Who the hell is Honor Jones? The days of men telling women what to wear are over. If women want to wear sweat pants let them. If they want to wear yoga pants let them. If they want to wear the same outfit 3 days in a row let them. Real men are comfortable wearing what they want. Real women should do the same.
As a father I'm torn between what my daughter wants to wear (skin tight yoga pants) and the arousal I know men feel when viewing sexually attractive women. I'm grateful her school has a strict dress code and baggy unisex sweat pants for PE that hide the human form and erections so common in male adolescence.
I think fathers play an important role in letting their daughters understand what is going on in the male brain and to emphasize the importance of intellectually and emotionally attractiveness, and not to just rely on physical attractiveness as the merit of one's worth.
Nature uses the physical form to determine health and fecundability. The reason we have two eyes, ears, nostrils, arms & legs is so that it is easy to see symmetry. Deformity is an easy way to detect problems with adequate nutrition, genetic cell division, disease and other maladies.
I try to educate her on the reasoning behind makeup, clothes and accessories from a male's reproductive view point (sadly I don't feel qualified to describe what makes men attractive to women and leave that advice to her mother). Most men have a preference for rosy cheeks and puffy red lips as a sign of good blood flow and how makeup helps to give visual signs of good health. Eye shadow, long lashes and flirtatious winking help to draw visual engagement with another person. Padded bras and fuzzy sweaters promote softness and the impression of caloric reserves to feed offspring. High heels offer the appearance of partner height matching (statistically important in monogamous relationships and views around equality) and tilt the hip's lumbar curvature to show that women could still forage for food while pregnant (a biomechanic thing where women were expected to forage while pregnant). Big butts help to emphasis this 45 degree curvature that males appear to prefer. Perfume is processed by our olfactory senses that bypass the thinking part of our brain. An attractive smell can stimulate sexual desire without revealing what stage they were in their cycle. Other animals use smell to know when a female is ovulating but this trait was breed out of humans to discourage polygamy and encourage cooperation between males. It gave females the ability to voice a preference for their partner and more control over who they chose to breed with.
In the end yoga pants aren't bad for women that want to showcase their physical assets. In many parts of the world women don't have control over what they want to wear in public for fear of violence or shaming. Just like how bicycles finally gave women the right to wear pants over dresses despite all kinds of crazy claims it wasn't medically advisable or society acceptable.
INSERT GOLD MEDAL EMOJI
Dear @Riptide360 - This is, by far, the longest comment in rr history. I'll try to beat the record soon, but, in the meantime, just wanted to say: Congrats!!
Thanks Bill! Glad to have won something other than wrath and rage! Hopefully RR will get some reddit up/down voting buttons and premium gold medal blink! ;0
I agree with all of these rr comments. This writer is ridiculous. I highly doubt that women were giving her funny looks because she was wearing sweatpants instead of yoga pants. Sounds like she's projecting. No one cares what you're wearing, girl.
I want to look good when I work out because it makes me feel good, not because I care if other people think I look good. But even if I did wear yoga pants because "they're sexy," who is she to tell me I should be ashamed of that? She is laughably hypocritical. She writes, "It’s not good manners for women to tell other women how to dress" but spends the entire article telling women to wear sweatpants instead of yoga pants.
I'm confused as to what her beef is with Americans spending money on gyms and activewear. I could think of much worse things to spend money on than a healthy lifestyle.
Ah – an absurd non-political article that I feel very comfortable showing my utmost disgust in. It's one thing to criticise the "activewear" industry (and just capitalism in general, criticisms with which I wholeheartedly agree with), but a whole other to make the logical leap that women are choosing a "worse" product over a superior one. When I discovered yoga pants, I started to enjoy exercising for the sole reason that it felt so might lighter than baggy, uncomfortable sweatpants.
The only argument that she kind-of makes that I can see honour in is that women shouldn't be compelled to feel sexy. However, she framed her argument in a way that brings down women who choose to wear yoga pants, rather than encouraging them to try other forms of clothing (Elephant pants? Robes? Underwear? Why sweatpants?). There, the author has created an arbitrary line. Her claim is that women either wear yoga pants because they're fooled by the fashion industry or they're wearing them because societal norms and pressure. There is no other choice that she finds legitimate, as she also only briefly mentions that women can be "fit and liberated:
"Women can, of course, be fit and liberated. We may be able to conquer the world wearing spandex. But wouldn’t it be easier to do so in pants that don’t threaten to show every dimple and roll in every woman over 30?"
^Dear Honor Jones: I think you may be purchasing the wrong size.
Overall, the author's argument that "women shouldn't bring down other women" falls short when her entire article has message as not-so-subtle subtext. If you truly want to encourage women to wear unattractive clothes, make that the thesis.
and a lot to be really proud of too. Yoga pants are extremely comfortable and are made to practice yoga in. Sweatpants would be cumbersome and annoying in many yoga postures. I have been practicing yoga in studios for decades and woman in all shapes and sizes seem to be comfortable wearing them. I think they're wearing them to forget about their physical bodies and concentrate on the reasons we practice yoga in the first place, empathy, non judgement, open mindedness, equanimity and letting go of our egos (just to name a few).
Alternate title: Why I Can Speak for All Women
Who the hell is Honor Jones? The days of men telling women what to wear are over. If women want to wear sweat pants let them. If they want to wear yoga pants let them. If they want to wear the same outfit 3 days in a row let them. Real men are comfortable wearing what they want. Real women should do the same.
As a father I'm torn between what my daughter wants to wear (skin tight yoga pants) and the arousal I know men feel when viewing sexually attractive women. I'm grateful her school has a strict dress code and baggy unisex sweat pants for PE that hide the human form and erections so common in male adolescence.
I think fathers play an important role in letting their daughters understand what is going on in the male brain and to emphasize the importance of intellectually and emotionally attractiveness, and not to just rely on physical attractiveness as the merit of one's worth.
Nature uses the physical form to determine health and fecundability. The reason we have two eyes, ears, nostrils, arms & legs is so that it is easy to see symmetry. Deformity is an easy way to detect problems with adequate nutrition, genetic cell division, disease and other maladies.
I try to educate her on the reasoning behind makeup, clothes and accessories from a male's reproductive view point (sadly I don't feel qualified to describe what makes men attractive to women and leave that advice to her mother). Most men have a preference for rosy cheeks and puffy red lips as a sign of good blood flow and how makeup helps to give visual signs of good health. Eye shadow, long lashes and flirtatious winking help to draw visual engagement with another person. Padded bras and fuzzy sweaters promote softness and the impression of caloric reserves to feed offspring. High heels offer the appearance of partner height matching (statistically important in monogamous relationships and views around equality) and tilt the hip's lumbar curvature to show that women could still forage for food while pregnant (a biomechanic thing where women were expected to forage while pregnant). Big butts help to emphasis this 45 degree curvature that males appear to prefer. Perfume is processed by our olfactory senses that bypass the thinking part of our brain. An attractive smell can stimulate sexual desire without revealing what stage they were in their cycle. Other animals use smell to know when a female is ovulating but this trait was breed out of humans to discourage polygamy and encourage cooperation between males. It gave females the ability to voice a preference for their partner and more control over who they chose to breed with.
In the end yoga pants aren't bad for women that want to showcase their physical assets. In many parts of the world women don't have control over what they want to wear in public for fear of violence or shaming. Just like how bicycles finally gave women the right to wear pants over dresses despite all kinds of crazy claims it wasn't medically advisable or society acceptable.
INSERT GOLD MEDAL EMOJI Dear @Riptide360 - This is, by far, the longest comment in rr history. I'll try to beat the record soon, but, in the meantime, just wanted to say: Congrats!!
Thanks Bill! Glad to have won something other than wrath and rage! Hopefully RR will get some reddit up/down voting buttons and premium gold medal blink! ;0
YES!! Shoot me an email and we can further discuss: bill@reallyread.it
The thing is...nobody's "telling" anyone to do anything. Implicit norms are all anyone needs to feel pressured in a certain direction.
Nobody knows who Honor Jones is: https://twitter.com/knguyen/status/965238142830825472?lang=en
I agree with all of these rr comments. This writer is ridiculous. I highly doubt that women were giving her funny looks because she was wearing sweatpants instead of yoga pants. Sounds like she's projecting. No one cares what you're wearing, girl.
I want to look good when I work out because it makes me feel good, not because I care if other people think I look good. But even if I did wear yoga pants because "they're sexy," who is she to tell me I should be ashamed of that? She is laughably hypocritical. She writes, "It’s not good manners for women to tell other women how to dress" but spends the entire article telling women to wear sweatpants instead of yoga pants.
I'm confused as to what her beef is with Americans spending money on gyms and activewear. I could think of much worse things to spend money on than a healthy lifestyle.
The power is inside the woman, not inside her pants. Wear whatever you want Honor Jones, but don't be a hater.
has this person ever worn yoga pants tho? byeeee
haha. preach
Ah – an absurd non-political article that I feel very comfortable showing my utmost disgust in. It's one thing to criticise the "activewear" industry (and just capitalism in general, criticisms with which I wholeheartedly agree with), but a whole other to make the logical leap that women are choosing a "worse" product over a superior one. When I discovered yoga pants, I started to enjoy exercising for the sole reason that it felt so might lighter than baggy, uncomfortable sweatpants.
The only argument that she kind-of makes that I can see honour in is that women shouldn't be compelled to feel sexy. However, she framed her argument in a way that brings down women who choose to wear yoga pants, rather than encouraging them to try other forms of clothing (Elephant pants? Robes? Underwear? Why sweatpants?). There, the author has created an arbitrary line. Her claim is that women either wear yoga pants because they're fooled by the fashion industry or they're wearing them because societal norms and pressure. There is no other choice that she finds legitimate, as she also only briefly mentions that women can be "fit and liberated:
"Women can, of course, be fit and liberated. We may be able to conquer the world wearing spandex. But wouldn’t it be easier to do so in pants that don’t threaten to show every dimple and roll in every woman over 30?"
^Dear Honor Jones: I think you may be purchasing the wrong size.
Overall, the author's argument that "women shouldn't bring down other women" falls short when her entire article has message as not-so-subtle subtext. If you truly want to encourage women to wear unattractive clothes, make that the thesis.
That was fun to write!
Funny read. Joking aside, yoga-related businesses have a lot to be ashamed of.
and a lot to be really proud of too. Yoga pants are extremely comfortable and are made to practice yoga in. Sweatpants would be cumbersome and annoying in many yoga postures. I have been practicing yoga in studios for decades and woman in all shapes and sizes seem to be comfortable wearing them. I think they're wearing them to forget about their physical bodies and concentrate on the reasons we practice yoga in the first place, empathy, non judgement, open mindedness, equanimity and letting go of our egos (just to name a few).