NOPE! Those supposedly high waisted pants sit right around where early 2000s low rise jeans sat! Because that 24” label, in fact, didn’t mean shit! I measured the pants myself and they have a 29” waist! Because numbers? Easily verifiable measurements? They mean nothing if you are a womens cloths designer! Vibes for all sizing! Make shopping for clothing absolutely miserable!

I can't speak to this topic w/ a ton of authority, but I can definitely agree there are soooooo many ways that capitalism and fatphobia interact when it comes to clothing sizing, prices, and discrimination. Oh also, capitalism X fatphobia X sexism specifically too, because a lot of clothes intended for men will use measurements as a size (ex "36 inch waist") while clothes intended for women have an arbitrary number attached (ex "size 10.") Here are just a couple of examples I know off the top of my head: 1. "Vanity sizing" --also called "size inflation" this is where certain retailers have increased their sizes over recent years. The idea is that when you go shop there, if you can assume that the average customer is very invested "the thin ideal" mindset and carry inherent fatphobia within them, they'll get excited when the jeans they buy from the vanity sized retailer is a smaller number than other stores. For example, someone may usually wear a size 12 but at this store they're a size 8, so it makes them happy and they feel like they're a better person for the lower number. So basically, the experience cheats a little to leverage the customer bases' inherent fatphobia to gain and retain more customers and maximize profits. Retailers like Gap, Loft, and Old Navy are the ones I usually hear accused of this. 2. "Exclusivity sizing" --This is when a retailer engages in the opposite of vanity sizing...this describes brands that have made their space in the market by being specifically known for being ONLY available to people in a very limited, small size range. These type of retailers happily give a big "FUCK YOU" to the entire concept of plus sized clothes or an inclusive approach to their customer base. They are looking to repel fat people and attract people who enjoy not being aligned w/ fatness. They can take two approaches I've seen. The first is where their sizes are actually smaller than other places (I often think of Hollister or American Apparel). The second is where the size range is so narrow that it IS the store's brand. Their whole business model hinges on exclusivity, like the old 5/7/9 stores that most folks who remember mall life in the 90s will well recall w/ me.

For these retailers, their customer base gains loyalty and profits are extracted from them by association with being able to fit into the clothes where again, thinness is positioned as BEST. Whether the customers are consciously aware or not, they are buying into an exclusive club of thinness when they shop at these places. I kinda made up the "exclusivity sizing" term/label here, but identifying this concept is not mine.

What Size Am I?

Garment sizing drove Ruth O'Brien crazy. She was the head of the Clothing and Textiles division in the Bureau of Home Economics in the 20th Century and a textile chemist who liked rational systems. She organized large-scale studies measuring Americans in order to create a system of sizing based on the sizes that people actually came in. But it was all for naught. People did not want accurate sizing. Women wanted sizing that told them that their children were tall for their age and that told them that they were smaller around than they actually were. And manufacturers were perfectly willing to humor them. Which is why sizes mean almost nothing today. Unless you are a man and can go by inches. Even so, "comfort fit" and elasticized waistbands mean some men are being humored about their actual waistline measurements. 

Ratty hair, bad skin, clogged ears, runny nose

I just want to breathe in my pants!