1.6.11

Born the Redhead Way

Boobs or hip bones?  What's more attractive?  C'mon, fellas.  Inquiring minds want to know what y'all think.  It started over the weekend with pictures of two celebs on two beaches.  LeAnn Rimes in Mexico and Christina Hendricks in Italy. 

LeAnn tweeted a photo of herself in a string bikini.  The paparazzi caught Christina stepping out of her cover-up.  Those two pictures ignited the body wars again.  "She looks anorexic."  "That's obese."  Women can't win.  Either we're too thin or too fat.

It's been reported that Christina is 5'8", approximately 154 pounds, and a size 14.  When you remember that the average woman's dress size in the 1950s was an 8, you also have to remember that in the 1950s, the average woman was 5'3", 120 pounds, with a waist size of 24" to 25".  Today, the average American woman is 5'4", 150 pounds, with a waist size of 34" to 35".  And her dress size?  12.

Don't forget that the U.S. Department of Commerce abolished the uniform sizing system for women's clothes in 1983.  A size 8 in the 1950s is a size 4 or less today.  A size 12 today would be a size 16 or larger in the 1950s.  For anyone who sews, we know our "true" size because the sizes on patterns didn't change to fit our vanity as our waists expanded.

My mother was plump from her early 40s onward.  At her largest, back in the 1970s, she was a 16.  Granted she was only 5'2".  Having inherited some of her nicer vintage dresses, it's surprising that they fit me.  Me?  A size 16?  Okay, so I'm 5'10" and don't look as plump as my mother did.

Shockingly, my secret is that my dress size is the American average.  Yep, just one dress size smaller than Ms. Hendricks.  Hurray for us hourglass-figured women!  Other than our figures, Ms. Hendricks and I share the same hair color.  But I was born this way[WARNING!  Do NOT click the last link if you are offended by over-the-top music videos.  If so, click HERE instead.]

5 comments:

  1. Re: curvy women...I totally concur. Definitely Christina Hendricks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Christina Hendricks is the more attractive of the two.

    Thank God that men's clothing is simpler than women's. I was 180 pounds and 6 foot tall when I graduated from college. Now I am about 176 pounds and I am the same size that I was then in clothing terms. It is comforting that size inflation has stayed in the women's arena alone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OOhhh Wifie, this does take me back to the fifties, when I was a teenager, and hour glass figures were the norm, I'm 5'0" and then weighed 105lbs 35"- 22" - 35" I don't know the dress size, though they are different in the states to us.
    Now I'm still 5.0" but weigh 118lbs and 36" if I can find the measuring area. 28" - 37" how the shape changes, and am also a bit looser all over. jolly interesting subject.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree; Leann looks as if she'd blow away in a stiff breeze.

    At 5'10" and 135 lbs. I was skinny as a rail until I hit my mid 30s when I eventually got up to 175 and stayed there until I had my accident. During the year long recuperation I ballooned up to 210 which was really chunky considering I was also 2" shorter. I managed to get down to 195 before I hit the wall and I've been stuck there for 3 years now. That's okay with me except when I go home and I have to watch out for Greenpeace people on the beach trying to push me back into the water.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hendricks stands tall and proud and sure with her body type, that's what's important. There's a spark and a strength in her eyes that LeAnn doesn't have, as a woman, I would probably gravitate to her side of the party...

    ReplyDelete