“Dress for your body type.” What does that mean? Put clothes on your body that are flattering? Again, who decides what is flattering to your body and what isn’t?
We have grown up in this society where we have heard this and understand what it means without question; but do we really?
I was born with a big ass. Now, obviously I don’t mean I came out of the womb all ass, but my body shape, as I grew up started to form and I have a big butt. This means that I couldn’t exactly fit in the smallest clothes when it came to my lower body, and that I didn’t “fit in” with the beauty standard at the time. On top of all that, I kept hearing “dress for your body type”. I was just a kid, sure I looked like a woman, but I was sixteen years old. So, the first thing that came to mind when someone would say that certain clothes didn’t fit my body type and that I had to dress for it, was that I needed to change my body. It should have been, “no, I like this style of clothes and I can make it work for me.” That wasn’t it. I was a kid. So, I changed my body and I went through drastic extremes in order to fit in the clothes that everyone else was wearing, because I felt that was the only way that I would be accepted. That was almost ten years ago, and even though I was able to get healthy again, and am able to look at myself and love myself for everything that I am, my mental health will forever be ruined because society made me feel like I had to change my body in order to fit into the beauty standard.
There are a million and one blog posts about how to dress for your body type, and what body type you are and what clothes are more flattering, but none of these posts take into consideration what extremes someone will go to, to fit in the clothes that you are telling them they can’t wear.
Why can’t any woman wear a sports bra and leggings to workout? Why are short shorts only allowed for those whose legs are thinner? Why should pencil skirts be only for women who have curvy bodies?
A woman’s style is her style. It is more important that we are comfortable and confident in the clothes that we wear, rather than put in a corner thinking that these are the only options we have.
When we read up on these quizzes and posts, we don’t look at it as controversial at first, but it is. Telling someone that they are limited in what they are “allowed” to wear, has drastic impacts on someone’s mental health. No one should feel like their body has an impact on their style. No one should feel like their body controls the clothes that they buy in the store and no one should feel like they are limited to a certain range because someone told them so. So, why do we keep believing this bullshit?