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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3105 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 26, 2025

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When are women going to realize how bad the baggy jeans trend looks (especially as part of a whole loose baggy style)?

Women walk around now looking like they’re in pajamas.

This seems like a lagging element of the anti-beauty aesthetics of woke, and I’m confused how wide spread anti-feminine dress has become

Freddie deBoer talked about this in his article "Our Product is Permission", in which he argued that modern Western society has become overly permissive along numerous axes, one of which is a greater tolerance for slovenly appearances and dressing comfortably in public spaces. Twenty years ago, seeing a woman wearing a Snuggie while stting down to dinner in a posh restaurant would have been unheard of.

I'm hesitant to attribute this trend to "wokeness".

Agreed, it's pathetic. His hypocrisy and evasiveness on the trans issue is frustrating, but I understand it's borne of a desire to stay on good terms with his sister and their child. But when I see him throwing a tantrum at someone who criticised a point he made in an article, or lashing out at one of his fellow writers (like Jesse Singal or Rob Henderson), I just can't fathom how he can be so immature and petulant. One would have thought someone who's worked as a professional writer for the better part of two decades and earns a pretty respectable income from it would have developed a thicker skin at some point along the way.

I wouldn't put 2005 on too high a pedestal. This was the period when the height of women's fashion consisted of velvet track suits with "juicy" written in rhinestones across the ass.

But I feel reasonably confident that a woman who showed up to a posh restaurant dressed in such a garment would be turned away. People dressing casually isn't Freddie's complaint: it's the relaxation of standards such that people no longer feel any expectation to dress formally in certain specific contexts.

I don't think it's fully attributable, but I do think that's part of the equation. Surely Covid is another, with everyone living in their pajamas for a few years. But I do think that there was an androgynous uglificaiton / anti-beauty trend that went mainstream around MeToo. The body positivity stuff, plus size models, etc. It's what the Syndney Sweeny ad was a reaction to / return to form against.

There were several years where media and fashion pushed hard against conventional beauty representation, and I don't think it's crazy that it worked its way into fashion generally

I find it strange, we live in a self centered era in which people care a lot about image and status. In a social media fueled age in which cosmetic surgery is doing better than ever I would have expected people to spend more effort than ever on looks.

People often talk about how we live in a politically polarised era, but politics is only one axis along which we're polarised. Instead of everyone dressing fairly presentably, a minority of people put a huge amount of effort into their appearance while the great unwashed wear grubby athleisure. Instead of most people having a normal BMI, there's a minority of slim people investing in cosmetic surgery, while the majority are overweight (if not obese). Instead of most people having a small but closely-knit social circle, there's a minority of social butterflies while the majority of people have no friends at all. Instead of most people being sexually active, there's a minority of highly sexually active people while the rest stay home gooning to their heart's content. This trend is most visible in Gen Z, but also in earlier generations.

The only thing that matters is your appearance on social media. Irl appearance no longer matters.

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