You can wear children's clothes, but you can't wear women's clothes of the same size

"Isn't the adult women's clothing size getting smaller and smaller?!" Ms. Wang, from Heping District, Tianjin, recently went to a shopping mall to buy clothes, and couldn't help but express such doubts and sighs - she took a fancy to a T-shirt and asked for an M size (160) try-on according to her figure, but found that she couldn't wear it at all.

She has encountered similar situations many times, she has been wearing M size before, but in the past two years, M size women's clothing seems to be getting smaller and smaller, she once suspected that she was too fat to lose weight, quite anxious, but in fact, her figure and weight have not changed much in recent years.

"Once, I tried on my child's size 160 T-shirt and it was no problem to put it on. I can wear the size M T-shirt I bought a few years ago. Ms. Wang told the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter that many female friends around her have also discovered this phenomenon. Some netizens complained that they couldn't stuff 92 pounds of adult women's clothes, and their 35-pound sister wore just right.

According to the interviewed experts, some businesses use small size as a gimmick to claim that "wearing small size clothes is an inspection of women's figure", advocating that small size women's clothing is suspected of violating advertising laws. Consumers should be brave enough to supervise businesses and say "no" to unreasonable clothing sizes; In the field of clothing, the mainland has issued corresponding national standards, and enterprises should produce clothing in accordance with national standards.

Adult women's clothing sizes are getting smaller and smaller

"Women's clothing is ridiculously small this year."

On social platforms, some bloggers posted videos complaining. In the video, a young woman shows the L size summer women's suspenders she bought, but when she tries them on, she can't put them in at all with a height of 168cm and a weight of less than 110 pounds, "Before, L size was generally 54 kg to 60 kg people could wear it, why is L size so small now"?

Ms. Huang from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province used to be the audience of small-size women's clothing, and even if she was slender and slender, she didn't like the "small-size style" that some businesses now admire. She told reporters that in the past, she used to go to the store to buy XS and S size clothes, but this summer she went to a brand store to buy a vest, and she couldn't wear M size. "My figure hasn't changed over the years, but I didn't expect the women's clothing size to shrink!"

"Merchants can design clothing according to the public's aesthetics and user needs, but they can't 'change the size randomly', and they shouldn't promote the size reduction as a business model." Ms. Huang said bluntly.

Ms. Wang agrees: "At present, weight loss has become a trend among women, and businesses have to make the normal size of clothes smaller, which will exacerbate women's body anxiety and even lead some girls to lose weight morbidly." ”

In the opinion of Ms. Zhang, a citizen of Beijing, some businesses deliberately make the size smaller, calling it "slim", "good-looking", and "wearing small-size clothes is a test of women's figure", which actually leads to women being "bullied by size". "My weight hasn't changed much in recent years, but the size of my clothes has become bigger and bigger, I used to wear M size, but now I have to wear L size and XL size, and sometimes I don't dare to go to the mall with my friends to buy clothes, which also invisibly produces body anxiety."

Once, Ms. Zhang tried on an L-size dress, but it turned out to be small, and the clerk directly called the warehouse staff to bring the largest one, which made her feel very embarrassed. However, she recently discovered that large children's clothing seems to be an alternative to adult women's clothing - she found a size 160 top with a waist circumference of 80cm, which is very loose and comfortable to wear, while a brand of women's clothing not far away has a size 160 top with a waist circumference of only 62cm.

Not only offline brand stores, but also some online live broadcast rooms sell women's clothing in small sizes. Ms. Zong from Jinan, Shandong Province, said that some time ago, she bought a few clothes in the live broadcast room, but she couldn't wear them after sending them, and when she bought clothes later, she had to place an order one or two sizes larger on the basis of the size given by the anchor. Ms. Zong told reporters that she measured and found that the chest circumference and waist circumference of the XXXL size clothes purchased online recently were 86cm and the waist circumference was 77cm, while the L size clothes purchased in the store a few years ago had a chest circumference of 88cm and a waist circumference of 78cm, which was a little "bigger" than XXXL.

The reporter recently visited several shopping malls in Beijing's Dongcheng and Xicheng and found that many merchants put very small tight-fitting clothes in a conspicuous place on the counter. In a shop with advertising slogans such as "Spice Girls Club", all styles of T-shirts and dresses are very mini, such as a size 160 skirt, the width of the skirt waist is only about the length of a woman's forearm, and the unilateral side is less than 30cm. Merchants say that the women who come here to buy clothes are in good shape.

In a women's clothing store, the reporter saw a camisole-style top (160 size), the waist circumference was measured to be only 60cm, and all the clothes in the store were one-size-fits-all. When the reporter asked to pick out a piece of clothing for a friend who is nearly 160cm tall and weighs nearly 100 pounds, the clerk suggested buying a loose version so as not to be unable to wear it.

"I thought I was walking into a children's clothing store, how could an adult woman wear such a small dress?" The boy who was waiting for his girlfriend to buy clothes at the women's clothing store said that he finally knew why his well-proportioned girlfriend kept shouting about losing weight, "It should have something to do with the shrinkage of the clothing store's clothing size."

In addition, the reporter noticed that there was also a small size wind on social platforms, BM (Brandy Melville, a kind of clothing that focuses on thin and thin girls) wind. The reporter searched for "BM wear" on a social app, and immediately popped up many posts, such as "BM style upper body collection" and "be a BM girl".

"My net height is 170cm, and my weight is less than 105 pounds." A skinny-looking blogger shared on his account the experience of trying on BM-style clothes, and still "feels really strong, and I have the urge to be thinner".

Deformed aesthetic interests are oriented to superimpose

Women's clothing sizes are getting smaller and smaller, is it in order to save costs, or is it deliberately creating "body anxiety"?

The interviewed experts believe that the smaller and smaller size of women's clothing is caused by deformed aesthetics and profit orientation.

"Market regulation is spontaneous, and some businesses deliberately make women's clothing sizes smaller and smaller, which must be because it is profitable, which is a comprehensive embodiment of market choice and some public opinion guidance." Liu Qiucen, an associate professor at the Human Rights Research Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said.

She further analyzed that on the one hand, the size of merchants is getting smaller and smaller, and bloggers wear small-size clothing to attract traffic, all because there is a breaking point, and some people are willing to pay for it; On the other hand, these businesses and bloggers once again exacerbate the self-doubt and anxiety of ordinary people through propaganda - as if the whole network is full of model figures, and they are unhealthy and unbeautiful if they can't wear small-sized clothes, and they will even blindly lose weight in an unhealthy way and pursue the so-called "perfect body".

According to Fang Jie, director of the marriage and family affairs department of Shanghai Yingdong Law Firm, the root cause of the smaller and smaller women's clothing size is the popular "white and thin" aesthetics. This aesthetic standard has given rise to a "vanity sizing" marketing strategy that exploits the psychology of consumers to cater to the so-called mainstream aesthetic in order to further increase sales of small-size clothing.

In her view, the "white and thin" aesthetic is the convergence of the aesthetics from the male perspective, and the merchants use small size as a gimmick, saying that "wearing small size clothes is a test of women's figure" is undoubtedly looking at the problem from the wrong angle. As a result, some female consumers have been PUA (mind control) by the bad online culture, and have become "slaves" of clothing from clothing consumers.

"'Freedom to dress' is a basic personal right, and advocating a commercial means of trying on small-sized clothes is a confinement of the freedom to dress and a 'bullying' of women's figures. Using the 'white skinny' aesthetic to kidnap women, vigorously marketing small-size women's clothing, and selling body anxiety violates the principle of non-discrimination in corporate activities. Fang Jie said.

Improve the system and implement standard sizing

Is there a standard for women's clothing size?

Fang Jie said that the national standard for women's clothing in mainland China has gone through several important stages of development. As early as 1981, according to the results of the national body shape measurement data at that time, the women's clothing number standard was formulated; In 1991, the relevant departments issued the first version of the national standard for clothing number type of the system, which was mandatory; In 1997, the national standard for clothing number type was revised in mainland China and changed to the recommended standard.

"The last comprehensive revision of the women's clothing type standard was in 2008, replacing the previous GB/T 1335.2-1997 by the "Clothing Number Women's (GB/T 1335.2-2008)", and its standard has not changed much, and the human body shape data based on it is still derived from the previous measurement results." Fang Jie said that when the clothing standard can no longer be applied to the changes in women's body shape and aesthetics, and the recommendation standard is only the reference data of the business, then the "determinant" of the clothing size standard has gradually become some businesses chasing market interests, and smaller and smaller women's clothing has been produced.

In the investigation, the reporter noticed that with the continuous "shrinkage" of women's clothing, many women are unbearable, and even some women lose weight just to be able to squeeze into staggering narrow size clothes.

In Liu Qiucen's view, if we want to solve the problem of women's clothing size, we should not advocate binding clothing size to body standards, so as to shackle aesthetics and social evaluation standards. Society should recognize beauty in diversity.

Fang Jie found that it is gratifying that the current society has gradually realized that it is an unreasonable phenomenon for women's clothing to become smaller and smaller, and many women have dared to say "I can't wear it, but it's not my problem" to small-size women's clothing.

　　

"We should face up to the current situation that the national recommended standards are too old to adapt to the changes in women's body shape, and it is recommended that relevant departments update the national body shape data and revise the clothing number and type standards accordingly." Fang Jie suggested that although there is no legislative regulation of deformed clothing sizes in the mainland, the regulatory authorities can choose to implement standard sizes for popular clothing brands through pilot projects in the face of clothing size chaos, so as to guide and promote the establishment of healthier and more positive industry norms in the clothing industry.

　　

"When consumers find that the size of the clothing has been small enough to meet the public body standards, they can report to the market supervision and other departments, the abnormality of the clothing size represents the unqualified product quality to a certain extent, and the consumer association should take the initiative to find and solve it." In Fang Jie's view, the merchant's advocacy of small-size women's clothing is suspected of violating the advertising law, and is even suspected of fraud against consumers. The departments for market regulation shall investigate and handle businesses suspected of violating the Advertising Law in accordance with law. Consumers can protect their rights by complaining and reporting to the market supervision and administration department for suspected fraud, or they can protect their rights through litigation.

　　

Article 34 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women stipulates that people's governments at all levels shall take into account the special needs of women when planning and building infrastructure, and shall provide public facilities such as public toilets and mother-and-child rooms that meet women's needs. It can be seen that the configuration of public facilities such as mother and baby rooms and women's toilets in public places is becoming more and more perfect. The issue of women's clothing also needs to be addressed by society and treated fairly and reasonably. Fang Jie said.

(Source: Rule of Law Daily)