Surely, however, awful though shoddy clothing is, it's merely a function of the market. Most people know that M&S provide decent underwear, although I can imagine younger people might think it has a bit of a fuddy duddy image..?
It's sad that many women wear crap bras, but there's enough adverts and information to point them to the better suppliers (although, yes, even M&S and Bravissimo get it wrong at times). Surely, over time, most people realise that some shops are better than others and that this applies to all clothes and footwear..
I think if I Ruled The World, I'd have a top ten list of 'things you have to work out for yourself' (with help from other people). 'Which bra fits' would be in the list for women, as would 'Which products should I use to shave?' (for everyone).
I had no choice but to go into the Knickerbox - there wasn't anywhere else immediately obvious to buy a bra from. (I know my way round Wimbledon but only to find the bus stops - wouldn't ever choose to shop there because it has a lousy selection of shops.) I went in knowing that whatever I got from there would be crap. However, I was shocked by how crap it was.
Put it this way. If you go into McDonalds, and pay £2.50 for a burger, fries and Coke, you know it's going to be crap. If you were to go into McDonalds and they tried to charge you £15 for the same meal, you'd feel rightly pissed off. If the shitty bra was £10 normally and £3 in the sale, I'd have felt that I got what I paid for. But at £25 normally and £12 in the sale, I feel offended.
A bra can be "pretty" (a colour other than black, perhaps with a pattern, perhaps with the lace that my skin regards as itchy and uncomfortable but other people like), yet still well-enough made to do the job for which it is intended, i.e. support breasts. The bras in Knickerbox were not even pretty - many of them were in completely bizarre colours that I couldn't imagine any conventional (i.e. non-geek) trendy (fashion-following) heterosexual girl or boy finding attractive. And then on top of that, the combination of poor manufacture and extremely high price was insulting.
I think also that you misplace my offense. I'm not offended for myself. I was in a hurry, it was an emergency bra, it lasted the length of my lecture. I would throw it away but that's too wasteful, so if I have spoons I'll rinse it through and give it to a charity shop. Whatever. The people I feel offended for are Knickerbox's standard clientele - the girls who shop there because they simply don't know better. They haven't been well enough educated in textiles to know that those fabrics are dirt cheap, make you sweat horribly and can cause skin rashes; and they haven't been well enough educated in physics to know that those bras will only "hold up" breasts that can already hold themselves up. They're so used to itchy, uncomfortable, impractical, unwearable female clothing that it hasn't occurred to them that it's possible to have comfortable clothing. They may be so keen on brand names that they overlook decent, well-made garments. I feel sorry for them, and insulted that they have to put up with such tat.
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Surely, however, awful though shoddy clothing is, it's merely a function of the market. Most people know that M&S provide decent underwear, although I can imagine younger people might think it has a bit of a fuddy duddy image..?
It's sad that many women wear crap bras, but there's enough adverts and information to point them to the better suppliers (although, yes, even M&S and Bravissimo get it wrong at times). Surely, over time, most people realise that some shops are better than others and that this applies to all clothes and footwear..
I think if I Ruled The World, I'd have a top ten list of 'things you have to work out for yourself' (with help from other people). 'Which bra fits' would be in the list for women, as would 'Which products should I use to shave?' (for everyone).
Reply
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