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Blue jeans and Mounties

FashionHistory

It’s hard to say what’s the best part of Sabotabby’s post about how recently declassified documents exposed a 70s-era spying program conducted by Mounties on feminist organizations, but the parts where the Mounties had to file reports on groups of women described as “uncombed” singing songs of sisterhood is up there.  But just read the whole thing.  I’m also impressed with this link she includes to the ever-fun crank Henry Makow on how blue jeans signal the fall of decent womanhoodNot only will no one marry you if you say “fuck”, no one will marry you if you wear blue jeans, ladies. 

Favorite quotes:

“Slovenly” “Drab” Unkempt” “Slatternly” “Blowzy”—many adjectives come to mind to describe most women who wear jeans.

He wrote this in April 2008.

But usually these women are alone and don’t look happy. Often they look angry and confused. Usually they are talking on a cell phone or listening to their ipod.

What this tells me is that women, in Makow’s presence, become angry and unhappy, and will turn to their electronic devices as a way to signal to him that they really don’t have the mental space to dedicate to the imperious demands on their attention issued by a stranger who feels entitled.  The iPod and the cell phone are the great blessings of women in public.  I used one last night to demonstrate to a man that whatever he felt he had to say to me was no doubt fascinating, but alas, I just simply have to finish my phone call until I had managed to put geographic distance between us.  I wasn’t actually on it, but whatever. 

There is nothing more beautiful than a women wearing a summer dress. I can still remember a young woman I saw five years ago wearing a frock. This is how powerful femininity is.

Remember, ladies, if you wear a dress in public, you may unwittingly become the subject of years of Makow’s depraved masturbatory fantasies should he see you.  Are you really sure you wouldn’t rather just wear the jeans?

 

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Posted by Amanda Marcotte on 03:38 PM • (55) Comments

<blockquoteWhat this tells me is that women, in Makow’s presence, become angry and unhappy, and will turn to their electronic devices as a way to signal to him that they really don’t have the mental space to dedicate to the imperious demands on their attention issued by a stranger who feels entitled.</blockquote>

Only women in blue jeans.  Women in bikini bottoms and halter tops throw themselves at him after he flashes a twenty and orders another round of chicken wings.

I can still remember a young woman I saw five years ago wearing a frock.

$5 says it was his mom.  Any takers?  Anyone?

Comment #1: Zifnab25  on  08/05  at  04:10 PM

Frock? Was she on her way to a barn-raising?

Comment #2: Dweeze  on  08/05  at  04:13 PM

I would love to point out to douchebags like this that I have managed to break every single one of their “rules” and still managed to get married, but I’d be afraid they’d try to lock me up in a zoo somewhere.

“She doesn’t wear makeup, doesn’t do housework, and she wears jeans every day and yet she STILL found a man to marry her after she was 35!  Come see the freak of nature!”

(Technically, we met when I was 31, but we didn’t get married until six years later.  And yet, oddly, I wasn’t killed by a terrorist before the wedding despite the statistics.)

Comment #3: Mnemosyne  on  08/05  at  04:19 PM

So…98% of the time, my wardrobe is functioning as wanker repellant?  Kewl!

Comment #4: mustelid  on  08/05  at  04:25 PM

It’s been five years since he’s seen a lady in a “frock?”

Comment #5: SarahMC  on  08/05  at  04:30 PM

My wife doesn’t wear makeup. Grounds for divorce? I have duly informed my wife that she is not to wear blue jeans. But she ignores that edict unless she wants sex. She also uses the word fuck rather a lot, and not in a sexual sense.

Comment #6: Jason  on  08/05  at  04:31 PM

I used to have unrealistically high standards for my would-be future wife and soulmate, but I’m definitely just going to work the words “Slovenly” “Drab” Unkempt” “Slatternly” “Blowzy” into my next personals ad and let the chips fall where they may.

Comment #7: michael  on  08/05  at  04:49 PM

This needs to be followed up:

This is how powerful femininity is. Let’s not let pious highly-paid feminists and lesbians destroy it.

Who knew I could get paid for being a feminist?  Where do I pick up my check?  Is there a signing bonus if I become a lesbian too?

Comment #8: professordarkheart  on  08/05  at  04:51 PM

“He wrote this in April 2008.”

...which is really odd, because I heard something just about like that when I was in grade school.  In 1968…

Comment #9: MikeEss  on  08/05  at  04:56 PM

Who knew I could get paid for being a feminist?  Where do I pick up my check?

Yeah.  I want in on that action.

Comment #10: Mezosub  on  08/05  at  04:56 PM

I can still remember a young woman I saw five years ago wearing a frock.

Funny. I can still remember the time five years ago when I last heard someone use the word “frock.”

Comment #11: Ink Asylum  on  08/05  at  04:57 PM

Jeez, Amanda, we’ve supported your blog, and it turns out you were getting highly paid, too?

The least you could do is send us loyal readers and posters a gift card to Chili’s or something.

Comment #12: Bitter Scribe  on  08/05  at  05:03 PM

... slatternly?

Comment #13: purpleshoes  on  08/05  at  05:05 PM

Would he pop wood if a woman in a blowzy frock on her cell phone gave him the finger?

Comment #14: PhysioProf  on  08/05  at  05:08 PM

There is a missed point here: if you reject women who swear, and women who wear jeans, it isn’t those women who won’t get laid.

For the record, I adore a nice sundress on a hot day, and jeans when they are practical too.  Don’t expect to see me in one when the weather is cold and the other when the weather is hot.

Comment #15: Ms Kate  on  08/05  at  05:10 PM

There is no possible way he’s leaving his house during the summer months if the last time he saw a woman in a summer dress was five years ago.  And if his usual expectation when seeing a woman in jeans is that she’ll be alone and look mad or depressed or whatever, he’s obviously never been to a bar, nightclub, casual work environment, mall, museum, amusement park, tourist attraction, zoo, grocery store, restaurant, or possibly even outside.

Which leads me to wonder ... what the hell does he do with his time?  Sit in his house and look out the window only to turn around every time he sees a slut ... er, woman in jeans, and furiously masturbate, then repeat all day long?

Comment #16: Jennifer  on  08/05  at  05:13 PM

A frock? Um…. k.

I just saw a girl here at the office in a frock. She has jeans on under it.

He does know that ANY unfitted dress is a frock right?

Comment #17: Sarcastro  on  08/05  at  05:18 PM

As a silly woman incapable of making my own decisions without constant guidance from strangers, I periodically forget that we’re all supposed to be dressing the way these assholes want us to dress instead of what we might find comfortable. I’m such a featherhead!

Comment #18: annejumps  on  08/05  at  05:18 PM

Uh oh! I used a naughty word there.

Comment #19: annejumps  on  08/05  at  05:19 PM

Looking over the effects of my late mother (1921-2007), I see from her old photos that she wore jeans while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during the war, she wore jeans teaching at Hofstra in the late 40’s, and she wore jeans under her lab coat while working on the space shuttle ground crew years later.  Heck, she was wearing jeans the day she died. 

I can think of a few adjectives to describe jean-wearing women like her, but curiously, none of the ones used by Harry McCow, or whatever his name is, come to mind.

Comment #20: rea  on  08/05  at  05:23 PM

It amuses me to see wingers like Makow try to resurrect obsolete words such as “frock” in an effort to imbue their crappy musings with a sense of bygone tradition. He’s probably seen plenty of other women (and perhaps a monk or two) wearing frocks at various times over the past five years, but failed to recognize those people because their asses didn’t turn him on.

He’s not really talking about “the power of femininity” so much as about the power of sex appeal, which he mistakes for femininity.

Comment #21: The Devil's Advocate  on  08/05  at  05:25 PM

Who is Henry Makow, and why should I care about his opinion of what women are suppose to be?

Comment #22: Shayne  on  08/05  at  05:25 PM

Jeez, Amanda, we’ve supported your blog, and it turns out you were getting highly paid, too?

After John Edwards got his $400 haircut, he just started tossing out huge checks to feminists.  Didn’t you hear?

Comment #23: Zifnab25  on  08/05  at  05:26 PM

As a man who believes in feminism and who married a jeans-wearing woman with a full and colorful vocabulary when we were in our 40’s, I am obviously a traitor to my sex. I request Pandagonian sanctuary,

Comment #24: Bob  on  08/05  at  05:27 PM

What this tells me is that women, in Makow’s presence, become angry and unhappy, and will turn to their electronic devices as a way to signal to him that they really don’t have the mental space to dedicate to the imperious demands on their attention issued by a stranger who feels entitled.

Coincidentally, that’s how men feel about Makow.

Comment #25: Jeff Fecke  on  08/05  at  05:33 PM

i wonder if this douchebag encountered me in my summer dress gleefully swearing with all my body hair aflutter in the breeze and my almost 3/4 of a completed sleeve of tattoos, if his head would explode.

anybody kno his address so we can perhaps find out?

Comment #26: jessilikewhoa  on  08/05  at  05:42 PM

Sprt of off topic, but this reminded me of something my PhD advisor said a few years ago.  He got ahold of his FBI file—dude was in the anit-war movement, involved with the SDS folks at UMich, was in CORE, stuff like that—and his response to the file was, “You wouldn’t believe how much of it was just plain wrong!”

Comment #27: MAJeff, the God of Biscuits  on  08/05  at  05:44 PM

What a coincidence!  The last time I wore a frock was also five years ago, and as I remember, on that occasion I saw a young woman too!

Comment #28: Wayne Lee America  on  08/05  at  05:47 PM

“She doesn’t wear makeup, doesn’t do housework, and she wears jeans every day and yet she STILL found a man to marry her after she was 35!  Come see the freak of nature!”

Ditto (only 34 when I married, though) and I use fucking foul language, too!


I hate, hate, hate wearing skirts and dresses, even as a little girl - long before teh feminism got all up in my lady-brain. Give me a pair of well-fitting pants over a skirt anyday….much more comfortable for me. But, you know, I should sacrifice my comfort to be more “feminine” so men will want to use me for making the babies.

Comment #29: ShelbyWoo  on  08/05  at  05:50 PM

“And if his usual expectation when seeing a woman in jeans is that she’ll be alone and look mad or depressed or whatever, he’s obviously never been to a bar, nightclub, casual work environment, mall, museum, amusement park, tourist attraction, zoo, grocery store, restaurant, or possibly even outside.”

Yeah, when I first read that I was wondering what year he was living in. I mean, some of this might just be a Texas thing, but where I live *everyone* wears jeans. So if every woman who wore jeans was angry, alone, and celibate, then nobody around here would be happy, content or ever have sex….

Comment #30: Brandon  on  08/05  at  06:00 PM

Not only will no one marry you if you say “fuck”, no one will marry you if you wear blue jeans

Laugh if you want, but he speaks the truth!  I say “fuck” and I wear blue jeans—in fact, I am doing both of them right now—and no man has offered to marry me.  Admittedly, I am a heterosexual male, but that just demonstrates the universality of his argument.

Comment #31: cminus  on  08/05  at  06:07 PM

‘“And if his usual expectation when seeing a woman in jeans is that she’ll be alone and look mad or depressed or whatever, he’s obviously never been to a bar, nightclub, casual work environment, mall, museum, amusement park, tourist attraction, zoo, grocery store, restaurant, or possibly even outside.”

Yeah, when I first read that I was wondering what year he was living in. I mean, some of this might just be a Texas thing, but where I live *everyone* wears jeans. ‘

Well, he did spend a lot of time in the alternate universe of looking for a Fillippina mail-order bride, and had a book about it, after a quick google on him that turned out lots of other lunacy from him.  So I guess that’s where he gets his cultural views…

Comment #32: calvinhobbes  on  08/05  at  06:12 PM

Rea, your mother sounds awesome. Seriously, I think she’s my new hero.

I love a summer dress as much as the next girl, but how the hell is my housewifely, feminine self supposed to play with my toddler son in the sandbox at the park or get down on the floor and scrub behind the toilets while I’m wearing something cute and frilly? My husband proposed while I was wearing jeans, a labcoat, and purple nitrile gloves. I did take off the gloves when he gave me the ring to signify his ownership.

Incidentally, the one thing I do to make my husband happiest, that I wouldn’t do for any other reason, is go backpacking with him. Hiking for miles away from the nearest shower, no makeup in sight, and wearing the kind of clothes you have to be willing to wear for a week straight. Oddly, my husband thinks it’s sweet and considerate of me. Maybe he just doesn’t understand what’s supposed to turn him on.

Comment #33: Av0gadro  on  08/05  at  06:12 PM

(head shaking) Oh dear, oh dear… where to start with this mess.

I tried wearing a lovely frock this summer and Charlie liked the results very much, but he still looks better in them than I do. Fucking men…

Comment #34: louise  on  08/05  at  06:39 PM

“Give me a pair of well-fitting pants over a skirt anyday…”

But, how do you get the pants on, what with the skirt already there??

(kidding!)

Comment #35: rowmyboat  on  08/05  at  06:43 PM

I would fucking confuse and frighten him (although I expect most women do). Blue jeans seem stiff and uncomfortable to me, so I don’t wear them. However, I do not hesitate to verbally rip into anyone who gives me trouble. I think I could shout the Incredible Hulk into backing down. smile

Comment #36: Samantha Vimes  on  08/05  at  07:19 PM

My late maternal grandmother wore jeans all the time, never wore a dress - let alone a sundress, and used “fuck” as every part of speech on a daily basis.  She even took a cross word puzzle that she had given up on and filled in the entire rest of the spaces with profanity and vulgarity.  Impressive!

She was married at 15, a mother at 17, and was married for 40+ years before she was widowed.

Comment #37: Ms Kate  on  08/05  at  08:44 PM

Men, if you’re tempted by such a woman, her jeans signal that you may have to deal with her “GID” – “gender identity disorder.” Her jeans are saying: “I don’t want to be a woman. I don’t want to look good for men. I fear and distrust men. I want male prerogatives.”

Which male prerogatives? To move freely? To be comfortable? To not have to worry about inadvertently revealing my knickers? To be invisible on the street if I choose? Damn straight I want male prerogatives.

Comment #38: jenofthieves  on  08/05  at  08:58 PM

I’d like him to see me in my steel-toed boots.  He’d probably have an aneurysm.

Comment #39: The Angry Geologist  on  08/05  at  10:14 PM

Looking over the effects of my late mother (1921-2007), I see from her old photos that she wore jeans while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during the war, she wore jeans teaching at Hofstra in the late 40’s, and she wore jeans under her lab coat while working on the space shuttle ground crew years later.  Heck, she was wearing jeans the day she died.

I can think of a few adjectives to describe jean-wearing women like her, but curiously, none of the ones used by Harry McCow, or whatever his name is, come to mind.—rea

Sounds like your mom was an interesting person with a distinguished career, rea. Thanks for telling us about her.

Comment #40: Lindsay Beyerstein  on  08/05  at  10:18 PM

Meanwhile, there are postal workers - male postal workers - who have organized to get a kilt option included in the official uniform.  They want to free themselves from the tyranny and chafing of “bifurcated” garments which are unnatural for men to wear.

Comment #41: Ms Kate  on  08/05  at  10:45 PM

those postal workers should just do it, my postal worker ripped the sleeves off his uniform and as far as i can tell has had no problems. and no risk of unsightly farmers tan.

Comment #43: jessilikewhoa  on  08/05  at  10:51 PM

mmmm, men in kilts.

That’s all I have to say about that.

Comment #44: ohsohappy  on  08/05  at  11:21 PM

I spent the weekend before last at a convention, and damned if I didn’t see about 10-20 men wearing Utilikilts, made of everything from denim to black leather.  They looked very confortable in them, very masculine, and very hot (as in “Hawt”).

Also, I remember reading one of those ridiculous newspaper surveys a few years back, about what sort of outfit men find sexiest on their girlfriends.  The overwhelming favorite was blue jeans and a white blouse.

McMooCow is an ass.

Comment #45: Mau de Katt  on  08/06  at  12:18 AM

There is nothing more beautiful than a women wearing a summer dress. I can still remember a young woman I saw five years ago wearing a frock. This is how powerful femininity is. Let’s not let pious highly-paid feminists and lesbians destroy it.

Dipshit, anything that a given person finds beautiful has that type of power.  Yes, a sundress sometimes has some vague appeal to me, but jeans and clever tattoos and, you know, the person wearing them also possess this power.  As does the art magazine with the cool glass sculpture on the front that I saw the other day, as does any recent Ford Mustang I encounter, and hell, I spent much of this past weekend paying envious attention to people of varying levels of attractiveness because they were running things like this.  The allure is dependent on the viewer, who is human and possessed of his/her own likes and dislikes, which may not perceive the sundress or anything else in a manner conducive to its having power.

So do excuse me (or don’t, I don’t give a fuck) if I prefer the power that comes with being comfortable and pleased with my own appearance to something that’s dependent on my viewers.

Comment #46: Kyra  on  08/06  at  03:42 AM

And it certainly isn’t feminism that dissuades me, day-to-day, from wearing a sundress.  The deciding factor generally involves a certain icky feeling that comes from knowing my choice of attire is approved of by random chauvinistic bits of anal leakage.

Comment #47: Kyra  on  08/06  at  03:44 AM

i like wearing dresses, they feel like when i would wear a huge tshirt as an outfit when i was a little kid. but im the type of trollop who doesnt much care who sees her underpants. i just dont see the big deal, theyre made of the same fabric as tshirts, whats the uproar? and being fat, tattooed, and hairy, i doubt im giving frat boys boners.

Comment #48: jessilikewhoa  on  08/06  at  05:12 AM

Another part of “where does this guy live” is that, as far as I can tell, most young women these days wear neither ordinary jeans nor skirts, but tight fitting trousers (sometimes jeans, but often from other fabrics) that are marketed at women and rarely ever worn by straight men. Does wearing a piece of clothing worn almost entirely by women that most straight men wouldn’t want to be seen dead in means that a woman or girl rejects her feminity, too?

And if we’re talking about traditional and modern secular clothes, why do so many otherwise conservative men wear these fancy newfangled “suit” things? Don’t they know that these clothes become common at about the time when the elies of many traditionally Christian countries started to turn their backs to God, and that the traditional formal attire of the Christian world is the gown?


“Yeah, when I first read that I was wondering what year he was living in. I mean, some of this might just be a Texas thing, but where I live *everyone* wears jeans. So if every woman who wore jeans was angry, alone, and celibate, then nobody around here would be happy, content or ever have sex….”

Well, that would explain a lot about Texas, wouldn’t it?:b

Comment #49: Raphael  on  08/06  at  07:43 AM

Isn’t this just a matter of personal preference?  I like jeans on women.  This guy doesn’t but apparently he’s the type that won’t allow for difference of opinion.

Hey, I’ve got a question that I don’t know if anyone here knows what I’m talking about or what the deal is on this but…..I’ve noticed that some super-religious women have an affinity for these long jean skirts.  These are the hardcore Bible banger types and they sometimes where these jean skirts that are floor length, billowing and ugly as hell.  I don’t get it and was wondering if anyone else has observed this or knows what’s going on.

Comment #50: Vince S  on  08/06  at  01:45 PM

Vince S-

I went to high school with two sisters who wore those jean skirts every day.  They were part of a denomination that didn’t allow women to wear pants, and they also weren’t allowed to cut their hair.  Probably forbidden from a bunch of other stuff as well.  When their parents divorced, they both cut their hair right away and started wearing pants.  I can’t remember what denomination it was, though.

Comment #51: The Other Will  on  08/06  at  02:50 PM

Vince S:

It’s what you wear when you know that denim is practical, but you aren’t allowed to wear pants. Has overtones of “not looking too pretty” as well. In my experience it’s various extremely socially-conservative Pentacostal denominations, but YMMV.

Comment #52: Nenya  on  08/06  at  04:00 PM

Also, the idea that lesbians don’t appreciate the feminine (as Makow seems to think, since he blames “feminists and lesbians” for women wearing “unfeminine” jeans) is kind of ridiculous. I mean, this is a group of people who, against all social pressure and harassment, still continue to be attracted to women. It’s about as logical as the idea that men who go down on their girlfriends are “gay.”

(Admittedly, as a bi woman, a woman in a white shirt and well-fitting blue-jeans is very likely to catch my attention. But then, the other objection to women wearing pants in my experience has been that they’re too sexy and show their OMGlegs and butts! So what is it? Jeans are too dowdy and masculine, or two hawt for a respectable woman to wear, eh?)

Comment #53: Nenya  on  08/06  at  04:51 PM

I bet that summer tunic with jeans look just confuses the hell out of him.

What a douche.

Comment #54: maatnofret  on  08/06  at  05:19 PM

This reminds me of the weirdo* Janet Lee, whose personal essay Newsweek published a few years ago. This neoconservative female was so proud of her conservative nonconformity in wearing a “tailored skirt, blouse, and pumps” every day to work (not a banking firm).

*Technical term used by Paul Fussell in Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear. Nazi reenactors are sickos.

Comment #55: sara  on  08/06  at  10:12 PM
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