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My McJudgy obnoxious observation and question


Ginevra
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Feel free to tell me to stuff it.

 

The crop of homecoming photos on FB this season displays a pretty staggering number of really, really, really short dresses on the young ladies. I mean really short. Are all these young ladies wearing some sort of coverage or is this, like, a lot of potential wardrobe malfunction? I mean, I'm actually asking if the style is to wear a tiny short dress with matching shorts sold with and that's the style; that the point is to look as if the dress is really just skimming the essentials but there is actually coverage that is part of the look? (So, parallell example is the style of having a cardigan that is longer than the shorts so, from behind, it seems like she is wearing only a cardigan.)

 

If there's not any coverage, I'm not understanding why such a lot of parents are happy with this look and I'm not understanding why the young ladies are happy to wear it if there's a constant need to keep the dress pulled down enough to cover the essentials and we can just forget about bending or maybe even sitting; it's impossible.

 

I have a DD but she is in college now and I don't think she has had occassion to wear a semi-formal dress recently and she didn't choose any dresses this short while she was in high school (however, she was at a private school that would not have accepted it, I imagine.)

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Prom is for the long dresses, HOCO is for short and sassy.  Usually paired with crazy high heels as well. 

 

Most of them around here are wearing dance/exercise shorts underneath- very short, black dance shorts.  And definitely no tights/leggings/hose anything on the legs.

 

I can't tell you how many homecoming dresses I've hemmed over the years because the dresses weren't quite short enough.  For a lot of the schools with strict dress codes, this is the one time they can get away with breaking the fingertip rule, so they all go for it.

 

 

Edited by Lady Marmalade
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Feel free to tell me to stuff it.

 

The crop of homecoming photos on FB this season displays a pretty staggering number of really, really, really short dresses on the young ladies. I mean really short. Are all these young ladies wearing some sort of coverage or is this, like, a lot of potential wardrobe malfunction? I mean, I'm actually asking if the style is to wear a tiny short dress with matching shorts sold with and that's the style; that the point is to look as if the dress is really just skimming the essentials but there is actually coverage that is part of the look? (So, parallell example is the style of having a cardigan that is longer than the shorts so, from behind, it seems like she is wearing only a cardigan.)

 

If there's not any coverage, I'm not understanding why such a lot of parents are happy with this look and I'm not understanding why the young ladies are happy to wear it if there's a constant need to keep the dress pulled down enough to cover the essentials and we can just forget about bending or maybe even sitting; it's impossible.

 

I have a DD but she is in college now and I don't think she has had occassion to wear a semi-formal dress recently and she didn't choose any dresses this short while she was in high school (however, she was at a private school that would not have accepted it, I imagine.)

How soon before someone posts and says... "Good grief. Sigh. What is wrong with a glimpse of someone's a$$? Are we such prudes that we don't know what a bottom looks like?"

 

I should probably add a few of these:

 

:lol: :D :rofl:

Edited by unsinkable
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The young ladies may or may not be wearing short-shorts or leotards under. Very likely some of them are wearing shorts, some of them just underwear, and a few of them are wearing nothing under the dress.

 

:svengo:

 

Here there is also a trend towards showing a lot of (oftentimes very unflattering) skin.

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The linked dresses look like what I've seen on Forever 21 site for a few years now. (I see them when my daughter asks me to look with her; I'm not a F21 customer LOL).  I think short dresses come and go.  I see these as club dresses, not something for a school dance.  But also, they don't seem much different from clothes I remember from high school in the 70s, really.  

 

Also check the heights of the models on some of the dresses.  The model in your third link is 5'11".  So that dress is going to be a fair bit longer on your average high schooler. 

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How soon before someone posts and says... "Good grief. Sigh. What is wrong with a glimpse of someone's a$$? Are we such prudes that we don't know what a bottom looks like?"

Yeah.

 

I have some other thoughts I know are totally taboo, because nationally, we're finally having the conversation about #metoo and unwanted interest and line-crossing and I see something ironic in putting body parts on such a platter if we're also having this much-needed conversation about line-crossing...but I know that there's only one tiny step from posting that to someone yelling "victim-blaming"...and that's not what I mean, but...*sigh*

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The linked dresses look like what I've seen on Forever 21 site for a few years now. (I see them when my daughter asks me to look with her; I'm not a F21 customer LOL). I think short dresses come and go. I see these as club dresses, not something for a school dance. But also, they don't seem much different from clothes I remember from high school in the 70s, really.

 

Also check the heights of the models on some of the dresses. The model in your third link is 5'11". So that dress is going to be a fair bit longer on your average high schooler.

I understand the bolded, but that isn't what I'm seeing from photos of actual highschoolers heading out to their dances; in fact, it wasn't easy to find examples that are really as short as I'm seeing on actual young ladies at school.

 

I think, as Lady Marmalade said, many may be having them altered to be shorter, even thought they are quite short to begin with.

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Those photos are pretty normal examples of the mini-skirt / mini-dress genre -- a bit of a change from recent fashions, but totally normal just a few decades ago. They tend to fit slim enough that they aren't going to malfunction by flipping up in a breeze. (They are stable because they lack the excess fabric to be moving around in flippy ways.)

 

By 'totally normal' I mean that my mom taught school in skirts that short -- normal professional wear for respectable professions.

Edited by bolt.
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Those photos are pretty normal examples of the mini-skirt / mini-dress genre -- a bit of a change from recent fashions, but totally normal just a few decades ago. They tend to fit slim enough that they aren't going to malfunction by flipping up in a breeze. (they are stable because they lack the excess fabric to be moving around like that.)

Not if you bend. Or sit.

 

And some are not bodycon, they are fit and flare or baby-doll.

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I think trends wax and wane with the zeitgeist and we are in a season where girls want to show off more body than previous generations. They remind me a bit of the 20s flapper dresses. Those were also pretty short. It will be no time at all before the dresses are skimming the floor in length. I think the difference now is schools used to have a dress code for dress length and now it has gone out of vogue. Those are pretty short though. It will certainly make those bump and grind dances harder to pull off without flashing the goods.

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I see those dresses on girls doing the Saturday evening meet on the street in the local town. I have no problems with it, but they just look chilly to me.

#coldclimateprobs. 😄

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I asked my niece about this once. She likes short, short dresses. When we were together one day, I asked her if she was nervous about it lifting up. (It was a light, airy dress that came just below her bottom.) She said that wasn't a problem, but she had to be careful with her backpack or it would raise it up. She is very cute and always dresses in a flattering way, but I wouldn't be comfortable with my daughters wearing this style.

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I've not seen any that short around here. Most are around mid thigh or lower. 

 

As far as what is worn underneath, 3 of the 4 girls that my daughter went to hoco with, my daughter was  wearing spandex shorts underneath. One of the girls didn't and she wasn't worried  :huh:  but it was a point of discussion among us adults. 

 

I didn't hear of any wardrobe malfunctions at the dance. 

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The pictures look pretty normal to me. The first one looked pretty short in the back, but the rest looked normal. dd2 had a short dress for homecoming. She wore black exercise shorts underneath and bare legs and high heels.

 

Frankly, she was more covered up than with some of the shorts she has tried on (and tried to get me to buy). I will say, she is in great shape, young and thin and almost every dress looks good (or a little too good) and she prefers short dresses. 

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Short dresses and skirts are not new. This is just fashion repeating. I wore a dress that came just about two inches under my bum for a high school dress. It was bodycon red lace to boot. My mom liked the dress and my dad realized with a heavy heart that resistance was futile. ;) 

 

 

By the way, it's not just young girls wearing short dresses. I saw a mom who is 49 and she wore a tunic as a dress. It hit her right at her groin/bum line. She could not bend down even the slightest. It was literally the shortest "dress" I had ever seen....even on a teen or 20something. I admit, that while I am usually a whatever-floats-your-boat type of person, I did raise my eyebrows when I saw her. To me it just screamed, "trying too hard to hold on to my youth and beauty" and it was the opposite of attractive due to that. 

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Yeah.

 

I have some other thoughts I know are totally taboo, because nationally, we're finally having the conversation about #metoo and unwanted interest and line-crossing and I see something ironic in putting body parts on such a platter if we're also having this much-needed conversation about line-crossing...but I know that there's only one tiny step from posting that to someone yelling "victim-blaming"...and that's not what I mean, but...*sigh*

 

 

Then do not even go there. Not even slightly.  Do not go near a "line-crossing" and follow it with "that's not what I mean" cause that is what you mean. It absolutely is. Women wearing burqas get harassed and raped. Nuns get harassed and raped. It has nothing to do with clothing. So if you don't want to imply that it does....then don't write about "line crossing" and "putting body parts on a platter" Just don't. 

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Yeah.

 

I have some other thoughts I know are totally taboo, because nationally, we're finally having the conversation about #metoo and unwanted interest and line-crossing and I see something ironic in putting body parts on such a platter if we're also having this much-needed conversation about line-crossing...but I know that there's only one tiny step from posting that to someone yelling "victim-blaming"...and that's not what I mean, but...*sigh*

 

Body parts on a platter?

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Interesting. Nobody wears a long gown for homecoming in this area.

 

These are some examples of what I see:

 

https://www.charlotterusse.com/sequin-v-neck-bodycon-dress/302424514.html?dwvar_302424514_color=187&cgid=homecoming-dresses#sz=30&start=109

 

https://www.charlotterusse.com/shimmer-cold-shoulder-bodycon-dress/302435506.html?dwvar_302435506_color=008&cgid=homecoming-dresses#sz=30&start=111

 

https://www.charlotterusse.com/flocked-velvet-halter-bodycon-dress/302430244.html?dwvar_302430244_color=410&cgid=homecoming-dresses#sz=30&start=113

 

https://www.charlotterusse.com/floral-strappy-back-skater-dress/302423055.html?dwvar_302423055_color=461&cgid=homecoming-dresses#sz=30&start=70

 

Many seem shorter even than these; this might be what they look like when they are just pulled down or haven't inched up at all from movement.

Wow...are these examples of what highschool girls are wearing? I guess I think that until someone is 18 their parents can have a say in what they wear and I certainly wouldn't allow my daughter to wear something like that to a dance. I mean it doesn't cover much more than a bathing suit really, and I wouldn't let my daughter wear a bathing suit to a dance. But to each their own I guess.

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They look pretty normal to me, similar to the length I wore around 18/19. Who bends over in a skirt?!?  

 

 

Who stands completely ramrod straight at all times, especially at a dance?

 

Not me, but it never was a problem. 

Now, if I were to put that length on my CURRENT body, there'd be plenty of... um... "varying terrain" for material to get hung up on.

I still like my skirts to be on the short side, just no longer body hugging!

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Who stands completely ramrod straight at all times, especially at a dance?

I agree. When I was in college I wore some dresses I felt were short but thinking back I guess they were about mid thigh really, so not as short as these. But I clearly remember that when I sat down they would raise up to the limit of where they could be, so I can't imagine how anyone could sit in these ultra short dresses.

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Then do not even go there. Not even slightly. Do not go near a "line-crossing" and follow it with "that's not what I mean" cause that is what you mean. It absolutely is. Women wearing burqas get harassed and raped. Nuns get harassed and raped. It has nothing to do with clothing. So if you don't want to imply that it does....then don't write about "line crossing" and "putting body parts on a platter" Just don't.

It's not what I mean. I don't mean if a line gets crossed in a mini dress that the girl deserved it or, "Well, you wore a dress so short, what do you expect?" Not what I mean.

 

I'm saying, nationally, we're having this conversation about preventing sexual violence against women, but this ought not mean we're going to dress as nakedly as possible and then say it has nothing to do with the dress. I do see something ironic about these two things haplening simultaneously.

 

It's like this: I don't want my car to be broken into and stolen, so I don't leave it sitting with the windows down and the keys on the seat. Doesn't mean the windows can be smashed in broad daylight anyway (in fact, this did happen to me), but just because the car can get stolen either way doesn't mean it's not prudent to reduce the likelihood. Also, if your car is a Cadillac, I'm not saying, "Well, you have a desirable car, so, what do you expect?" No; people driving a Cadillac don't deserve car theft more than old beater-drivers. But you might as well lock it and bring the keys with you.

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It's not what I mean. I don't mean if a line gets crossed in a mini dress that the girl deserved it or, "Well, you wore a dress so short, what do you expect?" Not what I mean.

 

I'm saying, nationally, we're having this conversation about preventing sexual violence against women, but this ought not mean we're going to dress as nakedly as possible and then say it has nothing to do with the dress. I do see something ironic about these two things haplening simultaneously.

 

It's like this: I don't want my car to be broken into and stolen, so I don't leave it sitting with the windows down and the keys on the seat. Doesn't mean the windows can be smashed in broad daylight anyway (in fact, this did happen to me), but just because the car can get stolen either way doesn't mean it's not prudent to reduce the likelihood. Also, if your car is a Cadillac, I'm not saying, "Well, you have a desirable car, so, what do you expect?" No; people driving a Cadillac don't deserve car theft more than old beater-drivers. But you might as well lock it and bring the keys with you.

 

Wow. So it is up to the woman to prevent getting raped by wearing a long (vs short) dress??

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Remember that fashion models are super-tall and what looks crazy short on them is actually normal on most teens who aren't 5'9"+

The links are just examples of how the dresses actually look, regardless of the height of the lady wearing it. Obviously, I cannot post photos of actual young women I know.

 

Some of those examples look a bit long, actually.

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They look pretty normal to me, similar to the length I wore around 18/19. Who bends over in a skirt?!?  

 

Hmmm, what do you do if you drop something? Wait for someone else to pick it up I guess. Now I am not just showing my age but also how clumsy I am. :)

 

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Hmmm, what do you do if you drop something? Wait for someone else to pick it up I guess. Now I am not just showing my age but also how clumsy I am. :)

 

Well, right. I mean, sandle straps sometimes need adjusting.

 

Unrelated funny story: one year, my dd's friend was posing for pictures before homecoming and she stepped back into our floor register, which became lodged on her spiked heel and she pulled it out of the floor attached to her heel! 😆

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By the way, it's not just young girls wearing short dresses. I saw a mom who is 49 and she wore a tunic as a dress. It hit her right at her groin/bum line. She could not bend down even the slightest. It was literally the shortest "dress" I had ever seen....even on a teen or 20something. I admit, that while I am usually a whatever-floats-your-boat type of person, I did raise my eyebrows when I saw her. To me it just screamed, "trying too hard to hold on to my youth and beauty" and it was the opposite of attractive due to that. 

 

Saw something similar a few years ago when those mens shirt dress things were first in style. At church, of all places. Looked for all the world like she forgot to put on pants. 

SaveSave

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I understand exactly what you are saying and what you mean (I agree with you), and I am not the least bit surprised by some of the reactions.

 

It's not what I mean. I don't mean if a line gets crossed in a mini dress that the girl deserved it or, "Well, you wore a dress so short, what do you expect?" Not what I mean.

 

I'm saying, nationally, we're having this conversation about preventing sexual violence against women, but this ought not mean we're going to dress as nakedly as possible and then say it has nothing to do with the dress. I do see something ironic about these two things haplening simultaneously.

 

It's like this: I don't want my car to be broken into and stolen, so I don't leave it sitting with the windows down and the keys on the seat. Doesn't mean the windows can be smashed in broad daylight anyway (in fact, this did happen to me), but just because the car can get stolen either way doesn't mean it's not prudent to reduce the likelihood. Also, if your car is a Cadillac, I'm not saying, "Well, you have a desirable car, so, what do you expect?" No; people driving a Cadillac don't deserve car theft more than old beater-drivers. But you might as well lock it and bring the keys with you.

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I think you need to be super confident to carry off a dress that shows a lot of skin or is super short.   Oftentimes the girls wearing them just end up looking very uncomfortable.

 

I would not have been comfortable even at 16/17 when I may have had the body to pull it off. I suppose it also is a comfort zone issue.

 

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We know that cars are more likely to be broken in to if it is easy to do so, and if there are valuables in plain sight. BUT as far as I know there is NO evidence that what you wear makes you more or less likely to be a victim of sexual violence, so the analogy doesn't hold up. 

 

IF dressing with a longer skirt made it less likely you'd be raped, then yes, it might be worth discussing as a safety issue. But there is not evidence that is true. 

It's not what I mean. I don't mean if a line gets crossed in a mini dress that the girl deserved it or, "Well, you wore a dress so short, what do you expect?" Not what I mean.

I'm saying, nationally, we're having this conversation about preventing sexual violence against women, but this ought not mean we're going to dress as nakedly as possible and then say it has nothing to do with the dress. I do see something ironic about these two things haplening simultaneously.

It's like this: I don't want my car to be broken into and stolen, so I don't leave it sitting with the windows down and the keys on the seat. Doesn't mean the windows can be smashed in broad daylight anyway (in fact, this did happen to me), but just because the car can get stolen either way doesn't mean it's not prudent to reduce the likelihood. Also, if your car is a Cadillac, I'm not saying, "Well, you have a desirable car, so, what do you expect?" No; people driving a Cadillac don't deserve car theft more than old beater-drivers. But you might as well lock it and bring the keys with you.

 

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Yeah.

 

I have some other thoughts I know are totally taboo, because nationally, we're finally having the conversation about #metoo and unwanted interest and line-crossing and I see something ironic in putting body parts on such a platter if we're also having this much-needed conversation about line-crossing...but I know that there's only one tiny step from posting that to someone yelling "victim-blaming"...and that's not what I mean, but...*sigh*

I would wear those linked dresses.

For my husband.

In the bedroom.

 

Growing up and going to college in Florida, I'm used to spaghetti straps and short shorts. I think it's the fact that these are dresses that bothers me. You want to sit you bottom on a park bench in THAT?

 

But I sacrifice nothing in the name of fashion.

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It's not what I mean. I don't mean if a line gets crossed in a mini dress that the girl deserved it or, "Well, you wore a dress so short, what do you expect?" Not what I mean.

 

I'm saying, nationally, we're having this conversation about preventing sexual violence against women, but this ought not mean we're going to dress as nakedly as possible and then say it has nothing to do with the dress. I do see something ironic about these two things haplening simultaneously.

 

It's like this: I don't want my car to be broken into and stolen, so I don't leave it sitting with the windows down and the keys on the seat. Doesn't mean the windows can be smashed in broad daylight anyway (in fact, this did happen to me), but just because the car can get stolen either way doesn't mean it's not prudent to reduce the likelihood. Also, if your car is a Cadillac, I'm not saying, "Well, you have a desirable car, so, what do you expect?" No; people driving a Cadillac don't deserve car theft more than old beater-drivers. But you might as well lock it and bring the keys with you.

 

Equating human beings to food being served on platters and Cadillacs vs. beaters is not going to save you in this argument.  

 

The only way to eliminate sexual violence is for assailants to quit. My scariest moments never involved a skirt, or even alcohol for that matter.  Looking back, they were all in situations that I was taught were "safe".  No one from my scantily clad days ever harmed me.  The people who did had no interest what I was wearing.

 

Let me repeat that.  The people who did had no interest in what I was wearing.

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You bend at your knees.

 

Well...I suppose. Do these tight things stretch? I would be in fear of losing my balance and falling over completely especially since one wears high heels in this situation. I could may be do it in ballet flats. :)

 

As I said in another post I would never have been comfortable in something this short. I also find the long skirts / dresses so much more elegant.

 

Edited by Liz CA
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