sizing people up
i went bra shopping yesterday.
well, actually i accompanied someone who was going bra shopping. one of the duties of being a boyfriend, i suppose.
usually, it’s the guy who feels uncomfortable in such a situation. not so sure that was the case yesterday.
the staff at the bra shop was eager to be very helpful. they talked to my girlfriend at great lengths about the finer points of their various bras and told her which ones they thought would be best for her. one problem: while the attendants were talking, my girlfriend was topless. she was in a dressing room … so was the friendly staff. they weren’t invited. they came in unannounced. (i was waiting out on the street — a sign outside the dressing room area said “no males allowed.”)
this may be a cultural thing, similar to the differences in locker room behavior i wrote about a while back. but i have no idea. my girlfriend said this never happened to her in america, although i seem to recall a similar scene with miranda in sex and the city. is this common in china? or elsewhere? the ladies working at this shop on nanjing xi lu obviously thought nothing of it. i’m sure they do it every day. very interesting.
but not as interesting as the way they determined my girlfriend’s size. first with the tape measure — and then with the hand. that’s right, a salesperson felt her up right in the middle of the showroom. i had to laugh.
stranger still, it happened again back in the dressing room. this time, it was another member of the staff. and the two sizes hand-picked by the ladies were completely different.
i wonder if similar tactics are used at underwear shop for men in china. i have decided that i never want to find out.
04.10.2004, 5:15 PM · Observations
1 Comments
can’t help laughing while reading…guess Miranda is luckier than your GF…