Wednesday 23 October 2013

Societal angst over leggings.

Picture the scene: you put on an outfit that you look damn good in. "Fuck, I should get a Lookbook or something," you think. 
Picture the scene: those particular items of clothing that you love and wear too often and buy in different colours.
Picture the scene: you're walking down the street and get shouted at for the clothing you're wearing.
Picture the scene: you get told you dress like a slut.

I've recently started wearing garter leggings. I love them. They are warm and visually interesting and a great hangover outfit staple because you pair them with a baggy t-shirt or jumper and BAM! OUTFIT! They also attract a lot of attention. Mixed attention. Scathing looks from old ladies, up and down looks from everyone, winks from creepy guys. It's to be expected, really. It's your own fault.

Every so often it is made glaringly obvious that we live in a culture of slut-shaming. It's the small things, like refusing to give a guy your number and then loudly being called a slut. I've attempted to defend the clothing choices by declaring that garter leggings aren't even that slutty because it's just the sexual connotations associated with them, not the item of clothing itself.

This, my friend, is rather silly. It is just playing into the whole slut shaming culture to try and defend yourself against it. So wearing a piece of clothing suddenly becomes a politicized action, that you are deliberately wearing, not in spite of, but because of the attention it draws. 

It's rough when a piece of clothing inspires this much confusion and self-doubt within yourself. I hate spending this much time agonising over a pair of LEGGINGS. They're great. I get a lot of compliments on them. It just makes me kind of sad that the reaction a piece of clothing inspires is so indicative of our culture.

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