Size Zero
Have you heard that Target stores are going to begin carrying size zero?
That number, if it is a number, bothers me.
There is something scary about a country in which some women want to be a nothing.
Do they want to disappear? Do they not want to exist, and be done with all of this dieting nonsense once and for all?
After all, that Size Zero could be called "Size One," couldn't it? There is something about that Size Nothing, Size Zero, that gives me the chills. Even if I were able to starve my 5' 9" frame down to a Size Zero (ha!) I would find no pride in being Size Nothing. I am not a nothing. I am Rose. Tall, robust, and as slim as I am able to be while still eating healthfully.
But back to the clothes. They have become so childish. Pants have become shorter and shorter. They don't have pockets, or they have tiny, useless pockets. Shoes haven't any backs on them. Stockings are a thing of the past.
Women seem to be dressing for a responsibility-free life. They're dressing to be taken to the beach by Mommy. No pockets for car keys. No sturdy shoes for city walking. No long pants for job interviews, or for one-on-one conversations with people in authority. Their appearances seem to announce that they have "people" who take care of the "un-fun" things in their lives.
So who started all of this?
Are the powers that be trying to drive women mad by imposing on them the impossible expectation that they are capable of looking like children? Are the powers that be afraid of women? Or are they merely responding to market demand, and accommodating women's desire to look and act like children? Will the weight-loss programs go broke if the clothing designers design age- and weight-appropriate clothing? Will the clothing manufacturers go broke if someone comes up with a weight loss program that works?
It is a chicken or egg dilemma, I guess.
But I would love to turn back the hands of time and be present at the moment when being a Zero changed from being a bad thing to being a good thing.
I would have weighed in on that decision.