noodle note

much like an editor's note...

while doing a quick search for the girdle image down below, i was reminded of a few tidbits for which i didn't have time this morning.

the contraptions women once strapped on under suits and chemises, even in the hottest of weather, (liz taylor in "cat on a hot tin roof", anybody?) weren't really designed to make a size 14 look like a 6. the concept was to disguise and restrain any jiggling girly bits as much as possible. even mary tyler moore "slept" in a bra as mary richards on that pull-out couch. very few women then were all that FAT, ya know? it was prudishness on display, not the concealment of piggishness.

marilyn monroe's dress size is often slagged about to make modern fat women feel better somehow. we've all seen her lost eyes and jello on springs walk. we've seen her upskirted in the "seven year itch" and steam-whistled in "some like it hot". (where she actually was in trouble with the studio over her weight, which was then her heaviest at about 140 on her 5'6" frame...) curvy, buxom, female -- fat? no way. most of her clothes and all of her costumes were custom-made, so her *size* is kinda moot. her studio stats put her at a 23" waist. fat? uh, no. women were actually smaller -- thinner-- so vintage sizes correspond much differently to today's bodies.

we'll leave this at the impossibility for a big-busted/small-hipped woman to buy a fitted dress off the rack. not to mention how the digits then skew. mock the amount of clothes i may seem to have, but i can count my dresses on less than 2 hands. i can't zipper a size 14 dress, but a size 6 skirt fits just fine. men will never get this, i guess. nor will they get the number obsession that stretches from the closet to the scale. (oh, it's getting late and my noodle is wandering...)

lastly, i read an interview with an actor in that show "swingtown", which takes place in the 70s. he's frequently shot poolside and looks very trim with nice abs. he was complaining about having to drop weight for the role and always being starving -- because peeps back then were so much thinner. imagine that. most actors are fanatics about their weight and bodies, especially those not on the a-list and so vying for parts. has our national appetite increased that much? not everybody smoked then, and nobody on the show does, lol. even sarah michelle gellar, this summer much mocked for her cellulite, warned that *we* regular peeps shouldn't try to look like them, since being skinny is soooooooo part of their job.

we'll leave aside the freaky-skeery skinny out there, in the celeb skeletor-land of girl-womenz like keira knightley, courtney cox and victoria beckham. dried figs to marilyn's melons?

me? i just wanna fit in those damn pants, lol.