Edited by author 07-13-2002 12:30 PM
Susan,

I just want to say that I don't think anyone was saying (or meant to say) negative things about people who wear size 0 clothes. I think what we were getting at is what the writer talked about in "Beauty and the Beast." Porter was talking about the tyranny of the fashion and advertising industries and how they oppress women and one way of doing that is by making clothing size "numbers" smaller and smaller. Size O jeans are new. There was no such number when I was growing up, even though there were plenty of women who wore size 0 then and long before now. I think what we were all saying is that most women cannot find clothing that fits because clothing manufacturers do not understand women's bodies. Instead they want to assign a number so that women will feel even worse about ourselves. The worse a woman feels, the more profits there are to be made.

I am sorry that you felt bad. I don't think that that was anyone's intention.