let's get this straight

I've already skimmed over this topic in a previous post, but I want to revisit it as it came up recently.

Let's get this straight: women do not dress for men. Maybe our wardrobes are sometimes swayed by the editorials in Vogue, but that has nothing to do with what men find attractive. We do not dress for men. It's been reiterated over and over by fashion designers and girls/teens/women/grandmas alike, yet some still don't understand. If you're a straight male, you're probably thinking something along the lines of "if women don't dress for us, then I'll be damned!" or "then who do they dress for?" I don't want to hurt the Man's Impossibly Swollen Ego, but to put this quite simply, women dress for themselves. We wear clothes that make ourselves feel confident. To men, that might sound like an old saying made up by a bunch of insecure divorcees, but divorced/insecure or not, all women will agree.

So then this brings up the point, "why do some women dress in tight clothing if it's not for men?" If a woman wears a "slimming" dress, it's not because she wants guys to buy her a drink, it's because she feels good looking slim (and the reasons behind that are a whole different story). And if another wears leather corsets and thigh-high boots, it's certainly not for the men in her life: often, women who wear so-called "provocative" clothing do so because it empowers them to express their sexuality without getting persecuted for it — the "What Men Want" columns in Cosmo have nothing to do with it.

For women, clothes are a vehicle for looking and feeling our best. We don't need the approval of men to be happy, because there will always be a store, whether it's Bergdorf's or Salvation Army, in which the perfect pair of chunky-heeled lace up boots await. And that enough is the ultimate endorphin. (Also food, maybe.)