I've been tweaking my personal style over the past few months and thought I would share my results.
Before I started this, I wore a lot of pants, gym wear and tomboy clothes - leggings, bike shorts, band/concert tshirts, etc. I started noticing my peers at the playground , also wearing the same, compared to older women you might see at the grocery store, who are much more put together. Even my mom still dresses well to do chores, with blouses and slacks. I started to become self-conscious because bike shorts don't convey dignity and when you compare modern clothes with what our grandmothers wore, we may as well be wearing underwear. Modern fashion, just like everything else it seems, is a race to the bottom. We know this and we can do better, so I set out to update my style.
I started incorporating more skirts into my repertoire, still wearing tshirts but now with a high-waisted A-line instead of pants. I try not to wear pants unless I have a flowy blouse. The litmus test on whether my outfit is appropriate is if my grandmother saw me in it, would she approve?
It hasn't been long but I'm really enjoying the challenge. I love it when my husband comes home and says I look great. And I should look great, it's the least I can do when he has to look at sweaty beer gut guys at work. When I run errands, people are friendlier and nicer to me. I stand out. Skirts are cool and more forgiving than shorts. It sets a good example to my children, who I am also trying to dress more respectfully.
I'm still stumped on what to wear for getting dirty. An apron works in the kitchen but what about when you're cleaning or going to the gym? I don't want to sweat in my nice clothes or scrub the tub in a skirt.
Has anyone else started dressing more classically feminine? How is it working out?
I hope all the wacky perverts try to gain acceptance in the pride movement. Please, show the world that they are all antisocial freaks who need to be shamed back into the closet (for a start).
How many of you know someone, maybe yourselves, who said
"This small town sucks! There's nothing to do here, it's all old people/conservatives/rednecks! I'm going to move to NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago"
Then a whole generation moves away and goes somewhere else, paying high rent and getting further debased by living in a big city full of assholes.
They may return to their hometown for holidays but they look down their nose at the locals because of how uncivilized and uncultured they are.
"Four dollars for organic strawberries? In The City, I can get biodynamic fiddleheads picked by a shaman for a dollar!"
These people might have contributed to the improvement of their home towns before, and helped their elderly parents, but instead they leave it all to rot while they selfishly galavant in a big city that doesn't know them.
Small Town America decays, while the cancerous big metros grow larger.
The closest term for this I can think of is Brain Drain, though it's worse than that.
I see the old-timers left behind, they show me pictures of their grandkids living in Texas. Grandma would be happy to give them free childcare, no sheboons giving the kid benedryl, but no. "Austin is better"
Those big cities and other places may have once had a culture of their own, til every wayward 20-something with a half-sleeve moved in.
