Why Are Women’s Clothes So Uncomfortable?

Don't even get me started
about these shoes.

I was recently in an office tower, not a place I generally frequent. And there were women in business attire: unflattering pants made of synthetic material, straining where the woman was rounded, short tight skirt that affected the woman’s stride, worn bare-legged with her feet jammed into high-heeled shoes with pointy little compartments where the toes are supposed to, somehow, fit, a drapey, see-through blouse with a weird bow, again made of synthetic material, hot and unbreathable and shiny, bizarre clunky jewelry meant to “accessorize.”

Meanwhile, here come the men. Suits. So, OK, ties are not the most practical piece of clothing ever invented, but other than those, a man in a suit is wearing pants, jacket, shirt, shoes that fit his feet and allow him to walk. And many of the men were in khakis and button-downs, without ties.

Why are women’s clothes so uncomfortable, impractical and hard to put together? In interviews, President Obama explains he has only gray suits and blue suits in his closet. He’s got enough decisions to make, he said, he doesn’t want to "be distracted by trivia." But how easy would it be for a female president to find such easy yet professional outfits?

A childhood friend of mine refused to consider any career that required her to wear panty hose. (She became a teacher, then a lawyer.)

Honestly, I think it’s a conspiracy. When you have to concentrate on how you walk (so you don’t fall over), how you sit (so you don’t flash someone), whether your mascara is running or your lipstick is on your teeth or the waves (or straightness) you spent an hour putting into your hair that morning are disappearing, you can’t concentrate on more important things.

 

But why do women conspire against themselves like this?