Lingerie Wars
If stylish lingerie came in packs of a hundred, we would gladly buy them. Men would heartily agree since they cannot see why we pay so much for under garments anyway. Designers disagree since it would mean a loss of sales and so we buy them individually. There are some unmentionables that cost more than an entire outfit. We get home, eager to model and are greeted with the endless questioning of pricing and why we pay such outlandish amounts for so little.
To further the lingerie argument between men and women along, there is also the “other woman” factor. We see the stereotypical beer commercials of scantily clad “sexy babes” and watch our significant other, friend or brother drooling over her as she washes a car. We know that washing our cars in a bra and thong is not practical. The neighbors might get upset at the local car pooling mom causing traffic to jam along the street.
Are we victims of ads and television commercials? Yes, it is probably so but there is something else going on. Men may be fine with buying underwear at a wholesale dealership but a man’s image is not swayed by the underwear he puts onto his body. Women laugh at the white underwear image portrayed so eloquently by Tom Cruise in “Risky Business” but we do not want the same thing for ourselves. To combat the feeling of plain Jane underwear, we pump millions of dollars into the lingerie industry.
The secret of the lingerie world is that a healthy percentage of the profits gained are done so through men. They may complain about paying hundreds of dollars on lingerie from La Perla but consumer reports show that a large number of men buy lingerie for their girlfriends and wives. Each holiday season brings about men shopping uncomfortably around a Victoria Secret store looking for an erotic lingerie set for their significant other.
Most men and women will never see eye to eye over the cost of lingerie. It is unfathomable to a man to pay fifty dollars for one pair of panties that are the size of a handkerchief. We’ll never understand why men can be happy with the same style of underwear for decades. Rest assured men: even women sometimes balk at the prices for some lingerie sets but we’ll pay it. Why? Because it makes us feel good and makes us feel sexy and you like it.
Lingerie levels the playing field for women. We may have to wear a uniform to work that is for men or women but underneath is an entirely different story. The price is worth feeling like a million bucks. We may balk at paying that much but thankfully most lingerie has not reached that price yet. Men, take a deep breath and sigh in relief.
