In his most recent column Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle comes out in support of leggings:
Today’s sleek young women are part of a righteous tradition that goes back to the suffragists more than a century ago. They traded their corsets for cotton blouses and their hoops for unstructured skirts. The right to vote and the right to move freely were of a piece. From that day to this, everyday fashion has trended away from imprisoning and concealing women toward liberating and acknowledging them.
“If some boy can’t handle my clothing choices, that’s his problem,†my daughter summarized. I’d say she’s exactly right.
I think she’s exactly wrong for several reasons. First of all private institutions like Notre Dame have significant leeway in defining what is or is not appropriate dress. Religious institutions like Notre Dame have even more leeway. And educational institutions like Notre Dame place themselves in jeopardy of suits claiming a hostile environment under Title IX.
Leggings are different than corsets (his example). Corsets actually impeded women’s ability to breathe—they’re the reasons that fainting couches existed. They were unhealthful, even dangerous. A dress code requiring that secondary sex characteristics be covered modestly is not unreasonable.
Besides, speaking as a former theatrical costumer, leggings are becoming to practically nobody. Nearly two-thirds of teenage girls in the United States two are overweight. AT the top of the column there’s a picture illustrating a row of mannequins wearing leggings. Very few young women today are built like mannequins. Leggings are a fad that can’t be passé too soon.
Speaking as a former 19 y/o male, there will be no problems with the guys averting their eyes with the overweight girls, so the Mom who made the complaint doesn’t have to worry about them. The hot looking chicks? Guys will look at them no matter what they wear. We survived mini=skirts. We will survive this also.
Steve
First, the ladies should get over the weight charts. All those lovely curves are made of fat. For health reasons, you should not be obese, but if you cannot lost weight, go with it. There are more guys ogling you than will admit it. (If you do not believe me, visit a few tit-bars. There are a lot of dancers who are far from being Playboy or Skank magazine models.)
My wife is large, and she is probably not getting any smaller. Why should she have to feel like shit for the rest of her life? She and all the other large ladies are beautiful.
(Women’s clothing sizes are a scam. The reason they do not use actual measurements is so they can change the sizes without changing the number. Today’s size 0 is not the same as the 1950’s size 0.)
While I have no problem with skimpy clothes, men, in a professional setting, have very little bare skin – hands, neck, and head. Whenever I visit clients, I wear a long sleeved shirt and tie. At the VA, 75% of the medical personnel I see are female, and they do not display a lot of skin.
Mothers, your son ogles women, just not around you, and he uses foul language, just not around you.
🎼 Let me entertain you…… 👙
Betty Furness made that point years ago. She noted that in 1945 she wore a size zero (her clothes were in a exhibit at the Smithsonian) and her granddaughters (who wore the size zero of the time) couldn’t squeeze into them. So she donated her clothes to the Smithsonian.
steve, “we’ll survive” is a pretty low standard. We’d survive women being put in purdah or binding their feet. I don’t think those are standards to which we should aspire.
The standard to which I think we should aspire is respect for ourselves and for others which I think entails a certain modesty in dress. The purpose of schools is not only to convey the intellectual skills needed to get a job but to instill the personal and behavioral qualities needed to retain one. For students school is your job not your home or a date. Behave accordingly.
Well the obvious retort is that men have clothing standards too and I doubt men would be allowed to wear similar tights.
“steve, “we’ll survive†is a pretty low standard. We’d survive women being put in purdah or binding their feet.”
Mini skirts didnt result in either of those. Mini skirts went away and nothing bad happened. Leggings will go out of style too. Young women will always find out some way to show off their assets, as will young men. Now if we get young women in leggings walking on our lawns, then we have something to get upset about.
Steve
I clicked the link and perused it. I can’t find your stat. We recently hosted our daughter and 6 of her college friends at our Naples place for spring break. And dropped them off at the resort pool several times. Can’t say I saw much teenage (or 20 yr old) obesity. Older folks? Well. The good life I guess. Unfortunately, some in swim suits that were, shall we say, inappropriate.
That’s not to say it’s not an epidemic generally. You see it everywhere. I’m sure Steve sees myriad health issues related to it. Most distressing was the graphic on Black obesity. That’s a shame and self inflicted wound. Maybe the SJWs should focus on that instead of the crap they do focus on. Oh, wait. No celebrity or money in that.
The stat’s from the NIH. I didn’t link it here but I’ll stick the link in.
Update
I was mistaken. The stat is from the Centers for Disease Control.
Obesity is much lower among the higher income classes, which is the group I would expect to be represented at Notre Dame. When I trained obese kids were pretty rare. Now we see them pretty frequently and they have problems related to their weight. The younger kids in particular are a real risk for surgical procedures. It soften made harder because parents dont want to talk about the issue.
Steve
The median family income of a Notre Dame student is $191,400, somewhat higher than I would have guessed. The median family income at my alma mater, which at least used to be thought of as a rich kid’s school, is $170,000.
I would have guessed about $100,000. That is pretty high, but then it is a kind of exclusive private school. So looking at my charts I would expect about 10%-15% of the kids to be obese. Dont have good ones at hand on overweight.
Steve