Underwear Says It All

Sociology classes comprise a large part of my core curriculum, so I'm in a lot of them. I generally find them to be fascinating. But, there is one instructor who makes me go beyond fascinated to being absolutely in love with issues in sociology. He is so opinionated and brings all his (very extreme) views into the classroom. It gets me fired up everytime. Anyway, this week we've started discussing a bit about how physical beauty affects status inequality. There are a million points to be made, but of course, the conversation naturally folds into the genders. I always try to include examples in my discussions because, well, I don't know why, but I do. So I was going through thinking about examples to help drive my point home - ah, that's why I do examples...to prove how right I am. =) Anyway, this week, I settled on the example of Target stores. Picture the inside of Target from a bird's eye view. You'll notice that space devoted to how a woman looks is at least 75% larger than space devoted to how a man looks. We've got 3 or so aisles of makeup, we've got a jewelry counter (with minimal pieces geared toward men), the purses/accessories section, the shoes (with maybe 25% devoted to men), and then when you look at the clothing sections, the women's side is probably double the floor space. BUT - this is the best part of the example. Look at the underwear. For the men, we have a few display boards within the clothing section. For the women, we have a separate section devoted entirely to underwear. Not only that, we have underwear that enhances, lifts, firms, tucks, and generally promises to make the body better. It's socially acceptable for companies to suggest that women should/need to change the shape of their bodies - They should buy padded bras if they are too small-chested, but ope, don't get too big, otherwise, you'll need a minimizer bra. And don't have a flat butt, but definitely purchase some Spanx if there is too much junk in that trunk. And this is acceptable...this is normal.

So what do you think would happen if Hanes started marketing padded boxer-briefs, or for the well-endowed, briefs that minimize? Do you think men with beer bellies would buy waist cinchers? No, no, no...we laugh at either situation because it seems preposterous to suggest that a man would go to such lengths to alter his figure in public.

But - I didn't hear much laughter the last time a padded bra made the register beep.