The problem with 'boyfriend' jeans

What does it say about us that anything slightly big in women's fashion is "stolen from the boys"?

Really?
(Image credit: iStock)

The majority of the patriarchy's most egregious features have been done away with in the past 50 years. American women can now have credit cards, refuse to sleep with their husbands, and call foul if they get fired for getting pregnant. Though while many of these larger indignities have, thankfully, faded into the past, we still spend our days inundated with smaller ones. Taken individually they are often nothing more than a nuisance. But put them together and they reveal the contradictions and absurdities behind our definition of femininity today.

There's perhaps no example better suited to illustrate these petty indignities than the phenomenon of using "boyfriend" to describe jeans for women, girls, and even infants. Are they a death knell for female confidence and ambition? Of course not. But each time I put them on, I stop and wonder how this subtle affront to my dignity has gone on so long.

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Elissa Strauss

Elissa Strauss writes about the intersection of gender and culture for TheWeek.com. She also writes regularly for Elle.com and the Jewish Daily Forward, where she is a weekly columnist.