The Distribution of Scorn
Grant explains the economics and anthropology of the bare midriff and how women are convincing other women to wear "more": “In order for women to move back to "more, the community of women (and the marketplace) must respond more or less collectively but without the benefit of explicit decision making or communication. They must move together and at roughly the same moment. How does a consensus like this emerge without the benefit of a presidential commission? This is a problem for complexity theory, the place that economics and anthropology meet, in my opinion. How and when women undertook this latest "emergent move would make a great case study. [...] ¶ Furthermore, women must find a way to bring in the outliers, those women who refuse the new terms and reap considerable benefits from doing so. There must be some kind of moral suasion going on here, as women police the behavior of other women. Chances this are this happens through the distribution of scorn and accusations of 'trashiness. We might think of this as a process by which the "more women withdraw the social capital possessed by the "less women. The "less women are now admired by men but mocked by women.”
Boris says the link came from The Marginal Revolution, but I must have missed it. Also, The Duluth News Tribune has the New York Times article that Grant alluded to.
It may be true that women are covering up, and the exposed midriff is getting smaller (though I would argue not disappearing), unscientifically I've noticed the return of the bare shoulder (and sometimes, shoulders, plural). I'm young enough to remember how exciting it was to see a girl my age then show a shoulder in public, and it's equally exciting to see a woman my age currently do the same after years of covering them up.
