A/N: Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Harry Potter brand.
Rating: K+
Summary: Ginny Weasely ponders on how a zipper is a girls worst and best friend as she goes dress shopping and ends up thinking about something much more serious.
Zippers are a girl's worst and best friend.
I found that out after three hours of shopping for a dress for Hogwarts newly instated announal ball. Of course it has to be formal attire. Andfinally after working many hours to actually get some money to buy a dress, I still had nothing.I had been to probably ever shop under the sun and I still hadn't found anything. Hermione said I shouldn't be looking for the 'perfect' dress and instead find something that will do, that I happen to like. But I did that last year, for a wedding, and that uh...didn't work out too well...
So here I am, shifting through the dresses of probably the last store. If mum were here she would be loading my arms with pink frilly monsters that somehow are considered dresses. Then I would have to wear them out of the dressing room as she would fuss over how cute it was. Thank God I hadn't mentioned the ball to her yet. She would find out eventually, and then all hell would break loose, but I wouldn't get a houler. It would seem very funny to have a letter shout at you about a ball. To me atleast.
I'm very picky on dresses and clothes in general, and not because I've read something in a magazine about what colors look good on me or what clothes suit my body type. I just know what I like, you could say. I'm not a person who cares about labels or the fabric used. I just want something that when I put it on, I know it represents me. And usually stores don't have much of that. I can see Pansy Parkison now, she's with her gang. I can't be sure of who exactly but I can hear them complaining of how the dress won't fit them or how they swore they were a certain size. She saunters up to me, and smirks, as if she is a cat and I'm a mouse she has trapped.
"Looking for a dress Weasel? I don't think this store carries your size, why don't you try some place else?"
Having a zipper on a dress can be good or bad. Good because if it's a small size, and it fits, then you can brag that your that size. You can feel good because you fit in with the sterotypical image people now have. Thin and petite. You see it in the magazines and if your a muggle on television. I have nothing against people who are naturally that way. They can't help it. But it's the fact that people for some reason think they have to be a size two to be considered perfect is just crazy.
Hermione once told me that she and a lot of other muggle girls play with dolls called "Barbies". I've seen one before, and she has this tiny waist. I wonder why their parents would tell them that size doesn't matter but let them idolize a size two barbie. It's a doll. Plastic. It isn't real.That's what people should know about image and sterotypes.
They aren't real.
They're completely fake.
But yet when you pull that zipper and it doesn't fit, you panic. If you get another size up, will anyone know? What if the clerk looks at you with disdain? Does this mean you need to lose weight?Rather than suck up to the fact that you need a size up in a dress, most people are determined to get the dress to fit. People will suck in their stomachs, go on crash diets, it's insane. People need to get that you don't have to be a size zero. You need to be healthy. It doesn't matter what the scale says, I believe, as long as your healthy and happy, that is what should matter.
But as long as one person believes that 'perfect' image, it will go on. One person? Your probably thinking, ha! How can one person in 6 billion change anything? All that person needs is to convince just one other person. And then that person convinces some one else. The chain goes on. I don't see how any person can believe it when you see all the effects of what some people do to have the perfect body. Skipping meals, throwing up, not eating all together, I don't see how anyone supports that at all. Hurting yourself, what person wants that to happen? I just don't get how people around a person who does that doesn't see the signs. If I ever had concern about my friend, I would tell someone. Better to have it be a false alarm, than to lose the person.
Now Pansy is waiting for my reaction. I think she expects me to cry or look hurt. She really thinks she has control over me. There is only one thing that beats this stupid sterotype.
Self assurance.
It's difficult to have it, I know. But really you just have to look at the positive things about yourself. Whether your funny, smart, or can write or sing, whatever, you have to remember that. Yeah your not a size two, big deal. While it may seem like everyone around you might be, there are plenty of other people who aren't. Me included. And I'm proud. I don't care that when I eat hamburgers, people may say it's fattening. The only thing I see is them eating their salads, eyeing my hamburger with hunger lust.A little fat isn't bad at all, in the words of Harry 'More love to hold on to.' You just have to keep reminding yourself everyday of the things that are great about you and when people like Pansy come along and try to knock you down, you can look them in the eye calmly and say.
"Go to hell Pansy."
Once again, nothing against people who are naturally thin. It's not their fault I know. I don't want any flames about that.
But I went dress shopping recently and this thought came to my mind. This probably sucks I know.
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