Here’s what I like to call a typical week as a woman:
Monday: You’re a size 10.
Tuesday: Oops, now you’re a 14!
Wednesday: Oh, look! Size 8!
Thursday: Aaaaaaaand back to 10 again.
Friday: Chuck on a size 16, lady pants.
Saturday: You fit nothing. Time to wear a moo moo gurlfriend.
Sunday: Size 12. Wait… no… 18. Wait… no…. 12. I dunno.
We all know it: women’s sizes are bloomin’ ridiculous. There is NO consistency, and the industry seems pretty hellbent on doing absolutely bloody nothing to keep it that way.
It’s infuriating, and something that youth counsellor of six years Deena Shoemaker knows all too well.
"I've listened to countless girls tell me about their new diets and weight loss fads," Deena, from Kansas in the United States, wrote in a scathing Facebook post on the weekend.
"I've had girls sob in my arms and ask me, 'if I were skinnier, would he have stayed?' I've counselled girls who were skipping meals. I've caught some throwing up everything they've just eaten.
"But as I was going through my clothes tonight I started to notice how dramatically different the size of all my pants were. And I have a real problem with the fact that my size nine pants fit me THE EXACT SAME WAY that my size 16 pants do."