“In 1958, The National Bureau of Standards released a commercial standard for women based off a very detailed national survey of 15,000 women.
Firstly, the survey was flawed. They threw out any measurements collected from non-whites. They heavily surveyed fit military women and poorer, less food-stable women. Secondly, the entire standard was molded around the idea that every woman had an hourglass figure. It was classist, racist, and sexist. BINGO!”
PROFOUND, huh? I had this knowledge dropped on me at “Learnt,” Kelli Nelson’s infocomics on Cheap Paper Art, where she puts all of this goodness into easy-to-swallow graphics. The whole site is worth a gander and you’ll learn something, guaranteed. After all…
Very interesting. This does a lot to explain why clothing up until the early ’90s DID fit me and my mother well– we were the white, underfed survey population! Now the only luck I have is buying older clothes at the thrift store. Thanks for sharing this. I find fashion fascinating even if I have trouble dressing myself in a fashionable way!
Heh. Sometimes I have trouble dressing myself, period…