Public outcry used to be on a much lower volume in the past than it has become today. Sure, a lot of it has to do with how open conversation has become with the onslaught of technology and social media. I've often been guilty of using my phone to document the street crimes in fashion (leggings so see through you can point out the pattern on the underwear!) or just ludicrous (man using resistance bands at the crosswalk to exercise topless?) and sending them straight to Twitter or Facebook to get a jury's verdict.

When something on television or in a magazine used to rub a person the wrong way, they would take to writing a letter, or trying to go to the news. Now? All they need to do is send an e-mail or post a tweet. Depending on how many people sympathize, a "shake my head" moment can snowball into public outrage in half a day.

The day Katy Perry dared to don a camisole on Sesame Street to do her Sesame version of Hot N Cold parents threw up their hands in protest, unhappy with that much skin being available for their toddlers to see. Maybe it's because my parenting days are still ahead of me, but I saw nothing of the x rated fashion on the clip, and thought the parentals were going overboard.

The parents weren't happy again, when the cast members of  Glee did a shoot for GQ magazine, protesting that adults who played teenagers on a show shouldn't do provocative photo shoots, and neared it to pedophelia. One of the "guilty" parties, Dianna Agron took to her blog to offer an apology of sorts. She apologized if parents were offended by the shoot but asked why an eight year old would be holding a copy of the magazine. She also mentioned that the shoot didn't depict the "real" her, and that her dream shoot would involve dragons. I'm not always fond of the shoots men's magazines do with the members of the Hollywood interest of the moment, but I agree. Were the parents mad when Marge Simpson hit the covers of Playboy?

Get ready for some TMI and some venting fam. My number one peeve in fashion is strapless garments. Why? Because I have no undergarment that will keep me satisfied and supported. NOT ONE!

Sure, I try to fake the funk and put on a bra here and there, you know the one, promises to be great and universal, flattering and push up, all the good stuff, none of the bad, only to be an epic fail in the end.

Image Credit: tinadurocher

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm so finicky that no undergarment will ever make me happy. Maybe other people have hit their jackpot and my golden ticket is patiently humming on it's hanger as it waits for me to open my eyes. I hang on dearly to that maybe and to this day look at everything that is strapless with disdain. Sure I wear a strapless dress here and there, but I feel like it either cuts my top half into quarters and eights of a whole, or flattens and pulls down more than gravity intends for my current age, neither being my goal.

With that said, I have two fashionista friends who have inspired me to get back on the hunt for a good strapless bra. I was told to find a boned corset low back from Macy's or peruse through the online racks of Bare Necessities. I've found flops in every attempt in my past, so I don't really think I can lose anything but time.

More Elomi...

What brand/style do you swear by? Any secrets?

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As I was channel surfing on this lovely Monday evening, I stumbled across the Teen Choice Awards 2010. I am not as avid watcher of awards shows as I used to be in my younger days (I remember when I timed the MTV VMA's for 9/9/99), and I believe they got a little (or a lot) less interesting than they used to be, but with that in mind, the red carpet (or in this event's case - for the sake of being earth friendly - the green carpet) and the fashionable walkers of the carpet never fail to pique my interest.

(photos: courtesy of Getty Images graphics: courtesy of MyOwnJudge)

A perfect fit to the shows, the fashion police of various channels and television networks usually show right after the ceremony or the day after, mercilessly criticizing the attendees. Now those shows, I rarely miss.

The who came first; chicken or the egg discussion's equivalent in the fashion world is Who do women dress for? The answers are always different depending on the gender of the respondent, along with their age.

I used to think that women dressed for themselves, or that at least I did. As I grew up, I started to see how perhaps it could be true that women dress for women, as well as for men.The kind of school you went to can be a major deciding factor for this conundrum. Notice how children are less competitive about whose clothes are cooler or fancier when there is mandatory uniform? We are a tricky race of humans!

This recurring thought came to mind when my honey mentioned my new favorite one shoulder dress. He said one shoulder dresses are more puzzling than they are attractive, because it kind of seems as though something is missing. Sure we gals look in the mirrors with the goddess trends in mind, and the bicep and shoulder exercises a sweat bead away, but all others think of is that Ms. Pac-Man took a bite out of our outfit?

I thought about it at length and then came to the realization that when I want to dress for me I'll wear my new favorite one shouldered dress, and when I want to dress for my honey, I'll keep it symmetrical, I guess when it comes to visualizations on dates, you prefer things to be symmetrical ;). Maybe the balance is making the choice of who to dress for and what to wear?

Are you a fan of one shouldered dresses? Who do you dress for?

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Recently, I woke up to a small lump under my arm. I knew it was an inflamed lymph node, because that's usually what happens when I get a bad cold. But I wasn't sick! I was horrified. I was already thinking a million things that could possibly be wrong. Set up a doctor's appointment pronto and started researching my deodorants. My mother scolded my bad habit of not washing off my deodorants before sleep and my thoughts were racing.

Fast forward to the doctor looking at me like a loon and telling me it was nothing, and just another way of my body getting ready for the monthly gift. Whew! (Sorry for all the extra information y'all!). But I was still stuck on researching my deodorants.

I've read often about the antiperspirants that have aluminum contents and whether or not they lead to illnesses and cancer. The information out there has no final answer on the topic, so it's not necessarily black and white. (Check out cancer.gov FAQ page on the topic here). Considering the information and my nasty habit of not washing off the deodorant at night, I figured I'd be better off finding something that tackles odor and lets my sweat be. If you must know, I sweat a lot under any inkling of heat as is, so having dry pits wouldn't help the rest of me much.

During my search in drugstores, I couldn't find too many deodorants that weren't doubling down with antiperspirant duties. The few that I found were for men and weren't available in an unscented version. So I hit the net and found a surprisingly large selection with decent prices. Here are a few:

More Aquolina...

What do you use to beat the funk and stay fresh?

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