Friday, August 7, 2009

One And The Same?


Over the past few years I've had several retail jobs. All of them sold some sort of clothing apparel. Part of the job includes dressing mannequins. In every instance in every store I always ask (or get asked) what size pants and what size shirt to place on the mannequins. More times than not the answer was the same (except for some clothing lines that sizes run differently). After a while it prompted me to ask the question, who is this generic man/woman that these mannequins are shaped after? Who decided what's the perfect size for an individual? Who decided that a male wearing pants size 36 and a 2XL shirt was ideal? Who decided that a female wearing pants size 5-7 and a medium shirt was ideal? This is not a mistake and definitely not a coincidence. There is someone, rather a group of people, that is behind this. It could be influenced by media's perception of beauty, which is clearly biased, but who knows? If you think I'm lying, pay close attention to window displays the next time you're casually strolling through the mall.

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