a beautiful dress with utility embedded in its design

Daily writing prompt

If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?

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A dress with pockets. Something that accentuates the female form.

Cue Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”

I’m not a country music lover by any means but I do like Shania Twain. I also enjoy clothing that accentuates my form and as the years go by, I really, truly, and honest to God have so much appreciation for my body.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they talk about women who dare to love their bodies out loud. In this particular regard, I believe there are degrees to the ire drawn when women of all sizes dare to be confident–plus-size women probably get more hate than women whose bodies adhere to an unattainable societal standard. But if it’s not about her body, then it’s something else–it’s her rich family that pays for everything she does; it’s her poor and abusive family that has left her with serious mommy and daddy issues; it’s her goddamn luck that has made her life so easy; it’s her goddamn disability that has given her a free pass on everything; it’s x, y, and z relating to qualities that an arbitrary person sees in a woman that they do not believe the woman in question deserves to have. Various explanations on the internet attempt to describe this cosmic destiny women fulfill by virtue of existing (i.e., women are damned if they do, damned if they don’t)–the most intellectually and spiritually stimulating explanation I’ve seen describes the female form (yin) as a medium that reflects solar light (yang).

The moon does not have its own light and can be seen only by the light of the sun, essentially reflecting the light of the sun back to itself. If we extend this metaphor to masculine and feminine energies, everything clicks. Misogynists cannot stand the idea of a powerful and independent woman, precisely because she reflects back to them the parts of themselves that have given up their own power. White feminists struggle with intersectionality because non-white women reflect back to them the parts of themselves that still center whiteness. Unhappy people cannot stand the company of those who genuinely love life, because happy people reflect back to them the parts of themselves that have given up on happiness.

Maladies of the mind that come about in this manner point to a serious lack of imagination. Misogynists have historically been unimaginative regarding their positions in a new world with self-realized women; white feminists have historically been unimaginative re: their positions in a new world with self-realized women of all walks of life; and unhappy people writ large have historically been unimaginative regarding their ability to be happy (again).

Anyway, in the spirit of being imaginative, something made by a talented chemist that allows the patterning, coloring, and shape of the dress to change at will.

Happy Monday. 😀