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

'But then so much of the response to any action coming out of feminist awareness is either 'why bother' or 'you are doing it wrong' or 'people wont find you attractive'.'

oh, that's so true. Recently we have been told not to
march, complain about adverts, boycott shops, respond to planning and licensing applications for lapdancing clubs, resist beauty practices (though if we don't we also get told we're hypocritical), discuss the nature of womanhood.... AFAIK we are still allowed to donate money to women's refuges but I'm sure somebody will turn up soon who has a problem with that.

And the final irrelevant trump card is pulled, bravo.

By mean comments I can only assume from what I've read you mean any comments that don't tally up with your own views.

ps. dittany, my name had nothing to do with this thread, get over yourself.

Good news, there are hardbacks of The Whole Woman from 1p on Amazon.

oh her t-shirts are wonderful. I also love 'Antiporn star'. Last time I looked it would have cost too much to ship to UK though

Its a great shirt, and of course its not rebelling at all. lolz.

I don;t understand what your point is here on this thread 2b?

Is it just to tell us we're all ugly and immature? Got that, message received, thanks. Is there anything else you want to talk about or is that it?

I was asked SQ, if thats Ok with you.

Its a thread on a messageboard. The thread title even has a ? in it.

If you are saying I'm wrong to question the motive/agenda behind all this then fine, but I will (as asked) explain why without dragging in any other irrelevance/emotional tag/sneering.

Do you get that ? (i'm sure you do) but I was told I didn't get it so it seems thats the etiquette on this board as I was pulled up on that as well.

stop fighting girls, it is unladylike

glad your comment wasn't for me, Engelbert

No dittany its stoopid of you as I haven't said any of those things you claim.

Why can't you be honest ?

Why did you appear on Sunday and pick a fight with Dittany on Monday on another thread.

When has anyone on MN ever '(raised) a point of order'.

Why are you trolling?

It occurs to me that most parents feel terribly sad when their daughters start with this stuff - they can see how beautiful they are (and of course youth is highly prized) and see how unnecessary it is for them to start with the makeup, the hours hairstyling, the shaving etc etc. Most parents can see the natural beauty in their children.

Of course the children start doing it because they want to be "grown up", and their friends are doing it, and they may get unpleasant remarks if they don't join in.

So at what stage does the natural beauty of a female child die and they need to use artificial means to make themselves acceptable? Most parents would be horrified if a 10 year old started with this stuff - what about 12 - 14 - 16? When does it move from a person being naturally beautiful to having to do all this stuff?

What is the line when natural no longer = good enough for females? And why do people like this line so much? It's all a bit sad.

Chandon I feel exactly like you, sometimes I do and sometimes i don't for most things "feminine" but I think the problem is we are actually quite unusual in that we do have the confidence to say today I can't be arsed to shave my legs and put on make-up and it doesn't it effect who we are or how we walk. Not everyone does have that confidence and it would be nice if people realised that yes if they want to shave their legs then go ahead (even tho I think Proud2bfeminine is slightly naive if she thinks she does it just because she prefers it that way rather than having been bombarded with images) but if they don't then that's ok to.

Proud2Be, what you call 'irrelevance' is Engelbert trying to demonstrate why it is extremely unpleasant to barge into a support thread and pick at it. Are you really too dense to see the connection?