Captain's Log: 03112008 Day #10 of 30 Total Walk Time: 55 minute @2:30pm
I had lunch with a girlfriend who's 6 months pregnant, and her 2 year old daughter. After a salad buffet at Fresh Choice we walked around the mall, and first went to Old Navy. The mannequins looked really skinny to me so out of curiousity I looked to see what size shorts this mannequin was wearing. Size 1. Holey shasizzle. Now Old Navy totally vanity sizes so we all feel smaller which means this mannequin is really a size 3. Ok, but still, how many people wear size 3's?
After leaving Old Navy, we pass by Forever 21, and as I look in the window, I'm aghast by how skinny the legs on their mannequins looked because they literally look like sticks to me. I mean look at how thin those legs are on the mannequin in the far left.
Next is some store called Papaya, and I cannot believe how thin the legs of the mannequins in the white pants look. I've never really paid too much attention to the mannequins before, and I'm wondering if they are catching my eye now because they look even skinnier than usual, or because Spring break is coming and so shorts are all the rave now, and we can see the mannequins legs which are always dead giveaways for skinniness.
After all the skinny minnies, we pass Torrid, and these mannequins are a size 14. Ok, now we have something that's more like real life.
However, what I found surprising is that when I looked to see what size the mannequin was wearing I see all this pinned in stuff going on behind the scenes. I look at other mannequins in the store and same thing, pinned action behind the outfits. So really, these mannequins are about a 12 which goes back to the notion of how a size 12 is considered Plus Size.
And last but not least, we pass Victoria's Secret and on the outside is a sign or perfume, and I literally wanted to cover my friend's little girl's eyes. Is it the old fashioned part of me or the part of me that thinks a 2-year-old walking casually in the mall should not be seeing stuff like this?
What if she asked, "Why is that lady naked?" What do you tell her so that she would understand? I mean she's 2. I think about this with my nieces all the time. If every time they go to the mall and see size 1 mannequins and naked women in their panties on signs every where, then what else are they supposed to think is beautiful? Are they also to think that it is okay to walk around the mall half dressed? Is all this sexualization the girls see in the mall contributing to 1 in 4 teens getting STDs? I still can't wrap my head around that finding.
A simple walk through the mall looking at mannequins and images of women really scared the bajeebies out of me. It's interesting to me, how this great walking experiment of mine is really opening my eyes to things I have never really seen before, things that have always been under my nose, but I never really saw, til now.
