And the blog Overmind is at work once again, as Fillyjonk's June 12 entry ties so nicely to my eternal fashion rants and Bess's recent shopping trip. I'm very deeply depressed by even the possibility of the "Stepford look" as an actual fashion trend. I like to look feminine, I would love to dress "prettier" than I do, believe me, but the choices are so...gross. There is a kind of femininity that is actually rather sexless and definitely dowdy, and that's what this is to me. Sexless femininity is cutesy rather than pretty and it's light years from even mildy, tastefully sexy.

Cutesy isn't sexy or feminine and should not be worn by any female past fourth grade. (NOT that I am suggesting that fourth graders should look "sexy" - just that there is a time to give up cartoon character-like clothing and it starts somewhere in late elementary school, when young girls should learn how to select nice clothing for themselves.)

Babies and toddlers can look cute in fussy frilly dresses and bright "play clothes." Women always look ridiculous. And a woman wearing a skirt embroidered with colorful frogs or butterflies and a matching top certainly isn't trying to attract a man, or any other bipedal creature. It's dowdy, it's old, it's nothing I will ever put on my body. Not even when I'm old enough to wear it. And as a working woman I deeply resent that my clothing choices this season have been almost entirely "play clothes" that I would not wear even if I actually had that much time to play. Rant off.