Three Tiny Tales About Target

File this one under “thoughtful consumerism.”  Was I thoughtful?  You can be the judge of that!

1)  I caved to internet suggestion and bought a new sundress.  When one lives in Texas, it’s easy to see sundresses as an investment.  Also, I love the adorable print on this one.  Evidence of its adorableness:

  {Hi!}

I wore it for a leisurely Memorial Day of reading, shopping, baking, and feasting with friends.  It was the first Memorial Day in nine years that was not spent inside a lab, and I was so happy for that.

2)  I perused the shapewear aisles for the first time ever, trying to find a nude camisole.  And the experience made me want to vomit and gouge my eyes out.  What a terrible, not-so-subtle message: women’s bodies are to be squished, flattened, and pushed into place.

Now, I understand that women are frequently buying these pieces to put on their own bodies.  But it’s hard for me to look at shapewear and not see it as a symbol of how very not equal we are to men, at least in the expectations we have of our bodies and appearances.  Where in the men’s section is the apparel designed to make them look “suddenly skinny?”  In which aisle can men be bombarded with messages that their bodies have lumps and bumps in all the wrong places?

I just can’t.  The whole thing makes me want to burn my bras and stick it to the man.

(Of course, this now means I am destined to buy a piece of shapewear within the next five years.)

3)  I have a hard time buying clothes on the internet.  Shoes, yes (and even that I may regret, considering the hard time I’ve had breaking in my new shoes), but clothes?  Why?  Why buy clothes on the internet unless you literally live in the middle of nowhere?  The chore of returning clothes that don’t fit well looms large over me, so I just avoid it.  And then I discover this dress from Target that is only sold on-line:

{Screenshot from target.com}

Super cute, right?  I am newly in love with purple + black + silver as a color trio, but I don’t own any clothing in that particular shade of purple.  So I’m tempted, very tempted, to buy this dress, despite the fact that I just bought a new dress and I would have to deal with the question of fit after buying the dress.

What’s funny though is that I am becoming that person who buys stuff, tries it on at home, then decides to keep or not to keep.  I have a low tolerance for the fitting room but feel totally willing to take something home, try it on, and return it if it doesn’t fit.  Does anyone else do this?  At Target I have pretty good luck with this system, perhaps because I buy almost all of my clothes from Target, so eyeballing sizes is not too hard.

Any Target tales you’d like to share, dear reader?