Jeans don’t fit? Your BODY is not the problem.
Buckle up, buttercup, because I'm about to let loose on a TWENTY YEAR OLD marketing trend that I'm STILL recovering from... but first, let me give you some background.
During Week 1 of Style School, we use MUSIC to get our creative juices flowing so we can break out of our old outfit-picking-patterns and be INSPIRED to kick up against our growing edge. Because what's better than a good ole' feminine power-anthem for reminding us that we are worthy and beautiful and powerful beyond measure!?!
One of the songs in the Week 1 line-up is I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross.
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
I got to let it show.
MmmmmHmmmm... you're feeling me now, aren't you?
One of the gals in the current session of Style School remembered that THIS SONG was used in a low-rise Levi's jeans commercial way back in 2001. (CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LEVI'S COMMERCIAL. Seriously, WATCH IT.)
You should have seen my response when I clicked on over to the video...
You guys! LOW RISE JEANS fit almost no one.
And here's this commercial, calling on us to COME ON OUT!, while simultaneously telling us to put on a pair of jeans that will most likely send our self-esteem tumbling straight down the toilet.
I mean, how many of YOU blamed your body when all of those low-rise jeans in your closet didn't fit?!
🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️
GALS, low rise jeans were NOT designed for MOST women's bodies. I mean, how many women do YOU know with a 4 inch rise? (Rise = the distance between your crotch and your WAIST) I can tell you right now that my waist does NOT land 4 inches above my crotch. In fact, if I were to measure up 4 inches from my crotch (toward my waist) and draw a horizontal line around my body, at least half my butt would be ABOVE that line. Literally.
Half.My.Butt.
Even when I was standing in one place, all of my fleshy-bits would be coming out of the top of my jeans. And then if I had to take actual steps, or God forbid... bend over? It was a full on butt-splosion.
I'm pretty sure Diana Ross did not mean I'm Coming Out... of my Damned Pants, when she wrote that song.
Looking back, I don't think there's ever been a single piece of clothing that made me feel worse in my body than low-rise jeans. That's when my body shame REALLY kicked in. I mean... if I can't find JEANS that fit me, my body MUST be a problem, right?!
WRONG.
Which is why I freaked out when I saw this ad.
I want to come out. I want the world to see me. I want to break out of my shell.
Yes please! I want that. I'll buy 10 pair of those jeans if they'll make me feel like THAT!
So you buy the low-rise jeans that "everybody's wearing", and then you hate your body because OMG THE MUFFIN TOP!!! Not to mention the butt-crack! And then you buy too-long shirts to "HIDE" the muffin top and the butt-crack. But even those don't really cut it because you can see the muffin top THROUGH the shirt, and when you bend over, BaBAM, there's the butt crack. So then you gotta buy super long, baggy, oversized shirts to hid ALL the things.
Oy.
The shame is THICK. You feel like you have the wrong kind of body. You feel like a failure.
To put this song (I'm Coming Out) with those jeans (that make hide) really chaps my hide.
Gals, YOUR BODY WAS NEVER THE PROBLEM! IT WAS THE FREAKIN JEANS!!
Look...
My body didn't change. My jeans did.
I've been in low-rise-jeans-recovery for many years now, and I'd say that just about every woman who's ever come through Style School is also in low-rise-jeans-recovery.
We've carried that shame with us for YEARS.
I mean... do you STILL blame your body when the jeans don't fit?
I understand if you do. We've been taught to think that way. But the thing is, your body is NOT the problem.
It's time to COME ON OUT from under the spell of all the brilliant marketers who have sold you the idea that your body is a problem, and GET YOURSELF SOME JEANS THAT ACTUALLY FIT!
xo Stasia