The Clothes Make the Man

They say the clothes make the man. Well what about the woman?

This morning I was doing some on-line shopping. I came across a website that offers deep discounts on brand-name clothes and decided I'd take a look at the dresses. Both of my girls could use a new dress and if the price was right, it would be nice to surprise them with one.

As I searched through the pages, a brand-name caught my eye. Promiscuous. Surely that was the name of that particular dress. After all, it was strappy and short, right? Wrong. It's a whole line of clothes that include dresses, tops, shoes and intimates. 

I thought I knew what the word meant, but I looked it up, just in case:

Promiscuous: 1. Having casual sexual relations frequently with different partners; indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners.   2. Lacking standards of selection; indiscriminate.

I find it hard to imagine that a woman would want to be considered promiscuous  or that she'd want to wear a label called Promiscuous after reading this definition. At best, it means a loose, easy woman. At worst, it means you have no standards and probably have bad taste. And even if a woman is promiscuous, would she want to advertise it with an actual label?

And yet, we often label ourselves without wearing the word.  

In the google search for Promiscuous clothing, I found an article that listed the nine most promiscuous clothing items women wear--according to men. Most of them were fairly obvious, but a few surprised me.

1. The BodyCon dress. I hadn't heard of this before, but when I looked it up, it appears that it's any super-short, form-fitting dress. 
2.  Crop tops. 
3.  Corset tops
4.  Lace
5.  Underwear worn as outerwear
6.  Pencil Skirts
7.  Knee Boots
8.  Stiletto heels
9.  Mini Skirts

I'm not advocating that you burn anything with lace or that pencil skirts and heels equal a loose woman. But as you look over this list, and see what men perceive as promiscuous clothing, maybe we too often label ourselves without even knowing it.

Something to think about, both for ourselves and our daughters.

Comments

Mellie said…
I was at the mall a while back and saw a table full of tee shirts with intricate curly patterns on them, and some roses and such. I was interested, because there were some pretty cool designs and the shirts were a good length with a modest neckline and everything... but then I noticed the brand name "Sinful" was printed on every shirt. Not even just on the label, but right in the middle of the design where everyone would see it. Not interested anymore. :(

I really wish clothing makers, TV shows, and many others in the public eye would stop pushing "promiscuous" and "sinful" and other such lables (literal and otherwise) as what's cool.
Bzybee said…
I don't think promiscuous is necessarily an item of clothing, it is about how something is worn and/or the attitude of the person.

The approach of the clothing companies and marketing is suspect at the best of times.
Leslie said…
shocking. what a stupid name for a line of clothing.

why not just call it... "i want to have sex and i'm not picky" clothing?

so lame.
Mindy said…
Pencil skirts?? Those say "business woman" to me. Huh.
Karey said…
I was surprised by that one, too, Mindy. Some of these seemed obvious, but a couple surprised me. But that's what a survey of men said.
Kristi said…
That clothing line is horrible.
I now know why I feel uncomfortable wearing my heeled knee boots that I got at Target for $7. I told Spencer that I like them on other ladies but I felt weird wearing them. I guess I think like a guy :).
Anonymous said…
Wow! I am way behind the times. What is a "pencil skirt?" I had to google it and what it brought up was some "skirts." I have skirts! I have skirts that look like the skirts I saw online. Like Mindy, when I wear my "pencil skirts" I feel like I am dressed as a "professional sister missionary!" Wow, you learn something everyday on this blog. Way to teach us all, Karey. Love, Sister MOM H Canada Toronto Mission (;