What’s your take on knees – more specifically, on knee-baring garments?
Personally, I don’t think the knee is one of the more aesthetically pleasing body parts allotted to humankind, but if people want to bare them, feel free.
I do feel a bit sad, though, when I see women of an age to be mature who are still presenting themselves in a ‘look at me I’m young and sexy’ kind of way, minis and all. It’s not that women past their youth can’t be attractive – not at all! – but it seems like they’re rejecting the value in their own stage of life by trying to return to a stage of life they’ve grown out of.
The world is full of fools telling women that their only value is in being young and sexy, but that isn’t actually true. You can be one without being the other; you can be neither and still be a fully rounded, valuable human being worthy of respect. Why affirm the lie by trying to meet its false (and frequently impossible) standard?
It’s sexist, too: you don’t see men abandoning their trousers for their old school shorts in an attempt to gain – or possibly become – social currency. Why? Because there is no social pressure for grown men to dress like flirty teenagers. (Thank God.)
But there’s one kind of knee-baring I really can’t be having with: jeans which are sold with their knees already ripped up. It seems to me that this is a form of conspicuous consumption which borders on the immoral. We have so much excess we can pay to have our clothes artificially aged – eliminating much of their useful life for the sake of fashion, not use.
So what do you think? I’d be interested to hear your views.
I’m one of the sad types who thinks her legs are sufficiently bearable that long shorts or modest shortish skirts still look okay. Forget sexy, but nice enough not to be ashamed. Some legs definitely need to be kept safely veiled.
Pre-ripped jeans, now that is a ridiculous affectation. It started with my generation wanting jeans that looked as if we had been wearing these desirable fashion items for months, not that they were shamefully new and dark blue. So we washed and washed them, or some brave souls used bleach! Later age groups enjoyed different ways to gain a frayed look. Naturally occurring holes in knees were not repaired. We began to hear of alternative lifestyle market stalls with pre-loved or pre-washed or pre-damaged jeans, and it was all downhill from there.
Nice to see that the distressed jeans issue isn’t entirely my generation’s fault!
And I don’t have a problem with people showing a bit of leg – it’s thigh-baring garments (miniskirts, short shorts…) that seem out of sync with a mature person’s dignity. You aren’t a ‘sad type’ at all!