Resisting femininity experiment - who's in?

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

I was thought-provoked by the 'I'm a feminist but....' thread, particularly Dittany's posts, in which she talked about women who choose not to 'perform femininity'.

I posted on the other thread that I hugely object to all that bikini-line business but do still shave my legs. Am not sure why I do this, so I think I'm going to stop and see how it feels. It felt like a major issue when I was 20 or so but I actually suspect not shaving them now would make me feel more, rather than less, confident.

So I wondered if anyone else was thinking about giving up any beauty practices or other elements of compulsory femininity and would like to do it together and see how it feels.

this is not a competition - if you decide after a day you hate it and can't live without it, fine, but it would be really interesting to hear about, and I think it could advance our understanding of how this all works.

anyone else in?

btw, I am in a vile mood today so if anyone wants to come along to the thread and tell us we are just falling into the trap of thinking all feminists have to have hairy legs, or that actually they wax everything and are a still better feminist than meeeee, I will tell them to fuck off because if you don't 'get' this I can't be bothered explaining, either you get it or you don't

Hecate - Hell no, not a chance. I wouldn't grow a beard for anything! I wouldn't do a lot of things if it would draw undue attention to me.

I shaved my arm hair once after a boy at school took the mick and said I should. I would have been around 13 I reckon.

Someone in my class at school once shaved her forearms. She regretted it when they went all stubbly.

AS for me and my grooming - i certainly don't bother shaving my legs if theyre not going to be on display - my husband doesn't care. But I do shave them in a desultory, 'up to the knee and never mind a few day's stubble' fashion in the summer (but hardly brave as I'm v blonde). And I've stopped my equally desultory bikini wax habit though I trim the vast interior from time to time.

I think LadyoftheManner upthread said there's a difference between grooming and thinking 'it's just something I like to do, with no social significance' and grooming and knowing exactly what you are doing. I am totally aware that even my piss-poor grooming efforts, and the fact I wear make up are about getting by in the patriarchy, and making myself more 'acceptable', and therefore it's easier to do what I need to do at work (NOT about 'using my sexuality' but about not having to break down another wall of prejudice/perception about my professionalism before the conversation even starts IYKWIM). BUT feminism has SO helped me to stop caring in a wider sense.

I do allow my husband to tweeze my little billy goat gruff beard (strange little patch of five hairs under chin). He seems to enjoy it.

Oh, and I'm fairly sure the hair of adolescence, pubic and underarm, evolved to protect those areas from infection as the little hairs keep bacteria from settling and festering in warm areas prone to moistness.

Not to keep our pits from getting cold. Chortle.

Hate body hair on men or women! Can just about cope with it on men's legs provided it's not too thick (yuck) but don't like it on chests and run a mile at the sight of a hairy back. (shudder) Dunno why, it just seems so creepy somehow. So don't think I'll be joining the experiment, though not for anti-feminist reasons!

Charitygirl: - I didn't say underarm hair was there to keep us warm - I said the hair on our legs was - but as you sound so sure of yourself it might be a good time to remind you of the infallibility argument -

Galileo was considered mad back in the day - but you'd know all about that being a philosophy expert.

Carmina "hairy legs on women serves no purpose"

so what exactly is the purpose of hairy legs on men??

I'm burning with curiosity...

frantic - you don't have to avoid shaving. You could just stop wearing mascara and tinted moisturiser like I am

carmina - your arguments make no sense whatsoever

Hecate I've just thought of something. What we are taking about re not shaving underarms/legs is about the removal of normal female body hair, beards and baldness is not normal though (as you said you have a specific medical condition - androgenic alopecia - which has led to your unusual body hair distribution)

I don't think that it is at all strange for a woman to want to look like a woman and under normal circumstances a woman would not have male pattern baldness/chest-hair/a full beard. These are the consequences of high testosterone levels (which is why men usually have these patterns).

Armpit hair, leg hair and pubic hair are all, normal features of a sexually mature adult female and no matter what carmina et al have to say about it, it is societal that we feel obliged to remove it b

Does that make any sense?

Carmina are you comparing yourself to Galileo?

grin]

My feminist credentials include totally untouched pubes (not even bikini line is done) and have just cut my very long hair off as was sick of faffing with it all the time.

I wish I had the guts to:

stop plucking my omni brow
stop having my upper lip waxed
cut my hair into a proper, no maintenace crew cut
stop wearing make-up
stop giving a fuck about fashion

I like shaving ym armpits as it does stop me getting all sweaty and smelly there, so it is practical as much as aesthetic.

I salute anyone who is taking this mission seriously and will be very interested in how you all get on.

Thanks, Frosty. How dim of me. I thought it was because we evolved tights and the ability to withstand subzero temperatures with bare legs while in our teens.

ChristinedePizan I only wear make-up if I'm going to the DC's school (they seem to like it because it's considered "normal" and teenagers like their parents to be "normal", I find) I give in because we've been going through a divorce recently and I don't see the point in adding to their general stress levels unneccesarily. Does that count as anti-feminism? I hope not

'They' didn't think Galilio was mad. They thought he was heretical.

But anyway - if I start spouting any old bollocks can I then say 'ah well, they thought Galileo was mad'? CANNOT WAIT TO TRY IT.

Just out of curiousity, is there anyone here who can honestly say they have never ever:

removed leg hair

removed armpit hair

removed hair on upper lip

plucked eyebrows

worn make up

I have never removed hair n my upper lip or plucked my eyebrows. I do not sport a moustache and I have two distinct brows, not a monobrow. I rather like the luxuriant, thick brows, I think they add expression.

I have at some time done the others on the list, although I'm not doing them currently.

I have never removed hair on my upper lip and only started plucking my brows in the last year because of the Dennis Healey-esque mad white hairs. But apart from my head I am pretty bald.

I think most of us probably try to conform to societal expectations at some stage

Hmmm, - What would Galileo do?

[drops female leg hair and male leg hair from the top of tower to see if one falls faster than the other]

Lenin, that's the same as me. I also tried shaving my legs a few times as a teenager, before thinking Why on earth am I doing this? I don't like it and I don't want to!

I have also had friends put make up on me like that. I didn't like it at all.