Shape Wear, Friend or Foe?
This seems to be a question that begs asking. Women are moving towards body acceptance and exerting positive energy towards each other and themselves. In this process, shape wear comes into the picture.
Is wearing shape wear, teaching our young girls about shape wear, teaching them to love themselves? I am torn on this subject. I like a lot of other females suffer from distorted body image and not really liking how I look. Some of my body image issue has to deal with the lumps and bumps of having a normal body (lumps and bumps are common at any age) unless you have had plastic surgery, then not so much. Seeing these lumps and bumps does cause distress but I still wear my clothes with no shape wear. I feel that to really accept my body for what it is and to love myself, I need to forego the shape wear. In most clothes, this decision is no big deal. However, wearing something of clingy material like a sweater dress, I would absolutely have to have shape wear or just not wear that type of clothing (which is what I what I choose to do).
Is my view that I am coping out of my body acceptance journey if I wear shape wear just a warped idea or valid? I know I am missing out wearing some great clothes due to cling factor but on the other hand because I have foregone shape wear I am more creative when I do want to wear something similar to a sweater dress.
Does shape wear promote unrealistic body shape ideas? I mean, face it some women have flat butts, some have droopy butts, some have big butts and some have the perfect shape but have love handles at the top. Put on shape wear and boom the flat, the droopy, the big and the love handles all disappear and the perfect butt is walking down the street. Is this really helping our personal body image, and what about all of the females we pass, young and old. Are we projecting the image that we really want to? I mean, if you have a droopy butt either from genetics or giving birth or an accident it should not matter and you should be proud of that droop!
Why have we as females been programmed that we should alter our bodies to these "perfect" so called images instead of altering the clothes to look the best on our individual bodies.
​
I guess this is a question that does not have a clear answer. Until it does, the shape wear industry and the women who run it (yes women own the shape wear industry) will dictate the shape of your butt and the outline of your boobs.
​