1st September, 2020
Size, in many ways is a strange thing. We know when we are big and
when we are small, but it's when it becomes generalised it can cause
problems.
In history the cavemen and Romans etc. didn't have these problems as
the fur skins or togas were generally one size fits all. As we moved
along in time, clothes were hand made and so were made for the person
who was wearing them. It wasn't until clothes were mass produced that
the issues started to happen. To try and standardize a particular
size is bad enough, but all of a sudden there is also the possibility
of having to justify what size we are. Ladies fashion seems slightly
more problematic than men's. Men's clothes go by waist, chest and neck
size etc., we ladies have the size 8 through to size 30 plus in the
UK, but European sizes and American are different. How do we guess at
what size we are, and why should it matter what the number on the
label says?
We are not standard, but clothes sizes try to be. Even more confusing
that one size 10 can be different from another size 10 depending on
the brand.
If we could just try clothes on and look at what looks good and what
doesn't, there would be far less of an issue, but many of us know it
just doesn't work that way. When we are “thin”, if we try on a size
12 and it fits, we feel great. If it doesn't fit we feel fat – and
of course it's OUR fault, not the brand of clothes. We can be
conditioned to think that the smaller the number on the label, the
better we are. I read a saying somewhere “It's not the clothes
size, it's the attitude” and I wish that all of us with weight
issues could feel that way. There is so much pressure put on us to be
a smaller size, and some brands only go up to a size 16 as if anyone
over that size either doesn't exist, or deserve to wear those
clothes. They sometimes argue that the style would not work with a
larger size. So does that mean that over a certain size we should
only wear loose things, and nothing that is fitted if we choose to?
There is a lot more choice in larger sizes these days, but it still
comes down to size.
You have larger ladies brands and plus brands, but quite often they
still follow a type of look, and quite often the models that wear
them are smaller or as well proportioned as they can be. All this
still adds to the many issues that can occur when we look at how the
models look and how we think we look. How many of us think when we
are thin we will look good?
Going back to clothes sizes I realise we have to have some idea of
what size something is to give us an idea of what will fit us, but
what we need is less emphasis on the actual size and more on the fact
of how something looks. The day that the pressure to be judged by a
number on a label goes will be a good day, but until then it is up to
us to take a real good look at ourselves and learn to like what we
see. I know for many of us it is so hard. It is for me, and I have to
try so hard not to get upset when one size 18 fits and another
doesn't. The size I am is a lot smaller than the size I was and that,
for me, is what should matter. If one size 18 doesn't fit I haven't
put weight on, it's just that that particular brand is smaller and I
should not let that get me down. Size in that context should not
matter, the number on the label should not matter, it is how I feel
that matters. I will do my best to try and remember that, and not be
defined by anything else. That is the best I can achieve, a me
that is not a number someone else says I should be.
Jackie
xx
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