Fancy Pants & Feminism

I’d like to start this post by asking that both my dad and my big brother make the mature decision to not read on.  I’m about to talk about lingerie and girl stuff that I’d rather you pretend I was not involved in.

Now that those guys are gone we can move on…

Ooooh, is there anything better than getting new pants?  I mean the British kind.  Underwear.  Undies.  Knickers.  I get really excited about having new pants.  Don’t pretend you don’t love it too.

I’m going to be a bridesmaid for one of my besties this year and I’m SO excited.  When we went to go bridesmaid dress shopping, one of my other besties (also a bridesmaid) was quite afronted that I had neither shaved my legs or wore matching underwear and bra for the excursion. 

I’ll admit, I should have re-thought the former of her issues as there was a small setback of static cling with some of the more chiffon-y dresses we tried on, but really?  Matching undies?  I don’t have any.  Unless a black M&S t-shirt bra and random unknown origin black undies count?  (They don’t by the way - she made quite clear).

I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about sexy underwear and lingerie and the reasons why us ladies often feel it’s important that we have this stuff in our clothing repertoire.

 

Dad & Tim, if you are still reading, now you should really shut it down. 

When I was getting married my friends bought me all kinds of beautifully sexy things.  Things I wasn’t even sure how to put on (come on…the stockings, suspenders, corsets - these things should come with diagrams and risk assessments)!  It felt like a right of passage at the time, but I guess my thoughts have been more focused on how sexualised our world is lately (which is the root of a lot of big problems, i.e. sex trafficking etc), and how the powers-that-try-to-be use the likes of the lingerie industry to peg us women into something to be oggled at and lusted over.  Is there a good reason as to why we should dress up to be more visually pleasing to our partners? 

I guess I’m questioning whether wearing sexy underwear or lingerie (whether that’s in a marriage context or not) is a feminist issue? 

Sure, there is the argument that lots of women feel empowered by this kind of attire, more confident, powerful - and some that will say that they wear it to appeal to their mens strong visual appetite, but I wonder if maybe some of these reasons are more often than not just another bunch of lies that we have grown used to going along with?  Do men feel the same need to present themselves in this sexy way when it comes to intimacy etc?

I understand this is a loaded topic, and to be honest I don’t have loads of well thought through opinions on this, I just wanted to get a few questions down while they were buzzing around my head.  What do you think? Is this another way for society to keep us locked in the sexual objectification game, or am I over-thinking it?