Going down the escalator last night at the Duane Reade here in NYC, something caught my eye. It wasn't the purple stack of feminine products passing by as we neared the ground floor--it was the LABEL on the box of panty liners. It read "for sizes 14+..."
What the what??
We grew up on mini or maxi, but what is this newfangled, plus size panty liners? And eww.
We now have a growth market in plus-sized clothes (for kids too, who sadly aren't being fed properly), plus-sized surgical tools, plus-sized gurneys, plus-sized wheelchairs, and tragically, plus-sized coffins too. We have plus-sized seats on ferries and at sporting arenas, and have all but outgrown the "18-inch rule" for estimating a per seat size at any venue.
And last night I discover we have plus-sized panty liners, made especially to fit the size 14+ crowd, brought to us by Always, a Procter & Gamble brand. A poster jubilantly commented, "awesome product for plus size women!"
If we need 'em, we need 'em. But how have we let ourselves get to the point where we need any of the above? Our average woman is 5' 4" and 163 pounds. She's an overweight, but statistically "normal" size 14 and apparently in need of plus size panty liners.
That's 20 pounds of excess fat. That's 70,000 excess calories. If this same woman cut 200 calories per day for the next year, she'd be back within a healthy weight range. Cut one soda, or one syrupy-whipped-cream-topped coffee, or one candy bar, or that bagel, or two Girl Scout Cookies from your day and BAM! you're back to normal-sized panty liners. Worth it??
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