Sometimes they are real

At the mall, I walked into a really trendy store which is popular among young women. Stores like this have a funny effect on people. They tamper with your senses without your knowledge... The white enamel walls. The bright lights. The tagged merchandise. It's all so flashy and new. There are so many possibilities. All around you are your different potential personalities. You can buy your cool or sophisticated or sexy. It's all so thrilling.

But just as this experience can pump you up, it can lower your spirits as quickly. In this same store, I walked past two employees standing together: a cute, short blonde girl and a very stylish and feminine male. They were fiddling around with a mannequin's outfit, trying to make it look presentable, or rather, buyable. It happened to be wearing a tight, knee-length skirt made out of a stretchy material. And it was built in a way where her shoulders were tossed back and her hip stuck out. This particular skirt did not appear to flatter even the size 2 mannequin's body, as it made her hips look huge, and the two employees noticed that. They realized I was staring at them and I said with a smile, "It's kind of discouraging when it doesn't even look right on her..." The girl gave me a horrified look and the guy didn't even dignify my statement with a response. Instead, he grabbed the dummy's head and said in her ear, "It's okay, Jill, she didn't mean it. Don't pay any attention."

They didn't even turn back and smile to signify that they were joking! They continued to console the imitation human. The molded plastic. The inanimate object. And they left the living being (and paying customer) alone to tread through her insecurities. They valued the ideal sculpture over the real human it is meant to replicate. But I guess I shouldn't expect more from people in the fashion industry.

I walked around the rest of the store for a while and then decided to leave. On my way out, I took one last look at Jill. They had left the skirt on and untucked the blouse. They added a belt over it to show off her narrow waist. They put her up on a three foot tall pedestal and she had a flourescent spotlight halo-ed over her synthetic hair. She looked so beautiful.