Yesterday I was perusing the web and found a website called Bookshelf Porn, which is basically a website dedicated to sweet pictures of people’s bookshelves. I have to admit, when I was a kid, my favorite scene in Beauty and the Beast was when the beast gives Belle his library. I mean seriously—he GIVES HER HIS LIBRARY. And it’s, like, the most badass library ever, compete with enormous fireplace and those awesome rolling ladders. It is my goal in life to have a library with a rolling ladder. Never in the history of any movie, has a man given a woman he’s into a more awesome, insanely romantic gift. I am old fashioned and I love books. I love everything about them. They way they smell, the way they look, the way they feel. Oh yes, I also enjoy reading them quite a bit. I have a deep love of literature. Hm. That must be why I’m an English major.
However, this website led me to a most insidious article. The article is insidious because it poses as a sweet ode to all intellectual, book-loving women who may feel that they are underappreciated in a world of Kim Kardashians and other bimbos celebrated merely for their, um, Botox. It seems perfectly innocent. After all, I can’t help but be reminded of how, when I was fourteen, I sat in my dingy punk ensemble reading The Fountainhead, imaging that I was Dominique and that someday my Roark would appear and adore me because I hated things and liked to read. When I read the part about how Dominique suffered when she thought about how other, stupider people would also cast their undeserving eyes upon the books she loved, I thought with every particle of teenage angst within me, “Yes, yes! Me too! Why doesn’t anyone understand me? Where is my Roark?” Most every bookish girl spends many years of her youth longing for a guy who will love her sensitivity and intellect and stuff. I get it. But as soon as I read the line “date a girl who buys books instead of clothes,” I immediately rolled my eyes and stormed to my kitchen in disgust. In order to tranquilize myself in preparation for more disgust, I poured myself a glass of wine and returned to my computer. I then finished reading the article.
I just need to say… I do not understand why, in 2012, it is still a fucking character flaw for a woman to care about what she wears.
Let me be clear: the very idea that a woman who takes care of herself and appreciates fashion as an art form and enjoys expressing herself through what she wears is some how degrading to her intellect or her person in any way is absolutely, totally offensive to me.
As an artist who has worked with almost every type of visual media at one time or another, I have nothing but the utmost respect for designers of clothing and accessories. They are fucking artists. If you want to know why a pair of Jimmy Choos costs a thousand dollars, it is because you are paying for something that was designed conscientiously to accentuate the beauty of the human form, to be unique and visually interesting, all while simultaneously being functional and durable. If you think a pair of $25 high heels from Target will provide any of these aspects the way a designer shoe will, you are wrong. I am not saying that everyone should pay $1000 for a pair of shoes. God knows I have never paid $1000 for a pair of shoes. But as far as I’m concerned, paying $1000 for a pair of beautiful shoes is no less worthy of $1000 than any other piece of art. Appreciating the design, the mechanics, the originality of a particular designer does not make a person superficial. When you pay for a piece of clothing or an accessory, you are paying for a piece of art. When you put an outfit together, you are turning yourself into a piece of art. It is a creative process. Fashion should not be disparaged as an intellectually inferior art form.
I don’t know what did fashion in. Maybe it was the movie Clueless. Maybe it was the fact that there’s a stereotype that women who wear nice clothes are superficial, materialistic bimbos. No doubt there are plenty of superficial bimbos in the world and there are certainly plenty of women who put all of their stock in their physical appearance. If your personal value is equivalent to the price of your purse, there is something wrong with that. However, there are just as many “bookish” girls who sit in coffee shops and read thick books just so people will notice them. Ultimately, there are many more ways of “posing” than just with your apparel.
I’m sure the author of this article didn’t mean what he wrote to come across this way. I’m all for girls who read. I really could care less if other women care about what they wear. I realize that not all women do, and that’s fine. I consider fashion a hobby, not a necessity to leading fulfilling life. What I do care about is the implication that caring about clothing somehow makes me less capable of being a person of substance. Why can a woman not simultaneously be stylish and intelligent? It’s like saying a man can’t be stylish and intelligent. Wait, no one would ever say that.
I have spent plenty of money on books and plenty of money on clothes. I find equal, but different, joy in both. Women do not wear clothes merely for the pleasure of men or the approval of others. Sometimes we wear clothes because we love the sensory experience of wearing something high quality or of a certain material. Sometimes we wear clothes because we derive pleasure out of putting together a new outfit from what’s lying around in our closet, much like a person might enjoy creating a new dish from what’s in their fridge. Sometimes we wear clothes because looking good makes us feel in proud and in control of our bodies. Sometimes we wear clothes because we want to express our personalities or tastes or individuality to the world. Like choosing what we read, the act of purchasing clothing and getting dressed can also be a statement about who we are and what we care about. There is absolutely no shame in it. While fashion is certainly not the only way in which a person can express who they are, and it is certainly not mandatory for anyone, it most certainly is completely legitimate. Let me remind you that Belle liked to read and that her dresses were also fucking fabulous.
Any man who thinks a woman is only “smart” if she lies around in hoodies with no make up on, reading Virginia Woolf and crying is a loser, has no respect for the complex facets and possibilities of womanhood, and should definitely NOT be dated.
