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

Of course we all love pastels and Bic have helpfully made a thinner pen for us weak and feeble laydeez in nice pastel colours:

www.bicworld.com/en/products/details/417/cristal-for-her

Carmina, you wanted to know if there was a matriarchy anywhere. Have a look here

Anyway, you are missing the point. Feminism is not about replacing patriarchy with matriarchy, but about achieving equality.

(I'm starting to quite like the idea of a yurt. Can I paint it green, and will there be enough room for all my books?)

SAF...you don't have to buy 'em

I was teasing you, saf

My solitary nipple hair is cultivating nicely

carmina, here's some more for you

matriarchal societies today

scroll down to 'matriarchal peoples' and it has some examples of societies still surviving today

SAF - reading your last post I got a mental image of you plaiting the nipple and chin hairs together! (Seated in your yurt, of course.)

charitygirl - Why are you talking to me in riddles? - you mentioned the patriarchal system & how it keeps women down - yet when I mention women in power you say that's not the issue? er?

you can only achieve change and improvement if you have power, the future is there for those who show up for it ( you wanna work a 15 hour day - you go for it ) you're not going to make an iota of difference by not shaving your legs - the real changes will come from posistions of power, ( although I don't think women handle power very well at all )

You know this section really should be re-named 'Navel-Gazers' because that's what most of it is. We live in one of the most free and tolerant societies in the world, there are no restrictions on women apart from the restrictions you place on yourself. And if all you've got to focus on and worry about is whether to shave your armpits or not - you really don't know you're born.

carmina I do get the feeling that you honestly don't know what is going on here. You are not actually just trying to people up.

Does anyone have some suggestions for good reading material for carmina? A feminist 'starter'?

That is if you are interested in finding out more about where everyone on here is coming from. If not, please butt out.

PS (I'd like the recommendations too. I'm not very well read on feminism and wouldn't mind a reading list type thing. But unfortunately I seem unable to get anytime to actually read anything at the moment Always interested in joining the bookclub - but never, ever get the chance to.)

Swallowed- I read that earlier and thought it wise I just leave it...

& you'd be right - I really don't know what's going on here, I'm hoping it's a front for something wild & exciting and one night I'll be introduced to the high priestess - but I tend to go with my initial gut feelings so I'll butt out.

Carmina - I know it doesn't make any difference to the world at large if I don't shave my legs or choose to wear make up or whatever. That's not the point of this thread. Rather than get into a debate on the drip-drip effect, may I suggest that if you want a more serious discussion on issues that require more direct action, there are plenty of other threads to choose from.

just to repost what I said on Wednesday:

If anyone has a problem with us doing this and posting about it, well tough, I can't be bothered to justify this to people who don't get it. If you are genuinely interested and want to know where we are coming from then read some basic books on feminism, maybe The Female Eunuch or The Beauty Myth or the relevant chapters of The Equality Illusion or Living Dolls.
If you have read all those things and still don't get it, then sorry, I can't help you

I posted waaaaay back and thought I'd give an update. I'm on about day 3 of not shaving my armpits, after a dodgy start when I forgot not to shave. I'm mostly doing out of curiosity. I don't think I've ever had hairy armpits, as soon as hair started growing I shaved it off, and that suddenly seemed a bit strange, to not know what I would naturally look like. So, no promises to keep it up once I've found out (!) but I'm in for now.

CB ( although I don't think women handle power very well at all ) - see you should start a thread on that, becuase I'd really like to know why you think women don't handle power well......

Sorry, I lost you all after a busy but very enjoyable weekend with visitors. Just marking my place and will try to read through and respond if I can later.

Leg hairs still in place :) Had conversation about this with best friend on Thursday - she was talking about going for first ever bikini wax and I think I've given her a little bit of food for thought before she does :) Shaved my underarms the other day as it's one thing I've always felt I needed to remove for hygiene purposes and, coincidentally or not, I was actually more BO-ey afterwards than before (I think it might have been Lenin who mentioned this) so may add that to my list of hair removal I might just give up on :)

@ wasted insights.

Yes Engelbert does have a nice line in put downs :)

Maybe the male body is different from the female one in this aspect, but men seldom remove their underarm hair and don't seem to have problems with sweat or smell. Washing and chemicals apparently take care of it, so I wonder why women's underarm hair has to be removed.

WAY after my post saying I wouldn't get thigh-toning shoes (fit flops and similar) but my reason is that these appear to be marketed at women (and not men) because our thighs aren't toned enough. I don't mind being fit, I mind having yet another perfectly normal part of me targeted as being not good enough.