blogger profile

Nikki Hardin

Founder and Publisher of Skirt!. A native of Kentucky, I left home at 17 to elope with my high-school boyfriend. Twelve years later, divorced with three children and unskilled at almost everything, I started college at the age of 29. Earned a B.A. in literature from American University in 1976 and a...

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I Jiggled with Joy

Nikki, skirt! publisher

Last night I went to a black tie event, so rare for me that I had to buy a dress that fit the dress code. Everyone told me I needed to wear Spanx under it, the unspoken reason being that my real stomach isn’t flat enough--I needed a fake one. I was lucky this instrument of torture only stretched from  knee to waist., not knee to neck, but when I put them on, I felt so ugly and swollen and  plastic that I started to cry. I’ve always wondered how Victorian-era women could bear to be laced into corsets so tight they almost fainted. Spanx and other modern “body shapers” aren’t quite that bad, but it feels like women are reverting to some archaic notion of what a woman’s body should look like, as if we’ve turned into those plastic-bodied Barbies we all swore we were too enlightened to give our daughters. But now we’re willing/eager to look like Barbie ourselves. I took the Spanx off and picked another dress that  gave my body room to move and breathe and yes, jiggle. I know that the best and healthiest body shaper is the gym, and as much as I hate sit-ups and squats, I dread Spanx more!