The Balancing Act of Being Female; Or, Why We Have So Many Clothes

Lisa Wade, a professor of sociology at Occidental College, writes at The Society Pages: “Women’s closets are often mocked as a form of self-indulgence, shop-a-holicism, or narcissism. But this isn’t fair. Instead, if a woman is class-privileged enough, they reflect an (often unarticulated) understanding of just how complicated the rules are. If they’re not class-privileged enough, they can’t follow the rules and are punished for being, for example, ‘trashy’ or ‘unprofessional.’ It’s a difficult job that we impose on women and we’re all too often damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t.”