sausage-casing girls

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:41 AM +0100 7/7/06, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>Has this term any currency outside the LA Times article:
>
><http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-et-tightclothes4jul04,0,368397.story?coll=la-home-headlines>
>
>?
>
>
Haven't come across the term, but by coincidence the previous message
to Lynne's in my mailer was a web "report" from a different source,
"Pray for the Poor Mall Kids", although it doesn't specifically focus
on the issues of overweight or belly-hanging.  After describing the
plight of the poor young men who obviously can't afford belts and are
forced to wear their father's ill-fitting ripped jeans the commentary
mentions the young women:

=============
But that wasn't the saddest part. It was the girls they were
hanging out with that disturbed me the most. I have never in
all of my life seen such poor girls. These girls had the
opposite problem of the guys -- they all had to wear their
little sisters' clothes. Their jeans were about five sizes
too small. I don't know how they could even put them on, let
alone button them up. Their jeans barely went over their
hipbones.

Most of them also had on their little sisters' tops; it
hardly covered their midsections. Oh, they were trying to
hold their heads up with pride, but it was a sad sight to
see these almost grown women wearing children's clothes.

However, it was their underwear that bothered me the most.
They, like the boys, because of the improper fitting of
their clothes, also had their underwear exposed. I have
never seen anything like it. It looked like their underwear
was only held together by a single piece of string.

I know it also saddens your heart to receive this report on
the condition of our American teenagers. While I go to bed
every night with a closet full of clothes nearby, there are
millions of "mall girls" who barely have enough material to
keep it together.
============
I guess I need to spend more time hanging out in malls to observe
this phenomenon.  Or not.

LH

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