When I first started my website, I wanted it mainly so I’d have a place to bring together all my archival writings — interspersed with occasional pieces dealing with present-day issues. I have always called it, “my website.”
Others though, refer to it as my “blog.” Now, I think of a blog as a journal, a diary, a regular life-update — indeed, a “log” which is the part of the original word “weblog” that gives the blog its common nickname. I don’t mind that people refer to it as my “blog.” It just has never seemed accurate to me.
So I have decided to remedy the inaccuracy. I’m turning it into a blog by which I mean I will write here much more regularly and the nature of the writing will take on a different tone. I will still deal with issues, of course, because that’s what I think about a lot of the time. Because I’m closely related to the Nova Scotia NDP government — by marriage — I will avoid writing about provincial issues and will leave that to others.
But I will write on a variety of topics that interest me — and I hope interest you — because really, interesting things do happen every day.
For example: A few days ago, I was browsing in the produce department of my local supermarket. I observed one of my fellow shoppers, casually roaming around choosing her vegetables wearing a see-through dress. It wasn’t “see-through” the way a sheer fabric would be or the way a piece of plastic wrap would be.
It was something like an eyelet cotton, something like this:
It was short — a few inches above the knee — and she was wearing a black bra and panties underneath, and that’s all. I should also say — because you’re wondering — that she was not a nubile teen nor a sexy supermodel. She was middle-aged, average build, a little stocky maybe.
I confess that my first reaction — aside from bemusement — was a little judgemental. Did she look in her mirror before she left home? What could she have been thinking? Tsk, tsk.
But as the days have passed, I keep asking myself the same questions but now, not rhetorically. Did she, in fact, look in her mirror before she left home? What could she have been thinking?
It isn’t as if I have anything against alluring/revealing clothes. Quite the contrary. But am I uncomfortable in this case because she was middle-aged and didn’t have a perfect body? If she had been a five-feet-eight, 120 pound, 22-year-old in a see-through dress, would I have forgotten all about her before I got home?
We talk a lot about the hypersexualization of young girls but not too much about the sexuality of middle-aged women. And was she sexy? Not to me but I wonder if she felt sexy. Or was sex involved at all? Maybe she was just in a hurry to grab that broccoli for dinner and she didn’t even take the time to consider what she was wearing.
Going out shopping in your barely-covered underwear: another feminist issue to ponder. Do you have any thoughts about this?
Sharon, maybe it was just a really hot day and she wanted to be cool? Plus, of course, we rarely see ourselves as others see us. Recently (on a beastly hot day) I put on a georgette patterned top, with a beige bra underneath. It looked fine to me–and was very cool–but my sister told me it was more revealing than I perhaps imagined. I wore it anyway…
I often wonder if some people do not own mirrors or is it just if the shoe fits wear it!
hmmmmmmm-my 95 year old Mother told me the other day that I had too much cleavage showing at the neckline of my t-shirt. I didn’t think so, but I did yank it up as I was leaving her apartment
If she felt confident enough to wear it, then I say 2 thumbs up!!
In Italy, we were surprised to see middle-to-older aged women dressed to reveal their navels and piercings and mothers at the beach with children sans tops to their swim suits. The biggest surprise was in Pietra Sante, the carvers’ centre near Carrera. There were an unusual number of mentally challenged people there. Perhaps there was a special school. In any case, the people of Pietra Sante had apparently not learned that mentally challenged people are supposed to be dressed in drab, loose, sloppy, basic dress. These folk had very stylish hair, often in several colours, makeup, lots of flashy jewelery and stylish, colourful clothing. In this country there are people who are fashionable and people who are stylish. My ideas of which constitutes which and what is over the top undergo constant reassessment.
With regard to the middle aged woman revealing her underwear, my male point of view is in synch with comedian Ron White’s who said, “You know how it is with women, once you’ve seen one of ‘em nekid, . . . . . . . . . you want to see all of ‘em nekid.” I suspect this woman might have felt sexy which is something I wish all women could.