Skirting the Issue

Yes I know. A really bad play on words. I would apologize except that I rather like bad puns. 

So there.

 Besides, when was the last time YOU went shopping for a skirt? Just a simple skirt. Not something slit to "there" or so short you are afraid to raise your arm for fear of revealing to the world the color of your panties. Something not made of leather or an odd itchy polyester. Not beachwear or club wear with spangles. And something with a waistband. And pockets would be good. And just to make things much more challenging how about making it from mostly cotton or wool?

Honestly, Indiana Jones had an easier time finding the Ark than I do when shopping for skirts.

See, I don't wear pants. Not that I have any sort of religious or political objection to pants. I just don't find most of them comfortable or flattering. In fact I believe I own only four pairs:

1. Jeans bought to go horseback riding with because they would not allow skirts.
2. Red linen slacks that "might" get worn once a year to work.
3. Sweat pants that actually are too small right now.
4. Denim like cotton flared pants purchased to wear in Florida last September.

On the other hand I probably own at LEAST 40 skirts - likely more. I haven't counted them in a while. I tend to hold onto my skirts for years. Partly because I favor solid colors in simple lines and as they are usually so hard to find I take good care of them so I don't have to try and hunt down new ones. The last time I was in a mainstream store hunting for some new skirts to wear to work I felt as though the clerks looked at me as if I had sprouted a second head when I asked where the skirts were. One even scratched his head and said "Do we even CARRY any skirts?"

*Sigh*

The last couple of days I have been paying close attention to how the other women in my office are dressed. Everyone, well almost everyone, dresses what I would consider quite appropriate for a conservative workplace. Keeping in mind the parent company is European and they don't "Do" Casual Fridays or jeans. But out of the at least 100 women I have run across in the halls or cafeteria - only TWO were wearing a skirt or dress.

TWO !!!!

Now, this may get me labeled as incredibly old-fashioned and out of touch, but when did skirts go "out of fashion" as workplace attire? Did I miss a memo? Or a report on MSNBC? Is it because most women don't like how their legs look in the winter so they wear pants then - which has the added benefit of not needing to shave quite so often. Or is it more than just a seasonal trend and they still avoid skirts once the weather is warmer? Of course unlike many other women I know I still wear panty hose as well. I know, I know - pin that Old Fashioned tag on me now and get it over with.

Has anyone else noticed a real reduction in the number of women they see wearing skirts? And what are your reasons for wearing them - or not.

Who Decides What Beauty Is?

This little exploration through the tangled briers of my thought process is brought to you courtesy of a posting I saw on Facebook:

Julie GainesLife of a whovian fan-girl: January 24

I saw this on tumblr and it made me very angry. I know that this page is very good at fighting hate aimed at fans, so I decided that this would be the page to share this with so the massage gets out there.The comment that went along with this:"Wow. I’m sure you’ve all seen this girl’s fantastic tardis dress floating around here the last week or so. She hand painted the inside and everything, and she just looks plain great. But of course, I see it posted on Facebook, and the slew of comments begin.

“I don’t think it’s a mystery as to why I, as a bigger girl, spend the week before a convention crying because I’m so nervous about what people are going to say about me just because I want to dress up and have fun like everyone else. And there is something really, really f*cking wrong with that.”

Edit: I am NOT the girl in the photo, so please stop sending me friend requests. ALSO, I did not post this for the girl. She is beautiful and probably knows it. Look at her smile. I did however post this for the men who made those comments.

Now, my initial reaction and reply to this posting was:

M. D. First of all - as a larger Zaftig woman myself all I see is a lovely talented young lady. While I am not a Dr. Who fan personally I can still appreciate talent when it is right in front of me.

Having said that ... WHY are people still so willing to accept that there is only ONE standard of beauty? Societal tastes change all the time. At one time pale white skin was prized and tans viewed as ugly. Cultures have worshipped the curvy female form for centuries and viewed with distaste and pity the waifs who they felt were not up to the task of bearing healthy children.

When did we all become such sheep that we blindly follow what a small number of gay male fashion designers tell us is the only "acceptable" female shape?

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NOTE: I am not a Dr. Who fan and had NO idea what a "Tardis" was. So for clarification to all those other readers who don't know -

The Tardis (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) is a time machine and spacecraft in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who and its associated spin-offs. In the series, the Doctor pilots an apparently unreliable, obsolete TT Type 40, Mark 3 TARDIS. Its chameleon circuit is faulty, leaving it stuck in the shape of a 1960s-style London police box after a visit to London in 1963.

This little snippet of thoughts though would not go away. If you Google the words “beauty, standards, historical” or the question “What were beauty standards in the past” you will get hundreds of pages and just as many varying viewpoints.

Some writers will tell you that during Period X “this” was the ideal and then during Period Y “that” was considered what women should look like. Many of these people will cite the art of the time as the rationale for their conclusions. However couldn’t it also be just a factor of patron’s taste and what they ordered?

Imagine it is 1750. Duke A pays for a portrait of his beloved wife who stood barely 5’ and weighed all of 90 pounds soaking wet with thick blonde curls who had given him seven healthy children. And Earl J commissioned a painting of his adored mistress who was 5’6” and weighed 250 pounds with baby fine brown hair. What conclusion would we make then of the “ideal” standard of beauty in 1750?

We cannot. We can however conclude that for whatever reasons these two women were valued and cherished by the man in their lives since they went to the trouble and expense of having their portraits done.

However, over the centuries there are some traits which seem to be more prevalent than others.

• Ancient cultures (prior to say 500 AD) have portrayed goddess images that show to varying degrees a belly on women. Some more pronounced than others, but even the ancient Greek goddesses showed a softness to the belly and saved the “six packs” for the men. The statues of the Mayans, Inca, Australian Aborigines and African continent often show the woman’s figure as plump and bursting with energy. For me this shows an acknowledgement, and sometimes a reverence, for the woman as life giver. The one who nurtures a child within her own body in order to perpetuate the culture or society to which she belongs.
  
  
  
  
• 
  

  There seemed to be a real trend during the Elizabethan Age towards white skin. Partly I believe as a way to emulate the queen even when it went to ridiculous and dangerous lengths. Women would use arsenic and lead based cosmetics which could ultimately kill them. However you see throughout the art of the 15^th – 17^th centuries a clear difference in the skin tones the women in paintings. There seems to be an accepted belief that women of higher breeding, or upper class women, had paler skin and softer hands. While lower class, or working women, had skin darkened by the sun and hands weathered and callused from years of hard work. Though I think this also could be a commentary on someone’s socio-economic standing and not just a statement of beauty.
  
  
• 
  

  During the mid-1800s you see ads in women’s publications promising smaller and smaller waists with the newest type of corset. Then in the 1890s the marketing trend added pads you could tie around your waist to make your backside appear more prominent.
  
  

  

  
  
  

Things take a drastic swing by the 1920s when foundation garments are now geared to flattening a woman's assets in order to achieve the almost boyish figure of the Flapper.

In more recent decades we have seen hair lengths rise, fall than rise again – along with the hemline of skirts. Women co-opted men’s clothing, wore interpreted versions of what we thought a pioneer woman would, drowned in bright neon colors then blended into the background in a mind numbing array of neutrals and browns. We have ironed our hair then got perms. Spent hours with a blow dryer and then went with the wet look. Our lips have been painted crimson, white, blush, brown and coated only with gloss. We have plucked our eyebrows, struggled with fake eyelashes and spent too much time and money having acrylic nails applied and maintained. Stockings were In – then Out – then In again but only if they were colored. Heel heights have been anywhere from non-existant to a toe crushing 5”+.

WHEN are we going to finally stand up and reclaim our right to decide as individuals what is beautiful to us? Will we actually come to a place as a society when we tell the tabloid media and the fashion industry to shut up and quit pushing their narrow minded views down our throats. Or have we become so sheep-like that such a strong sense of our own self-worth has been forever weakened.

It saddens me to consider that latter statement may be true.

My Mind Went A Wandering ....

Here is something that most people won't talk about but almost everyone has thought about.

Their bathroom habits.

Not whether they use the paper "shields" or how much they wash their hands, but tending to this need in public. Especially at work.

We all have our own version of regular or normal. But now that I have been working for about two weeks things are .... changing. Not the sort of changes that make me think "Oh no - I need to run to the doctor" but different. Admittedly when I was home most days I really did not have much of a schedule even though I did make an attempt to maintain a regular bed time and rising time.

But truthfully the only meal I use to eat on a regular basis was dinner - both before the girls arrived and after. However I made a comittment to myself that I was going to eat lunch each day. And by that I really meant I will leave my desk each day for about 20-30 minutes and go down to the cafeteria. And I am eating lunch - usually something brought from home.

And I am walking more. At my old job it was five steps from my workstation to the file room where most of the documents I dealt with were stored. And the ladies room was about 20 steps from desk to door. At this company I am located in a different wing from my supervisor and the ladies room is even farther away (120-150 steps respectively - and YES I did count!). Which means among things I am walking more, or just overall moving more. Including the walk from back door to car, car to side door of work building, stairs then repeat at the end of the day.

AND when I wake up in the morning I feel hungry ... which for me is a new thing as well. Which means I am eating in the morning. Not Breakfast as in eggs, bacon and toast - but instant oatmeal or granola or a cereal bar. Which again is a lot more than I used to eat - or not eat. When I was home all day my only consistent intake was coffee. Which I still have each morning, however I am aware not nearly as much as I used to. I thought it would be the other way around truthfully.

All of which brings me back to my initial thought. I seem to be spending more minutes per day tending to my body's demands.

Which leads me to worry ………………

What will my boss think? Will he get annoyed if he cannot find me at my desk because I ran to the Ladies? Will his start keeping track of how many minutes a day I am away from my desk? Can you tell that I spent the last seven years working with a control freak who used to ask me each time I returned to my desk where I was?

*Sigh* Sometimes I even frighten myself with what I find my mind thinking about.

Busting my stash of UFOs

One of the local quilt bloggers I follow, and have pattern tested for previously, is once again holding her annual sewing marathon. It is similar to the idea of NaNoWriMo which I have written about before, and participated in this year. In fact I have a draft book ready to send to a publisher for review. Well, just as soon as I find the courage to hit the "Send" button on my e-mail!!

So now that I have tackled getting that project underway I thought it was time to work on my guilt complex about my sewing. And the ever growing number of unfinished projects or UnFinished Objects (UFOs) I seem to have acquired.

In fact I made up two spreadsheet pages for these items. One sheet showing projects or quilts that have already been started with a list of what still needs to  be completed. And another that is just projects I have in mind but have not yet started cutting fabric for.

But before I can get to page 2 I really need to work on page 1. So ..... 


"I, Melissa J. Dawson (quilter who is drowning in UFOs) am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's second annual DaGMT (Drop and Give Me Twenty) event, and pledge to quilt for at least 30 minutes (or until my fingers bleed) every day of the month of February, 2013. In doing so I hope to reduce my number of UFOs by either finishing them, tossing them or re-purposing them in order to reclaim my sanity and let go of the guilt of not working on them at all. (And I think Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join - I had to add that, Beth wrote it !)."

I will be taking pictures soon of my UFOs and will keep y'all updated on my progress.


*Fingers crossed*