Some days, I feel like I should just give up. Lately, that’s been because of the relentless attacks on women’s civil liberties. But today, it was a couple of articles that took me right back to the days of Susan Faludi’s Backlash.
I finally checked out the story I’ve seen in multiple friends’ Facebook and Twitter feeds, a HuffPo piece asking me why I’d spend $100 on yoga pants.
Well, first, to answer the burning question, I have never spent $100, or even $98, on yoga pants. I have spent $68 on a sports bra that no one will ever see (unless they are doing my laundry or standing next to me in the locker room). I’ve spent a significant amount of money on athletic clothes, in fact, because my strong sense is that it would be frowned upon almost everywhere if I were to work out naked. Except maybe some parts of Lubbock.
The Huffington Post piece re-hashes a story from Business Insider that sensationally promises to explain How Lululemon Brainwashes Women Into Spending $98 on Sweatpants.
You can read one or both of the articles, but I’ll sum them up for you:
When it comes to sweatpants, women are feeble-minded, competitive, insecure ninnies who are constantly evaluating their social status relative to their frenemies.
And, oh, by the way, they have fairly significant buying power that makes them an attractive target for marketers and retailers, but mostly, they’re vain and neurotic, worried that the other women in their yoga classes are judging them not only on their chaturangas, but their leggings. According to one unnamed yoga instructor in New York City.
Really?
Here’s the deal. How great is it that we live in a country where women sales of $98 yoga pants are helping to grease the wheels of the economy? And in a country obsessed with the so-called obesity epidemic, shouldn’t we be proud of people investing in their health? And, might it be possible that people of a dudely persuasion are also throwing down the big bucks for yoga pants? Because a little bird told me …
Photo of "Zach the Dude" by lululemon athletica via Flickr.
And another thing: maybe the reason women are buying yoga pants and sports bras, is this:
Overweight women make $13,847 less than average, while underweight women make $15,572 more. That means that a fat woman makes $29,419 less per year than a skinny one. (source)
I’m thinking that $98 investment in yoga pants looks pretty good if it helps you close a nearly $30K pay gap.
Both articles, by the way, the one about the yoga pants and the wage gap, were on the same business website. Only one got turned into click-bait all over the internet.
nonsequiteuse 