size is a prison

[hwar]

A note from me: I believe that her conversation with the department store saleswoman is somewhat fictionalized. And I believe the fictionalized department store is supposed to be Bergdorf's, not exactly mainstream America. Still, her ideas are interesting.

Size 6: The Western Women's Harem.
from Scheherazade Goes West by Fatima Mernissi, a

Comments

[anotherpanacea]

Well, I liked the Wolf and Bourdieu she quoted, and of course the basic point is well-put. But I find the implicit defense of Muslem gender relations pretty troubling. The suggestion that Western patriarchy is "more dangerous" than Islamic Fundamentalist patriarchy a bit absurd. Certainly it is more cunning, more subtle and insidious, but it's really -too- delicate to be as effective as the all-out brutality of beatings and stonings.

Because it's based in a simple misunderstanding about the nature of -health-, any woman who is careful to attend to her body's call rather than the cacaphony of bodies to be found in film and print can be healthy and powerful while staying bigger or smaller than the 'norm.'

I know and respect a number of these wonderful deviants, and while they might not work in "highly paid fashion-related jobs," I can't help but wonder if it's because they've got better things to do with their time.

[djinrain]

"while they might not work in "highly paid fashion-related jobs," I can't help but wonder if it's because they've got better things to do with their time."

fashion professionals might object to that statement.

[anotherpanacea]

Well, I -love- fashion, as my credit card company and anyone who's seen my closet will attest. In truth, all the women I know with healthy fleshiness have really good taste, so I don't even know what I was talking about. I guess I was irritated at the way Mernissi was generalizing between certain pathologies specific to the fashion industry (wherein she alleges one might lose one's job for figure-related crimes) and the much looser threat of 'invisibility' she claims befalls big-hipped women in general society.

[djinrain]

Well, I don't agree with her much at all, really, to be perfectly honest. She's a good read and I can "hear" her accent in her writting, which is always a trip. But, as a fashion designer, I think most women tend to feel like they are under more pressure to conform than they really are. Every shape and every style is represented in the industry, but you have to know what you are looking at and for.
(Blah blah rant rant, sorry)

[anonymous]

I thought this was not a problem in US, where consumers have(had?) so many choices?

Here in Australia, if you don't fit the mold - i.e. straight, small hips, its quite hard to find anything that fits - unless you start looking at places like Country Road.

tis sad to see what the fashion industry has been able to get away with.

[hwar]

It depends on what you're willing to wear, I think. Very high fashion clothes aren't made in large sizes (usually top at 10 or 12), but for the average consumer it's not hard to acquire clothing up to size 16-18 (the top of most "standard" sizing). And many more stores are offering sizes beyond 16-18. The average American is getting larger (both height and weight) and so the clothes are too.

[sivanelle]

yeah, i think she's also sort of using this conversation as an extreme example of the so-called "norm" or ideal that we are all aware of even if we aren't usually faced with such obvious discrimination. i mean high fashion sets the standard even if most people don't actually wear it. everything else is trying to imitate that ideal.