And, the Difference Is...?

Recently, I read a blog post that was written by a young wife and mom whose husband asked her to stop wearing yoga pants everywhere. At first, I was appalled that her husband would take it upon himself to make his wife's fashion choices for her and worse, that she would allow it to happen.


But, the more I read, the more I saw that he actually had a valid point and was glad that the wife chose to look in the mirror and see what he was saying. In fact, I had caught myself thinking along the same lines, although my reasoning is a little different.


As a husband, and apparently a very pious one, he was concerned about his wife wearing clothes that are tighter than her own skin, especially when men are around, because it was making men have lustful thoughts about her, thereby forcing them to commit adultery in their hearts. That kind of thinking suggests that anyone with a Y chromosome should be released from the burden of personal responsibility, and also lends itself to the oh-so-popular American cultural assertion that all men are too dim-witted to control themselves.


Here's my thing:


You're walking around Target with your children in the cart, wearing your yoga pants and your monogrammed, chevron-patterned tank top that shows your bra and probably a little side boob. You hair is in a perfectly positioned pony tail, and you are wearing your pristine, multi-colored tennis shoes. Don't look at me like that. I just described 90% of the women in Target and at the park.
Guess what?
I can see every single nook and cranny God gave you. All of it. You are leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. And, based on my knowing several of you, I'm going to venture a guess that you are a champion of the "modesty movement" and monitor every article of smocked clothing your little girl wears below that giant bow.
You may also be the type who wonders why, on the football games that come on Sunday, the cheerleaders are essentially wearing nothing but sequined bras and panties. Or, maybe that's just me. At any rate, I can see yours. Bras and panties, that is.


I'm not just picking on yoga pants, though. I can imagine that if your babysitter showed up wearing this:

You would ask her, politely, to go home and change clothes, and then come back when she was dressed appropriately to be with young children. And yet, if you change the fabric and add a Nike symbol so that it looks as if you've just come from working out, it's entirely appropriate for a suburban mom to wear to the grocery store.
Why? What's the difference? You're still showing just as much skin and wearing shorts that are just as tight with that tank top and sports bra.
Julia Roberts had on more clothes than that in the first thirty minutes of Pretty Woman.


Let's have a little fun and show my age for a second. Twenty years ago, if I had tried to leave my house wearing "workout shorts" that showed most of my leg and probably some of my underwear, or pants as tight as the yoga pants that moms wear today, I would have been swiftly sent back to my room and told that I forgot some of my clothes.


I'm not kidding, ladies, you can see everything.


Why is it that if those skin tight pants were sold at Hot Topic and came in zebra print, you would accuse the wearer of looking slutty and trying too hard to get attention for her body, but when those same pants are purchased at Academy Sports in basic black, they're fine because they're "yoga pants?"
If your argument is that the other woman is trying to entice men by dressing that way, let me ask you something. What is it that you think entices them? Isn't it the fact that they're skin tight and show off all her body parts?
Um...


I know that not everyone notices things like this and I'm sure it doesn't bother everyone the way it bothers me. But, I am the queen of pet peeves, right?


I guess my problem isn't really that I can see all your body parts while I'm shopping for toothpaste, but more that I hope you're not telling your little girl to keep herself covered when you're not doing it yourself. Or, that you won't be shocked when she wants to wear next to nothing when she goes to middle school. She's just following your example, right?


OK, one last thing, and it has nothing to do with revealing clothes and everything to do with my own quirkiness.
I have chosen to make being a stay-at-home mom my career for a few years, while my kiddos are itty bitty. Did you see what I called it? My career.
If I were going to a paying job every day, I would be showered and dressed in real clothes. Why is that? Because my job is important to me, so I should look like I care about what I'm doing and that I'm putting my absolute best into every aspect of it.
If Dad wears nice clothes every day because what he's doing is important and meaningful and he needs to be at his best in order to do his job, what does it say about my job if all I do throw on some yoga pants and a ratty old t-shirt without so much as a quick shower?
I do understand that I'm a morning person and that it's harder for some to get that done than it is for me. Again, it's my own issue inside my own head, but I thought it might be a little food for thought.