Indeed, this is why women have so many clothes! We need an all-purpose black skirt that does old fashioned, another one to do proper, and a third to do flirty… at the very least… and all in casual, business, and formal. And we need heels to go with each (stilettos = provocative, high heels = flirty, low heels = proper, etc, plus we need flats for the picnics and beach weddings etc). And we need pants that are hemmed to the right length for each of these pairs of shoes. You can’t wear black shoes with navy pants, so you’ll need to double up on all these things if you want any variety in your wardrobe. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Women’s closets are often mocked as a form of self-indulgence, shop-a-holicism, or narcissism. But this isn’t fair. Instead, if a woman is class-privileged enough, they reflect an (often unarticulated) understanding of just how complicated the rules are. If they’re not class-privileged enough, they can’t follow the rules and are punished for being, for example, “trashy” or “unprofessional.” It’s a difficult job that we impose on women and we’re all too often damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t.
Lisa Wade (via thefemcritique)
Yep, I have clothes I only wear for job interviews & meetings. I don’t even like them, but I know I need them to get ahead in my career.
(via karnythia)
Never really thought about this until I started buying clothes to wear to court. Then I added some shoes to make those court clothes good for nights out, and other shoes to make my casual-but-not-too-casual clothes work appropriate. And then I bought stuff (shoes and accessories) to make my court clothes double as slightly-flirty nights out clothes. (Because my nights out aren’t all that provocative, or super flirty, anyway.) And then I’m staring into my closet like, …Where the hell did all this shit come from?! Here’s the answer.
(via hoomie)
Also the reason why women will look at what looks like a closet full of stuff and say “there’s nothing here for me to wear”. They really do mean it; there’s nothing there that they can wear that will count as “suitable for the occasion”.
(via malikaeshan)
Not to mention that most women of size that I know, myself included, are constantly fluctuating in size and shape. So even though I have $200 worth of clothes from my job last summer, my hips are wider/waist is narrower/breasts are smaller and a lot of it no longer fits in a way that’s professionally acceptable
(via rockandrollwinterfell)
and then men wanna shit all over women for shopping or owning a ton of shoes
(via tainopunk)
And like the article implies, women are hella judged if we dress “inappropriately” for the occasion.
(via witchsistah)