Duke It Out: Is Lingerie Right For Women?

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like inter-cultural dating!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

By Lauren H

With Halloween on the way, thing are getting sexed up, so it only seems right that we get down to discussing the bare minimum of sexy coverings – lingerie.

On one side, practically every woman I know owns at least a couple of sets of racy underpinnings, and there’s a good reason for it. Completely aside from the obvious “look sexy for sex” aspect of lingerie (let’s face it, if clothes are coming off, guys care less about the undies than what’s under them) there’s a certain mental boost that comes from wearing pretty things – even if no one else gets to see them. Like putting on a great set of heels, the right underwear can change your mood, maybe even make you want to be ballsier/flirtier/whateverer and pump up your game. And in turn, that feeling can lead to all sorts of good things, including sex.

Another bonus on the lingerie side is that brands like Victoria’s Secret and websites like figleaves have brought sexy (and wearable) lingerie into reasonable prices, so now we can all afford to have a little more “badda-bing” in our lives.  And yeah, the average guy probably couldn’t tell La Perla from Fruit of the Loom, but pretty underthings are still probably going to get his heart pounding better than the rose-printed cotton ones your grandma bought you in high school. When you look sexy, you feel sexy, and do any of us really wake up in the morning and say “I just wish I weren’t so damn sexy!” (well, maybe on a good day).

But, there are a lot of downsides to lingerie too. There’s still a pretty big disconnect between the sexy stuff and stuff you can really wear – with all the bumps and lacy bits, it almost inevitably shows under your clothes – not to mention all of the itchy-itchy, pokey-pokey. And, again like shoes, despite the meager amount of fabric involved, the really good stuff is nigh unreachable for those of us on a student budget. More than all of that though, are the implications from lingerie. For the sake of time, I’m going to ignore the “lingerie is sexist” part of the argument; it’s pretty easy to figure out and has been made other places. To me, the biggest problem comes from the lingerie industry itself – an industry that in many ways is more “size-ist” than any other segment of fashion.

I have long heard my chesty friends lament about how there just aren’t pretty bras made in their sizes, or how those that are don’t give them what they need in the support and comfort category. Meanwhile, those of us whose cups do not runneth over are faced with an overwhelming quantity of push-ups and cup additions that practically scream “you’re boobs aren’t big enough!” And all of the really high end stuff? Most of it seems to be made for girls who have so little body fat, they could practically go bra-less anyway.

What do you say? Is lingerie just the little ego boost you need? Or will you be sticking to the flesh toned undies that keep you in place and in comfort?