In which, my gray hairs are showing...
I guess it's another sign I'm getting old - it puzzles me. When I was in high school (and granted, I started high school in the fall of the year of this country's Bicentennial), there actually was a dress code. Fairly lax, since this was a public school in Southern California, but one of the things against the rules was wearing clothes that exposed your midriff. Not one I ever really worried about, since I have never had a midriff worth exposing, even then. And my mother had a strong Puritanical streak, so she wouldn't even allow us to wear shorts to school. I left that kind of thing to the pair of girls in my algebra class - the ones who spent the whole class period applying lip gloss and perfume and redoing their makeup.*
Now, however, it seems to be de regueur. I drive past the same high school on my way to work, and a good half of the female students wear not only a shirt that ends slightly above the bottom of her rib cage, but jeans that seem to be painted on and that she must have to shave her pubic hair to be able to wear. Cheerleader uniforms follow the same trends, and even many of the cartoons my kids watch depict teens dressed the same way (Kim Possible and Totally Spies come to mind). Toys too. Don't even get me started on Bratz dolls - that's a whole 'nother post.
Personally, even if I had the proper shape to wear stuff like that, I'd get cold. And I'm kind of mystified when I see people my shape who do wear it. My neighbor's daughter across the street graduated from high school, and continued to wear the same clothes, even though she gained about 30 pounds shortly thereafter. VT was telling me about a woman she was behind in a line at Disneyland who actually had rolls exposed. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diversity in body shapes, but when your belly and sides are lapping over the top of your pants, you need new pants, woman.
I don't pay much attention to fashion, except when it starts making the people who follow it look stupid.
John's attitude, of course, being male, is "Why didn't girls wear that kind of stuff when I was in high school?" And then he shakes himself and thinks "Wait a minute - my daughter is going to be going to that school someday!"
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*They came to school on Halloween dressed as a pair of breasts one time, and walked around holding hands all day. I guess the teachers didn't realize what they were (seperately) or they'd have gotten sent home. Even though they had "Tit" and "Tat" written across the backs of their costumes.
Now, however, it seems to be de regueur. I drive past the same high school on my way to work, and a good half of the female students wear not only a shirt that ends slightly above the bottom of her rib cage, but jeans that seem to be painted on and that she must have to shave her pubic hair to be able to wear. Cheerleader uniforms follow the same trends, and even many of the cartoons my kids watch depict teens dressed the same way (Kim Possible and Totally Spies come to mind). Toys too. Don't even get me started on Bratz dolls - that's a whole 'nother post.
Personally, even if I had the proper shape to wear stuff like that, I'd get cold. And I'm kind of mystified when I see people my shape who do wear it. My neighbor's daughter across the street graduated from high school, and continued to wear the same clothes, even though she gained about 30 pounds shortly thereafter. VT was telling me about a woman she was behind in a line at Disneyland who actually had rolls exposed. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diversity in body shapes, but when your belly and sides are lapping over the top of your pants, you need new pants, woman.
I don't pay much attention to fashion, except when it starts making the people who follow it look stupid.
John's attitude, of course, being male, is "Why didn't girls wear that kind of stuff when I was in high school?" And then he shakes himself and thinks "Wait a minute - my daughter is going to be going to that school someday!"
_____________________________________________________
*They came to school on Halloween dressed as a pair of breasts one time, and walked around holding hands all day. I guess the teachers didn't realize what they were (seperately) or they'd have gotten sent home. Even though they had "Tit" and "Tat" written across the backs of their costumes.