A Dose of Reality -- District Court, yesterday

[hyphenate]

Yesterday I had to go to District Criminal Court for my former 15 minute incarceration from the beginning of June in relationship to Motor Vehicle Code violations.

Because "Driving w/o a license" is a "criminal" offense, I had to go there instead of to the Civil Court. In regard to my own case, everything was pretty much resolved to my satisfaction, and I am no longer a criminal. :)

What was amazing in the hall of the court that day, though, were the number of people dressed inappropriately. Okay, so I'm a jeans and tee-shirt kinda gal myself, and that kind of thing doesn't bother me. And other than lawyers with cheap suits in and out of both the civil courtroom and the criminal courtroom, most people were normally dressed. It was just those who stood out that amazed me.

Okay, so I'm not really into fashion. You can tell that when you see my fashion sense was created sometime in the 1960s. Jeans, flip-flops, tee-shirts (some rather bright and outlandish) and hardly no bra. So I'm no critic, really. But, ummmm, there really should be some standards to follow especially in government offices.

I don't think they were defendants, or maybe they were. There were about six of them that I observed, and well, that was enough. And they were all women.

Either they were hookers or they just had the sense and desire to BE hookers. Of the six that I observed, four were extremely overweight. One was about normal, and the other was thin. Of the larger women, I would say none was under 225 lbs., and the largest was close to 300 lbs. Now that's NOT the problem. Many large women I know wear clothing that at least covers them or is modest at the very least. I know none with any common sense who wear a size SMALL tube shirt (with their breasts hanging over the top of the tube) with a size 10 stretch capri pants and who think they're SOMETHING. Oh and heels. SPIKE heels. As I said, it wasn't a single incident. Of the larger women, this seemed to be the "in" thing to be wearing. Either they ran out of clean clothes and borrowed their daughter's clothes, or someone is doing a MAJOR disservice to these women.

The regular sized woman and the one who was thin were also in similar clothing. The clothes obviously fit them better, but was just as scanty and revealing. If I were one of those women's acquaintances, I would have told them to change into something a lot more supportive of their figure, or at least which didn't look as trashy as the clothes they WERE wearing.

Is this the rage? What do men think about these women who barely wear clothes and let everything hang out? Am I just so "old" now that I'm incredibly ancient in my thinking? Yikes!

Another small story--one of the defendants in the court was a girl who was a shoplifter. I have no idea of what she had shoplifted, but the judge asked her how old she was and she was 18. He ended up giving her probation, and her parents were with her. As I said to a friend who was with me, though, it must have been something very expensive, because it's rare to see a "first offence" shoplifter in court--most stores utilize their own security to watch for shoplifters and will end up discouraging quite a few. But the clothes SHE was wearing weren't from KMart, Walmart or even Target--they were obviously expensive and if she was lifting items like she was wearing, I could see why she was there! And the 3" spiked heels on HER shows made little sense to me, either!!

Anyhow, these women had me shaking my head at the blatant idiocy they had in selecting clothing. Even tee-shirts and jeans would have been far more acceptable than the eye-popping and minimal clothing they were wearing. If I'm too old to appreciate this sense of fashion, that's okay, too. I was around for tie-dye, disco, peasant shirts, bell-bottoms, hip-huggers, and almost anything else for the past 40 years+. And nothing made me so puzzled as this.

[Marie26]

1. Who cares?

People wear what they want.

[Straight Shooter]

2. This is one reason why people watching is so much fun.

Actually I admire people who wear outfits that make others' eyes pop. I never had the guts to do it.

It's a brave new world :)

[Tunkamerica]

3. i shoplifted once when i was a kid

and i went to court. its a crime no matter how many times you do it. especially in wal-mart.

[comradebillyboy]

4. I am from the same generation as you

I teach high school and the basic slut look is very popular with a large percentage of the girls. I sort of enjoy the view, from a safe distance. I don't try to enforce the dress code on the girls. If a male teacher says anything about the girl's inappropriate attire he is accused of sexual harrassment. To be fair, I also stopped trying to enforce the dress code on the boys.

Here is the honest truth, if a woman wants to bare her boobs, even the lovely ladies you describe, most men will look. It's a great way to get attention.

[Missy Vixen]

5. I got up and walked away from the computer before responding

>Many large women I know wear clothing that at least covers them or is modest at the very least.<

I am a larger woman. I am roughly the size of one of the women mentioned in your response. I spend my life terrified that I may wear something that will draw unwanted attention, cause someone to remark "God, she should go on a diet," etcetera. God forbid that I, or any other fat woman, would want to feel attractive and self-confident in the clothing she's wearing. After all, we just don't deserve to, do we? As a result, everything I own is probably at least a size too big. I don't wear clothing that follows my body. I don't wear heels. At all.

If those women at the courthouse want to wear a teeny tube top, spike heels or pasties, it's frankly none of my business. Maybe it makes them feel pretty or sexy, and they have the self-confidence to dress in a style they find attractive. More power to 'em. As another poster here mentioned, I envy women who dress because they enjoy what they're wearing, who go out there and strut their stuff, and aren't afraid of what anyone else thinks.

Julie

[hyphenate]

6. I, too, am large

and many of my closest friends are as well. I have no trouble with women dressing to look sexy--in fact, finding the style to suit your shape is important, and showing a little flesh is great.

What I was puzzled about was how they could do it in a place such as a courthouse. There really needs to be a dress code in a building like that, and dressing in such a supremely "slut" style only makes these women look bad.

Personally, IMO, if someone wants to strut with their preferred method of dressing and look like that, I find there is an attitude problem attached with it. As I also said in my OP, I've seen a lot of different styles over the years, and some have been pretty awful. But this mode of dressing shows no sense of respect to either themselves or to the place in which they were. And while we might bitch about law and justice as being under the right wing, the courthouse is not really a great place to be showing off like that.