Does anyone feel less inclined these days to wear makeup and skirts or dresses due to the focus on femininity as what defines woman?

No. Of course not. Why should I let other's dictate what I wear.
Love dressing up to the nines and doing my hair and makeup.
If anything it's defiance, I can dress up or not dress up and it had no effect on whether I'm a woman.

I'm very sorry for any woman who feels she can no longer do this

Yup, me too. Hair done, make up, heels - it’s just how I like to dress. And I give no fucks, lol.

Well, having been in corporate environments in the 1990s onwards I certainly don't recall all the successful women looking the way you describe.

There must be a limit to how much time one can spend standing at a rugby pitch (although when I attended my son's rugby matches as I wasn't playing what I wore on my feet was irrelevant) and on family holidays. You like a certain style of clothes - great , your choice but there's a whiff of your choice being superior to other women's

Yes indeed. Femininity does not make you a woman for sure. But equally, sneering at femininity should not make you a feminist.

Hm, perhaps the implication may be more that people are bowing to societal pressure, and there would be equal derision for men who choose to wear very 'masculine' clothing - The patronising bit is maybe in considering oneself above gender stereotypes whereas other less liberated people still play to them/use them/conform to them.

IDK, I don't on the whole gaf what other people wear. We all live with the pressures of our sex and expectations on us because of them, societal pressure/expectation/mores are there, however we respond to them.

@Jigslaw yes, very well put. I’ve had that a lot, and feminine as lesser does make sense. It’s sad.

As others have said, I dress and look how I like to, for me. Makeup and frock even in lockdown. I don’t think it makes me more or less a woman, it’s just me

Extremely considering we are all busy being adult females just some of us enjoy to look more feminine. Im secure enough in how I look not to patronise people who choose to look different to me.

My style hasn't changed throughout my life really - I've always been fairly disinterested in hair, makeup and nails and floaty feminine dresses and skirts.

Nothing has ever happened to me to create this, but I've always seen dresses and skirts as kind of exposing and dangerous in the 'lifting up'/ upskirting/hand up them sort of way. Weird, I know, but it's how I feel - kind of as if they're designed to give men easy access?

When I was working in corporate life in the 80s/90s I always wore a trouser suit and had short hair. It was an era of needing to emulate men if you wanted to be taken seriously.

Having sons thenmade me even less feminine. No point wearing uncomfortable heels to rugby pitches or for yomping up and down hills on family holidays. All my clothes are practical and (strangely!) therefore quite 'masculine'. Ha!

but I hate that people who do enjoy and want to wear dresses and make up seem to be fair game for condescending comments and judgement.

I definitely love and wear dresses and have makeup ( as well as clothes for building, gardening, diy, walking, being warm and comfortable). But since drag became so prominent I have become more aware of overtly gaudy and over sexualised clothes and would avoid going over an internal mental line in dressing )

There is a wonderful HE Bate’s short story I have never forgotten about a woman who is a lone farmer and of course dresses for that, but she also has a stash of exquisite dresses. I cannot remember what happened to her in the story, but always empathised very much with that part.

It is patronising, the irony is that some will always view things typically viewed as feminine as lesser. I agree that what you wear and how you look doesn't define you- you are either a man or a woman regardless; but I hate that people who do enjoy and want to wear dresses and make up seem to be fair game for condescending comments and judgement.

Same here.

I just don't have the time or inclination for the trappings of femininity. I'm too busy being an adult human female.

I can't remember who posted this comment but I just thought how patronising.

Sorry, what was the question?

<high fives>

Le egdeh, c'est chic.

No change here. I've always dressed in a style I consider neutral and practical - trousers (black for work, more likely to be jeans or shorts now I've retired), an unfussy top, flat shoes. Short hair in a simple style, no make-up, rarely any jewellery. I've got a few dresses and skirts that fit me well and I'll wheel them out for special occasions. I've never felt under pressure to "perform" femininity. If I had, I might have grabbed a "non-binary" label when the concept was invented.

I don’t think it is due to gender ideology, I think it’s lockdown and getting older - at least in my case.

In lockdown I ditched wearing a bra, stuck my hair under a bandana and my “very occasional” makeup went down to none at all. I still wore most of the same clothes but tended to get one more wear out of them before washing. I still wore perfume every day, because that’s something I do for myself alone.

When a hot flush can have me wiping mascara off my jawline 20 minutes after applying it, I ditched it entirely.

No! I always wear skirts ( preference just below the knee) - and whatever else I like, think suits me and that I find comfortable. Once my feet have been liberated in early May, they do not go back into shoes, socks or tights until October. Fit flops all the way.I'm not big on make-up; Just a bit of mascara, and if i go to an event or function - some eye-liner too.

I am very similar to you! I don't really suit trousers.

I haven’t given up on make up etc but I’ve noticed that I’m bringing more masculine dressing in, especially for work wear. I think I do want to challenge’gender’ norms.
I like dressing according to my mood and I’m also wanting to show that I, and lots of females, don’t dress according to standards of femininity or masculinity but rather how we are feeling that day.

How is it 'letting yourself go' if you were never there to begin with?! I've always been a no make up, jeans and hoody wearer. So technically I've always been a bloke.

No, I wear what I want according to the weather and occasion. I'm short, pear shaped, long hair so wouldn't look remotely like a drag Queen whatever I wore, but I've never gone for heavy makeup or those types of clothes anyway.

I agree - they are more like caricatures of women.

I hardly ever wear make-up and have not since trying it in my teens and finding it felt icky. Don't like it. Occasionally (e.g. son's wedding) wear touch of lipstick, eye-shadow and blusher (but I tend to think of it as rouge). I started wearing trousers at university but found them uncomfortable after childbirth (episiotomy scar and growing stress incontinence). I still wear trousers occasionally and to climb ladders, garden, go bell ringing etc., but prefer dresses and skirts, preferably of the romantic type - I wore versions of the dress on the left when I was younger (still have one, alas, too small!) and now like belted tops over flowing skirts, a faintly medieval look. I have never seen a man in a dress look like a woman. One in our social club last night I thought really sad - and every time I see him I think the same. Transwomen dress like a man's fantasy of a porn star afaics, though I have met a vet who wore trousers (and false breasts which were squashy/crunchy when he hugged me on greeting - which I found a bit strange). Dress how you like. Personality has nowt to do with sex. As a girl I liked sci-fi, meccano, climbing trees, adventure stories/Italian medieval politics/stories of battles, so would I be trans now? Think not! Such stereotyping needs removing and I thought we had removed it.

The feeling of a skirt swishing around my bare legs is one of my favourite things. I'm not giving up on that because some blokes think putting a skirt/dress on makes them somehow a woman.

I live in jeans and vest tops.

I also don't give a crap if I'm.mistaken for a bloke. Literally nothing happens.

I dont understand why its something to get so male aggressive and angry about. If being misgendered is the worst thing ever then you my friend have an extremely privileged life the rest of us have to much on to worry about a stranger mistaking us fir something else.

I'm very keen on dresses and makeup. But I'm also one of the most GC people I know if not the most.

It's so nice to be of an age where all women have short hair and wear what they like - usually trousers and simple tops, very occasionally skirts or dresses (nice to have the choice in hot weather). I'll wear a bit of foundation and a hint as to where my eyes are sometimes if I'm going to be out and about.

And I'll let myself go anywhere I want to go, why would I restrict myself?