A linguistics lecturer I heard talked about how cathedrals have ornate and elaborate carvings way up high on the backs of things where nobody could possibly see them. (He didn’t explain how he learned that without seeing them.) He says useless elaboration is just something humans do for the heck of it.
This is how he explained some of the seemingly pointless curlicues that creep into language over time. Perhaps this post is another example!
I don’t know about when I was young, but once I hit an age where I wanted to start expressing my individuality, having underwear and socks that were different from those my sister had seemed important to me. Those were hers and these are mine and we are not the same (we are 2 years apart in age, but still, there are times when we were just treated as “the girls” as if we were one entity!)
Even now, I like wearing different colours and patterns and styles, because I chose them and they are fun for me to have (my husband tends to like them too, but that isn’t always why I choose certain items over others on a daily basis!) Especially at work, where we had to wear relatively boring clothes and a lab coat that pretty much hid everything anyways - at least I knew that under the plain white coat and the cheap pants (I worked in a lab, I destroyed more than one pair of pants to chemicals!), I was wearing [insert crazy coloured/patterned] underwear! And socks with monkeys on them. You can make me wear business casual, but you are not taking away my monkey socks!
Well, I’ve always been a girl, and I never understood it either. What’s the point? You can’t even see them yourself most of the time. I go for maximum comfort. Also, plain white cotton can be washed in hot water with bleach.
When I was a kid a popular style for little girls was starched crinolines. Salesclerks would try to talk me into them. NO! ITCHY! DO NOT WANT!
This is probably more technical than she’s ready for, but in economics this is part of what’s called “monopolistic competitition.” If a product is not differentiated from competitors at all, it is a commodity, and there is no economic profit to be made. If a product can be differentiated by its features, profit can be made. In other words, if all underwear were plain white, everyone would just shop based on price. If there is a wide variety available, some people will be willing to pay a little bit more to get a color, picture, or design they like.
Surely you don’t mean no profit? Otherwise why does anybody bother to sell pork bellies, or whatever? Or is the commodities market truly a gambler’s proposition?
There’s a gamble to differentiation, too. If you emblazon panties with an icon that just doesn’t “hit,” you’ll lose out to the folks who sell the plain white version.
[Bolding Mine]
Of course someone sees it. The person buying it sees it. The person wearing it sees it. So, besides advertising itself to the buyer, its for the person who wears it. Its printed just for your daughter!
At least that’s what I told my kids.
“Economic profit” is something of a tricky concept. Zero economic profit basically means no windfall–you’re making just the amount of money the competitive market will bear, which covers all your costs as well as your opportunity costs, just nothing extra. It’s as if I opened a store which brought me a profit of, say $25/hr. If I could earn that same $25/hr by working for somebody else, then my store is bringing in zero **economic **profit.
Yep.
i’m still wondering about the ones with drink recipies on the tush in size 6x. i do hope kidlets who wear that size don’t drink salty dogs.
Exactly how old are you? Crinolines haven’t been worn commonly since the late 1800s.
Do these really exist? :eek:
I sure wouldn’t buy 'em for my 8YO! Of course, I would never buy her shorts that had words printed right across her butt, either, because I thought it was tacky as hell.
But the relevant points have all been made, I think:
One, we tend to wear what pleases us. As an adult, I will sometimes buy undies I think my hubby will appreciate, but mostly I buy ones that make me feel good.
Two, especially if the rest of your wardrobe is/has to be boring, fancy undies and socks are a way to feel a little more like you have some control over what you wear.
Three, if you have more than one little girl in the house, it makes sorting easier (such-and-such has the panties with flowers, so-and-so has the ones with the stripes). It’s a lot easier than having to search out the size tag every single time (and from a visual standpoint, it ain’t easy to tell the difference between a pair of size 8 panties and size 10 panties)
Four, they catch the attention of the kid and/or person doing the buying, hanging on the store racks, so are more likely to make money than the plain white ones.
FWIW, my 8YO mudgirl, who could care less if she ever owns anything with the Disney Princesses, and will always bypass Barbies in favor of Matchbox cars or something you build with, prefers solid-color bikini panties with a white elastic that has a coordinating color-stripe around the band. (And no, she doesn’t think of bikinis as sexy; she has something of a tummy, and the bikinis are more comfortable for her than the ones that come up higher). She has also expressed interest in boy-short style undies, but I think that’s just because that’s what I wear.
One of my favorite strips in Calvin and Hobbes has Calvin strutting around looking all proud of himself in the first frame. The second frame has him losing some of the spring in his step. Third frame, he’s hunched over with his hands in his pockets:
“What’s the point of wearing your rocket ship underwear if nobody ever asks to see it?”
Exactly 61 years and 11 months. Crinolines were common for girls’ dresses and skirts in the 1950s. You can see some examples here.
Too bad you could not order up that Episode of Whose the Boss, when Alyssa Milano, being a percosius 10 or 11 year old , told Tony Daniels , that she wanted the training bra with the flowers.
Declan
This. I’d rather know I’m wearing pretty underwear, and I’m more likely to wear underwear that’s pretty. Just for me. (And she doesn’t need to know about my husband liking my pretty underwear.) 
I did too. Imagine my embarrassment when the pair that accidentally got washed with the red blanket was packed for my overnight at my pal David’s house (David Matthews, but not THAT Dave Matthews).
David’s mom pulled the pink briefs out of my bag and made a huge scene.
Would you like to see my scars?
Of course it strengthened me. Later, when I joined a fraternity in college, the lads were freaked out by my COLORFUL and unusually brief underwear. I like to think it strengthened them.
Now that I’m over 50, I’ve long since learned that an astonishing number of people see my underwear. Kids need to know this.