Updates
After my post about women's invisiblity in the media, I decided to do a little experiment of my own while listening to Yahoo's Launchcast Radio.
Over the course of two and a half hours, I noted which songs were exclusively male-voiced, which were exclusively female-voiced, and which were mixed.
Out of the 41 songs that played during this time, 30 had exclusively male voices, 5 had a mix of both male and female voices (even counting songs where girls just sing "do-wop" stuff in the background, and 6 were exclusively female. Men have exclusive access to 73% of this particular media, women have 15%, and 12% is shared.
On a lighter note, I liked my lunchtime experiment with my bag so much that I decided to go without a bag altogether today! Scary stuff. I do have big pockets in the dress I am wearing today, big enough to stuff in a paperback for my dull commute. I usually bring my lunh to work but already had one stashed here so I didn't need to carry that. I went through my bag and found most of the stuff I had in there was not stuff I needed to bring with me for any reason whatsoever. Even after paring down and reducing to pockets, as I've gone through my day I've realized I don't even really need some of the stuff I have now. If I bring my lunch, I can just put it in a small plastic shopping bag, then I won't need to carry a bag home.
Women's clothes tend to have awful pockets, though. I suggest, although you may feel weird about it at first if you don't do this already, shopping in the men's section for clothing. I've started to do this and have been really surprised. Women's clothing tends to stop at smaller sizes than men's clothing. There is no trouble to finding a men's shirt marked XXL, for example, but most women's sizes stop at XL or size 16, then have a special "plus size" section with completely different clothing for sizes XXL or 18-24, after which you can't find any clothing at all. But men's clothing has most of the same clothing through size XXL, and some brands have up to 4X! (You may have guessed by now I am not a teensy little delicate flower of womanhood.) But also, men's clothing is not tailored to be skin tight, but to be comfortable and utilitarian for the most part (except for the stupid ties), as opposed to women's clothing, which is supposed to cling to the breasts so you can prove you have 'em, pinch the waist to make you look like you could be broken in half, and has to have rhinestones and flowers and glitter all over it. And men's clothing has POCKETS! Not two inch deep pockets that you can only fit a lipstick in, but real pockets. (I saw a guy today with a rolled up newspaper sticking out of his back pocket.)
My step felt light and unencumbered as I left the house. I was really amazed at how much of a difference it makes!
May 13, 2006 at 12:12 am
Love it. I can rally only agree with everything. :) I’ve gone without the bag a few times when I know it will really get in the way. This felt wonderful. The problem was finding something to wear that had room for keys and money.
I’ve raided my spouse’s old jeans and shirts, but really haven’t thought much about looking at anything besides men’s jeans in the stores. Regarding the skin-tight phenomenon that won’t let up, I’ve been stuck in gripe mode. I’ve been putting off shopping for clothes (something I only do if absolutely necessary anyway) and this may be the thing that gets me out there! Skip Avenue altogether and head for teh men’s section!
May 17, 2006 at 5:08 am
I’ve been wearing men’s trousers for years — specifically, Dickie’s workpants. They come in a nice permapress wash n wear fabric, and several basic colors — kahki, brown, navy, silver, charcoal.
I was also pissed a couple of weeks ago when looking for a new watchband. I wanted a stretch metal link band. On the display, there were 41 styles that fit that description; 8 were for women. Men could choose either silver or gold color; every women’s band had gold and silver mixed, which makes my plain silver-faced watch look crappy.