How Women Are Losing Confidence One Mannequin At A Time

The other day when I went shopping with my sister, I saw this super cute skirt on a mannequin. When I went over to find my size, I realized that the skirt was so big that it literally pinned onto the mannequin in order for it to stay on.

My first thought was, “Wow, this must be a popular item because all they have left is largest. Weird.” But then I realized the skirt wasn’t that big…the mannequin was just that tiny. The skirt was most likely a small and was pinned to highlight the how skinny it could make you look.

The purpose of a mannequin should be to display how a standard a piece of clothing fits a standard person. So what does it mean when our “standard” for women’s sizes isn’t even manufactured? What are we telling the girls going into that store and seeing the displays with waist sizes impossibly small? What’s going to happen when a girl tries on that skirt hoping it will look on her as it did on the mannequin?

Here’s what: she’ll try it on and it will most likely look great on her except for the fact she now has the image of the tiny waist in her head. She’s going to be expect to see that size in the mirror and when she doesn’t find it, she’s going to automatically think that there is something wrong with the way SHE looks. She’s never going to consider the possibility that the store has the wrong size for clothes. Because why would she? She’s never going to think for a second that the mannequin is wrong. She’s the one that’s wrong.

And who can blame her? Just look at the world we’ve been living in lately. The media worships skinny people. And clothing companies put out ad after ad of girls with the legs for days and flat stomachs, most of them only half dressed. The fashion industry says if your over a size six you should be considered “plus sized.” It’s gotten to the point where we even started Photoshopping skinny girls to be even thinner.

The store is the wrong, not you. And this messed-up concept of beauty we all seem to have these days is wrong, too. The fact that we are using a computer editing system to make people into Barbies is not normal.

Oh and you should get that skirt, it looked amazing on you.

Featured image via MichaelGaida on Pixabay