Muffintop

In my column last week which is also at the top here I wrote about the return of girdles and corsets, saying essentially “Sisters, no! GO BACK!!! Not only is it a trap it’s the same OLD trap!” etc... but some people took exception to my message, believe it or not, writing in to say girdles were GOOD things.

This one lady said she could not BEAR to see a young woman walking around with all those “muffin tops I think they call them,” the spillover of flesh above the waistband.

Me, I look at those girls and think “Good for you, honey.” Because I remember all too well the days when a girl would DIE before she would appear before the male gaze looking like what she was: a creature made curvy, with a landscape of rolling hills and valleys:  At one point when I was young waistbands were actually HIGHER than nature intended. They started just below the rib cage and that fabric covered you all the way to your toes and more, where they pooled in wide cuffs onto the floor  If a boy saw that we had flesh at all, never mind yeasty and abundant flesh around our hips and belly? Well: we'd just never be able to go to school at all! We'd have to move.