“Uh, excuse me ma’am, how are these supposed to fit?” I asked the sales associate at American Eagle nervously. I had already gone down two pant sizes and these boyfriend jeans I had seen in a magazine were still swallowing what little butt I have.
She finally moved her delicate, petite, blonde self over to my dressing room.
“Well, they’re supposed to feel like you’re wearing your boyfriend’s pants,” she replied with her expert tone of voice.
Why in the world would I ever be caught wearing my boyfriend’s pants? Do you need a boyfriend to wear these pants? What if I’m poisonously single?
These questions flooded my mind. American Eagle’s newest advertisement should be a picture of a girl running alone on a beach in her boyfriend jeans that reads, “For the low, low price of $49.94, you too can have an oversized reminder of how single you are,” or maybe, “If you can’t have a boyfriend, why not wear one?” The only time I’m usually in a man’s pants is not to test out his clothing choice, if you catch my drift.
A recent Vogue article highlighted this spring’s hottest, must-have trends. Boyfriend jeans made the cut. The article said these jeans aren’t for everyone. You have to have “the look.”
What a relief, since my body type is "12-year-old boy chic."
My biggest question regarding these jeans is: why boyfriend jeans? What is so special about a boyfriend that merits having jeans named after him? Sure, they’re comfortable, and they can be dressed up or down. “Man jeans” would have been a little more feminist, or maybe we could have just called them jeans. I guess there’s something sexy about the title: boyfriend jeans. It’s as if I hurriedly picked my boyfriend’s pants up off the floor and rushed to class. My makeup and hair just happen to look flawless from the night before.
Jeans are not the only things for women that have gone boyfriend this season. Every time I walk into the mall I see entire sections of stores dedicated to capturing the boyfriend look. Flannels, sweaters and even shoes are being made a little bigger and having boyfriend placed in front of their names. The reality as a woman is I am constantly looking for flannels long enough for my arms and thick enough to keep me warm. I look for sweaters to be big enough to wear with leggings. Yes, I am that girl. Boyfriend shoes are a remake of Converse and Vans, something I already wear on a daily basis.
Women have been wearing pants on our own since the Greeks met the Scythians in the fifth century B.C. and found the women riding horses in pants. Heavy gowns and corsets were constricting and women felt like prisoners in their own clothing. As pants on women became more acceptable, they became tighter and sexier. Then, society loosened up, and the boyfriend jeans were born. Boyfriends aren’t doing us any new favors by letting us wear their pants.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t splurge and drop the $49.94 on some boyfriend jeans. I stood in the mirror of the dressing room for a minute longer, deciding if I had “the look.” At the register, petite, blonde girl enthusiastically approved my purchase and said, “I have these and I love mine.” I swiped my card, and my soul was sold.
