When did we all stop caring?

On saturday afternoon I found myself in a supermarket at the lower end of the price range (see The women we love to hate). I had decided to push munchkin around for the afternoon to give him something new to look at and so arrived looking like a cross between a bag lady and an airport porter, pushing a huge and rather strange combination of buggy, trolley etc. complete with cuddly toys and changing bag. I needn't have worried - I was not the oddest one there.

I'll skip straight past the compulsory shoppers in their dressing gowns (when did that happen?) to the hoodies, tracksuit bottoms and flip-flops-with-socks combos that were on offer.  Sure, as a new mum i'm sometimes caught out running to the door in my slippers...and there was that time when I remembered the shoes but forgot to pick two that matched, but still.  It got me thinking: when did people stop caring what they look like?

Flash back to the fabulous 40s.  In my grandmother's heyday, it was considered unacceptable to go out with a ladder in one's silk stocking.  The outfit was not complete without matching red lipstick and the heels had to be at least 3 inches high.  Back then, ladies really made an effort, and it was rewarded by men reacting like gentlemen - holding doors open and pulling chairs out.  If a lady of the forties could have been confronted with a skinny-jean-wearing teenaged girl of the 21st century, she would no doubt have fainted into the arms of the nearest kind Sir.

Are we supposed to blame our mothers who famously burned their bras in the 60s?  If so, surely after all their fights for equality between the sexes, it should be us women in the sharp suits, holding doors open for gentlemen and so on.  And yet, equality meaning 'women can dress like men' seems to have become 'women can dress like scruffs' and to hell with the consequences.

And yet, here we are in the "open-minded" twenty-first century, with parliament still arguing over same-sex marriage.  If they're not sure which way to go when casting their votes this week, they should simply take a trip to my local supermarket.  In there, the women dress like men, the men dress like children and the children dress like superheroes.  Pick any two customers at random to be united in marriage, and see if they will make the effort there instead.