Ladies, today I will be writing on an activity that most of us would undoubtedly enjoy engaging in, which is none other than shopping. However, going to a clothing store always makes me feel a little bit uneasy. Perhaps you’re wondering how retail therapy could make a woman feel uncomfortable in the first place.
Well, every time I go shopping and come back home, my self-esteem and confidence seems to have taken a huge nose-dive. I have spoken to many young women of my age group who seem to have experienced similar sentiments. The main reason for this is the sizing of the clothes. The sizing always takes me by surprise, since I mostly end up purchasing clothing items that have ‘L’ on their labels. Now I am a woman of medium build, and large does not even come close to describing my physical structure. Sadly, I always feel much bigger than my actual size, since the clothes I buy imply so. As I mentioned earlier, I am not in this situation alone. Clothes are supposed to make a person feel better—not diminish their self-worth and self-esteem.
To make matters worse, the sales personnel at these stores shadow and follow you around that if you turn around you might as well bump noses with them. And they are not shy about expressing what size they think you should choose. I recently ended up proving to an uncouth sales’ assistant that I was indeed the size I initially told her rather than the one she supposed I was, by simply doing a fitting.
More than ever, I think that young Sri Lankan women are under pressure and immense scrutiny to be slim, which in this part of the world means stick thin and emaciated.
Since most young women tend to have a smaller build in our country, people tend to generalize that every young woman is of that same size. This is where these misconceptions tend to mentally hurt the women of our country. South Asian women tend to have curvaceous figure, which means it is impossible for everyone to fit into a single mould where size is concerned. Not everyone can look like an ironed out lamp post. Our current clothing industry seems bent on singling out anyone who cannot fit into that standard miniature body size that many Sri Lankans possess.
In order to remedy this disturbing situation, we need to analyze as to how and where these ideas and attitudes about weight have materialized and entered our society. They basically start from a young age where children pick up negative perceptions about weight and body image from the adults around them. In schools, they use this knowledge to pick on any of their peers who don’t fit the standard when it comes to weight. Once they’re adults and enter the society, they continue on with these narrow biases by using them on anyone around them not realizing that their actions could actually hurt someone.
Even if a majority of parents are not addressing these issues, perhaps schools can intervene and teach their students about weight and body image issues of Sri Lanka, and how not to measure everyone by the same yardstick. Children can be taught to think twice before they blurt out weight related comments and to avoid using any hurtful or upsetting terms such as “fat” and “overweight”. On a much larger scale, if we can have the pioneers of the Sri Lankan fashion industry focus their attention on catering to clients of various body sizes and shapes, perhaps we can get the message across to the general public.
|
E-mail
