May 5th

Today I didn't get out of bed until almost noon, largely due to the fact that I didn't get back from work until well after 2am. However, I did manage to do something with my day, and that experience lead me nicely to the subject for this week's Saturday Rant. I went shopping for a bridesmaid dress. I went to a handful of stores each with a large selection of dresses by different designers, and tried on about two dozen dresses, all in the space of 4 hours. In case you're not a female and haven't guessed already, this rant is about dress sizes.

I do not understand why women's clothes (and this goes for more than just dresses) come in arbitrarily numbered sizes that seem to have no relation to actual dress measurements. I went to stores today where a size 14 fit me easily and then picked up another designer whose size 18 was a little too snug. Then there were the plus stores where the numbers were 1 and 2 and 3, because they feel the need to make plus size women feel better about themselves. And don't even get me started on the stores where Meg, who is easily half my size, had to wear a size 10 or 12. Stores like that make me want to cry, because Meg is skinny, so a size 0 in those stores must be almost a nonexistent person.

Frankly, I could care less what my dress size is. I'll happily wear a size 42 (cause it's the answer to life the universe and everything), as long as I knew that no matter what store I went to, what designer I tried on, I'd just have to reach for that reliable number 42. I understand that different styles might fit just a little differently, but ALL dresses should have the same basic measurements; bust, hips, and waist. If the dress size was based on those measurements than all dresses of the same size would actually be the same size. I should never have to run to the plus size section of one store and easily slip on a size 14 in a different store.

I know that a lot of women have this same issue when trying on clothes, so I don't understand why women's clothing designers haven't done something about it. Men's clothes basically track from brand to brand and store to store, because their sizes are actual measurements. Men's pants come in waist by length, which doesn't change with a style or store or designer. That means that not only can guys know exactly what pants to try on without a guessing game, but they can easily order online because the measurements are right there for them. The same goes for men's shirts. Certainly they come in the basic small, medium, large, which is an arbitrary measure of size, but they stay basically consistent across brands and stores. Women's shirts (if they don't come in the numbered sizes) still very greatly store to store. Then of course there is the fact that a men's medium and a women's XXL can end up being exactly the same size of shirts. That is NOT alright.

Supposedly a lot of this size labeling has been done to help combat negative body image in larger women, but let me tell you something, I am not fooled. I may pick up a size 2 dress in the plus section, but I know damn well that I am still MUCH larger that the girl getting a size 2 in the women's section or the one getting a size 2 in the juniors section. There is no fooling a women into thinking she's that skinny. You want women to have a healthy relationship with their bodies? Make clothes that actually give women a realistic measure of their size. My weight loss goals should be about my actual measurements not some dress or pant size that I might actually never achieve if the clothes run really small, or I might already fit at a "moral boosting" plus size store. If I know my actual measurements, and I know that all clothes of the same size are actually the same size, then I have something to work for. Plus, there isn't the serious moral crusher of going to a store where not even the XXXL clothes have even the slightest chance of fitting you.

Those are just my opinions, but it's something I've been thinking about quite a lot. So remember, it's not the size that's labeled on your clothes, it's the size of your actual body. Until tomorrow.