Just last week I was in Target buying diapers and bread, and I noticed a woman wearing designer jeans, an expensive shirt and 3” heels. It made me think about a talk show I saw recently that had a guest making fashion recommendations. She said “women have become obsessed with comfort.”

Typically, wanting to be comfortable is a practical, positive thing, but here, it was an insult.

She went on to suggest that only women who have “given up” wear comfortable clothes and shoes. So, at 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon, (in Knightdale, NC not NYC or LA), I second-guessed my choice to wear shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes. Did I mention that I had three children in tow and was in a hurry so I could be on time for my carpool duty?

Surprisingly, no papparazzi in sight. As the Target “fashionista” walked away, I realized she could hardly even walk. That is when I suddenly felt a bit angry about the pressure placed on women by the fashion industry. It seems that the current marketing trend in movies, magazines and on television is aimed at tearing women down so we can buy a certain product to build ourselves back up.

Even I, a stay-at-home mother of three, have begun to chastise myself for not trying to look more glamorous before leaving the house. So I asked myself, who am I trying to impress? If you think the answer is “my husband,” think again.

My husband loves me best when I’m comfortable and; therefore, happy. When I read his GQ or Men’s Health, the polled men always say the same thing my husband does…they prefer their wives or girlfriends with no make-up and natural looking hair in their cutest (or sexiest) pajamas.

Ironically, the fashion industry has made women desperate to impress, (guys brace yourselves), other women. To put it in more National Geographic terms, the female lions are battling it out while the male lion takes a nap under a shade tree.

I know many of you ladies simply enjoy fashion, and the styles in Sex and the City are fun to see and, occasionally, emulate. I can appreciate that, and I like to feel pretty and fashionable too.

However, I don’t think the women I have met in my wonderful southern town are instinctively shallow enough to judge one another on such trivial criteria.

Let’s leave such nonsense to the big cities that lack our area’s small town charm. Let’s not fall victim to a manipulative marketing strategy that strives to suggest our self-worth is determined by high heels or designer purses and encourages us to rush out and buy what “they” say we must have in order to look acceptable.

Instead, let’s enrage the fashion industry by judging each other’s character instead of each other’s shoes. Let’s give ourselves, our budgets, and our feet a break!!