Alternative Title: Shopping with out Boarders


First, don’t be scared. This is actually a very benign topic of discussion that came to me after a trip to the mall.

Here’s the Anecdote:

I am at the mall, looking to see if any of the stores have anything I might need for my sisters wedding in may, you know, shirts, undershirts shoes etc. I went to a wide selection of stores. I was in the J-C Penny, sad that they didn’t have any vests that looked good, so I decide to walk around and look at the shirts. While looking for shirts, I see out of the corner of my eye a stand of belts that I loved. They were huge.( I like big belts, wide that is, 3.5 inches and more) In all sorts of colors and styles. I thought they would make a great kilt belt. But then I look up at the price sign, the price wasn’t the problem, it was what was above it. “Belts for Her”.

Yes, I am aware that it is ‘in’ with women’s fashion to wear a wide belt around your waist and not use it to hold anything up, but a belt is still a belt. I found myself having an internal debate. On the one hand the belts looked cool and would really make a nice kilt belt. The other side was saying ‘But it’s a women’s belt”

To make a crazy internal monologue short: I decided ‘fudge that, the belt doesn’t know if its on a man or a woman"

It got me thinking though. Why are some things labeled as for women, and some for men. Yes I would say that some things are more feminine then others ( A plunging v-neck would sooooo not look good on me, mainly because I’m Scottish-Italian, and thus its like a forest just below my neck line.) But what really should be the boundary line. This goes both ways.

Do we really need clothing to be sectioned by gender? Cant we have all the shoes in one section, and all the pants in one section, and all the underwear in one section. I mean, if you’re a man and you don’t want to wear a stiletto heel, even if it was in the men’s section, you wouldn’t buy it if you didn’t want it? Why should I be deterred from buying something I want because its in the other genders assigned department?

To complete the story, I didn’t buy any of the belts, but not for fear of crossing over, but because I wanted to look online ( always cheaper and a wider selection there anyway)