Is body modification a beauty practice and is it misogynist?

It seems that the beauty industry is set to get it's claws into men, it's just capital looking for new markets to exploit.

Tattoos and piercings inoffensive when they were countercultural. Except to the extent that people might have faced subcultural pressures to get them done, they did seem to be arguably a form of individual self-definition and autonomy.

But it is quite different now, isn't it? Tattoos and piercings have become quite mainstream consumer goods, to the extent that we might be able to claim that at least some of the individuals who get them are manipulated by the same sort of systematic consumerist pressures that cause them to buy other pointless and/or damaging cosmetic products.

I wouldn't think of women as being more subject to that particular aspect of commercial manipulation than men, though. I would think of it as a harmful practice that men and women are both affected by.

I think part of the difficulty with tattoos is that the motivation for them varies far more from person to person than the motivation for say hair removal.

Beauty and Misogyny is a pretty amazing book (though I don't agree with 100% of it). One of the crucial points I think is that it's not about how individuals feel, it's about the deep cultural attitudes that make people think and behave in particular ways. I like to shave my armpits once or twice a week and start feeling grubby if I don't, but fundamentally I'm not doing it 'for me', I'm doing it because I've been conditioned since earliest youth into believing that women should have shaven armpits.

Tattoos and piercings seem quite odd to me. Why inflict physical pain on yourself in the name of aesthetics? Surely this can only be a culturally conditioned practice? I agree that most piercings and tattoos aren't a direct function of patriarchal attitudes (whereas breast implants, cosmetic surgery etc are). Instead they seem to reflect a desire to belong to a particular subculture, or maybe rebel against the prevailing culture? I wonder, if we didn't have ridiculous patriarchal beauty practices, people would feel less inspired to cause themselves damage in an attempt to define themselves as different from the mainstream?

Really interesting question Plenty. A few weeks ago a guy in the pub was really rude to a friend who has piercings and tattoos, saying very loudly that he thought she looked like a tin can. Another friend challenged him and the following day asked what I thought she should have done.

The piercings are in her face, and she has absolutely fab electric blue hair, she looks great she is also very pretty. It struck me that this man had a problem with the fact that she doesn't do femininity. She refuses to subject herself to mainstream beauty practices and standards and he found it offensive and disempowering to him.

For me it very much is the same thing! I don't shave my legs for a fair few months in winter - I'm always covered in opaques/trousers and I don't feel the need to when I'm not bare-legged much as I don't wear earrings when my hair is down! I like freshly shaving my legs and smothering them in body butter to give them a gorgeous shine when I do get my legs out - I'll body butter up my tattoos too when I am showing them off!

When I ask DH if he likes this/that or the other it's very rare he's even noticed so I'd definitely say I do these things for me because I like how they make me feel :)

My body is my temple. I shall decorate my temple however I please.

This is my mantra, always has been, always shall be. My tattoos are for me, I shave my legs/underarms for me. I wear a bit of make-up for me. It makes me feel good - so why should I NOT do it?