It’s no secret that different styles go in and out of fashion, but maybe you didn’t realize body parts go in and out of fashion as well.

Fashion often changes what is popular or acceptable to cover up or expose on women’s bodies. A few seasons ago, a cutout just below the bust was extremely common in dresses in order to draw attention to that patch of exposed skin. Short hems have been popular for years, highlighting the legs.

But even if magazines, billboards and TV shows are telling us one body part is the sexiest at the moment, be it upper thigh or upper earlobe, it’s important we ignore them. I’m not one to follow trends, but it’s important to people everywhere who care about clothes to ignore erogenous zone trends in particular.

In fashion, erogenous zones are certain parts of the body highlighted in order to accentuate attractiveness of the wearer or inspire the imaginations of viewers.

In Linda Dyett’s Psychology Today article “Desperately Seeking Skin,” she explains that fashion has highlighted different erogenous zones on the female body throughout history. During the Renaissance period women wore dresses that added fullness to the stomach, imitating pregnancy. At that time pregnancy was desirable to both genders.

During the Empire period the breasts and even the nipples were accentuated with shear fabrics and loosely constructed gowns. In the Victorian era the hourglass shape was emphasized with heavily constructed bodices.

As you can tell, what makes a woman’s body alluring can vary greatly. It makes sense that one style might be more popular than another at a given time. But it would appear that anywhere on the body can be made attractive. Trends come and go, and people get excited about the newness of new things. However, we need to be sure as individuals not to let fashion tell us what is most attractive about ourselves.

Carol Salusso, associate professor of apparel merchandising, design and textiles at WSU, hypothesized that the abdomen is the current in-trend erogenous zone. The popularity of body conforming dresses and leggings supports this theory.

But not everyone likes wearing skin-tight clothing. I’m not recommending you show up to History 105 in a Victorian-era gown, but there are a lot of corset-inspired tops out there that are more flattering than a tight-fitting knitted top with no support.

You know your body better than anyone, and you should chose for yourself how to dress it.

Maybe you want to highlight your face because you spent a lot of time on your makeup. Maybe you want to highlight your face because you don’t wear makeup. Maybe you spent hours at the gym doing squats and want to highlight that.

Often people get caught up in how fashion tells us a certain body type is attractive, when actually clothing is a fantastic tool that can be used to present ourselves how we want to be seen to the rest of the world. You can show the best of your body, or none of it at all.

Wear what you need to wear in order to feel presentable, attractive or sexy, and don’t let a billboard tell you otherwise.