vulvarina viii
post-vacation blues and the economics of thinness
Good morning,
Back in London town after wonderful winter holidays, I had some post-vacation blues. So I thought - let’s kill them with an healthy dose of male attention and compliments. Getting ready to go out, I picked a beautiful, tight dress and checked myself out in the mirror. Despite the fact that I looked absolutely gorgeous (as per the many women and men complimenting me later on that evening), my first thought was oh this would look so much better, if I would lose 3 kilos. Sad, but true.
This made me think of the first time I wanted to lose weight. I was 9 years old and googled “diets for children”. I had just came back from the first summer school abroad, which was also the first time having complete autonomy over the food I was eating for a longer period of time. I ditched the fruit and veggies. My breakfasts consisted of white bread topped with loads of butter and nutella. My lunches and suppers turned into Snickers bars and kinder buenos. Yummy. Inevitably, I gained a little weight, which, however, did not go unnoticed to the caring eyes of my parents, who made me aware of it. I was never a chubby kid, quite the opposite. Even after this trip, I am pretty sure I was on the lean side. Nevertheless, ever since, I cannot remember a time when I was entirely happy with my body. I generally considered I have a fairly healthy relationship with food, but the lines above and my weight fluctuations lately, make me rethink that.
It is no secret that, to some extent, we all have distorted expectations of how a woman is supposed to look like, sponsored by Vogue, Photoshop and eating disorders.
Fat shaming is not socially acceptable anymore, but we do it more subtly. Moreover, skinny shaming became a thing, because apparently humans cannot refrain from making mean comments about other humans bodies. Long story short, some want to gain it, some want to lose it, very few are happy with theirs. F-ed up. Why do we waste our time with such vain concerns?
It turns out our weight is correlated to our income. Let me set the scene - in Western countries, it appears that the thinner you are, the richer. We used to blame this on the fact that having more money, allows you to buy better food, take more time cooking healthy meals, do more sports and generally have an healthier lifestyle. Which might all be true to some extent. But, once you add an extra little filter and disaggregate the data by gender, it is shown, that this correlation is heavily driven by the female exhibits. For men, there is no statistical relevant significance.
The penalty for being above the normal BMI range for a woman is a 10% pay cut. Infuriating. To top that, studies show that wearing makeup is strongly associated with assumptions about health and credibility in the workplace. Not wearing makeup leads to the impression of unkempt and lazy, which without doubt might damage one’s career prospects.
To sum up, for women, it monetarily pays off to be thin, wear makeup and look pretty. But let’s look at the costs associated with these indispensable attributes. Steamy yoga studios, fun indoor cycling classes and salads are all overpriced these days. Let alone the beautifully packaged makeup that always tempts me whenever I am passing the duty free in airports. I do not even wear makeup on a regular basis, but often enough, end up buying some coloured cream to spread on my face in the hope of looking nicer, and after this weeks’ research, to earn more money. Sounds almost like a ponzi scheme. Invest now to earn later. Without an actual underlying financial product, but the empty hope of others buying into the same lie. As far as I could find out, the excipients in makeup do not improve cognitive functions or productivity. And the lack of adipos tissue does not either.
What are other things women unnecessarily spend their resources on, in order to look like the decorative objects we are still considered to be in the workplace? Hair removal and manicures. I do not even want to think of the money I spend for burning my skin with a laser, so no nasty hair ever grows again. Or even worse - the amount of pain I was subjecting myself to before that, by having someone pour hot wax on me and then rip it off.
Add in to the mix the time we spend on these things - dyeing your hair takes around 3 hours. A mani pedi around 2 hours. Imagine having to spend an extra 20 minutes every morning on hygiene, applying light makeup and making your hair look nice. The bare minimum, gal. This already amounts to 2.33 hours per week, 10.1 hours per month and over 121 hours per year. So, basically women have 5 full days less per year for pursuing whatever we actually want to pursue. And 20 minutes is a very modest assumption. Often these daily routines take much longer - think the time one needs in the evening to undo all the makeup and apply all the overpriced empty promises of eternal youth.
If you are born with two X-chromosomes, you are per default charged the Pink Tax. This is the extra amount that women pay for everyday products like razors, shampoo, haircuts, clothes, dry cleaning, and more. According to axthepinktax.com, where anybody can check what the overhead they pay, a woman in her 30s has, on average, already paid more than $40,000 in her lifetime. A woman in her 60s has coughed up nearly $82,000 in fees that men don’t have to pay. Shampoos and conditioners for women made the top of the list - 48% more expensive, than those for men.
Data lacks to accurately calculate the wage penalty for not being pretty and thin, but it does seem to be rather steep. Let alone the theft of joy that comes with feeling unhappy in your own body.
🎤Money Talks: The economics of thinness - The Economist
Alice Fulwood and Thomas Lee-Devlin examine why it may be rational, in economic terms, for ambitious women to pursue thinness. The prompt for this podcast makes me wanna cry. The episode lines up all the data showing how cruel the workplace is for oversized women and the unfair pay cuts they take, but suggests women should go along with it and just be thin for god’s sake. And language shapes. Regardless, the material is good. It brings awareness to a subject we often overlook.
If you are asking yourself why you should care, since you are a gorgeous thin woman, who complies to these beauty standards, then keep in mind that playing along with patriarchy is of short term, individual benefit to a woman. There is just the minor issue of being on borrowed time - as Criado-Perez so beautifully put it. You might remain slim forever, but not young and fresh. Some standards you might fulfil, but others not. And we do not get to pick and choose, which ones we keep and which ones we do not.
This podcast was recommended to me by two dear friends, who also happen to have organised a dreamy weekend in Vienna - both things that I am very grateful for. We will attend one of the Austrian capital’s most beautiful balls and of f-ing course I will be on the hunt for yet an other sexist story. This time in a very conservative environment. Soon enough, I will put on an other tight dress and observe. My takeaway, however, from last time, was that compliments coming from fellow females gave me confidence and facilitated the mood boost I needed. So, gals, do not shy away from giving credit to your peers. We all need it sometimes. And supporting each other has never looked this good.
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