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

higgle, I think you're missing the point a bit. I thought this thread was about reflecting on what we do to be conventionally "feminine", why we do it and whether we need to do it. (OP, correct me if I'm wrong.) It's not suggesting that whether you shave your legs or not is more important than equal pay!

I very rarely shave my legs so can't do that (and I go swimming every week).

I could go without make up for ages - even for nights out and see how I cope. I usually wear mascara as I have really fair eyelashes and look like a blinking mole without it.

Good idea for a thread ssm although I read the title and thought it said 'Resisting feminism' and was a bit

LOL @ Moondog spouting the A.A.Gill-on-Mary-Beard line.
(He complained about her daring to present a programme on Roman Pompeii with slightly wonky teeth and insisted he wasn't being sexist, and someone on her blog pointed out he is always raving about Kenneth Clarke of Civilisation without once mentioning his teeth.)

The one area men do get judges similarly to women is hair removal. Men with big untended beards are widely regarded as unlovely, wierd, subversive etc. Having to shave the bottom half of your face every day is not something I would fancy doing.
(I wear make up sometimes, but only if I'm going out and/or doing my Avon rep duties. I shave my legs in the summer and usually have hairy armpits, though I do those now and again as I have this sneaking fear that if I never prune them I will end up with armpit hair long enough to plait as it does grow quite vigoroulsy).

Moondog - if you're offended by hairy legs that really is your problem, not that of the people with hairy legs. It is not rude to have hairy legs, whatever you might think.

I don't like the colour red and it really offends me to see people wearing it. Therefore I think anyone who wears red in my presence is very rude and has bad manners.

Higgle - you are completely missing the point of this thread, which was in response to another thread about what influences the things we like/do as women.

I did have my hair cut very short and 'boyish' in my early 20s though, that was an interesting experience. I rarely actually got mistaken for a boy/man, it was more that people couldn't figure out my gender which for some reason seemed to cause a reaction of disgust and anger in many people. Lots of comments from random people in the street or on public transport, 'what are you?', 'what is it?', 'is it a boy or a girl', 'what the fuck is that' etc. On one occasion in a station I had a group of teenagers gather round me in disgusted fascination daring each other to 'touch it'.

Really opened my eyes as to what some people must go through every day of their lives if they don't fit into one 'box' or the other when it comes to gender.

Yes, I suppose it was different 30-odd years ago flamingo.

higgle I think you misunderstand. I read the tread to be about the things women do because of the convention of femininity rather than because it is convenient/practical/necessary.

I had very short hair in my 20s but had such big boobs I could never be mistaken for a boy

He has a rude name.

I love Nicky Haslam. He is entirely synthetic.

I object more to what comes out of little Brian's lips, too dumbed down.

I don't even know who Nicky Haslam is!

And Brian Cox, rude name that he has, is obliged to dumb down what he says or not enough people would watch his tv programmes because they wouldn't understand it! At least this way people possessed of not much intelligence get a chance to understand a bit of astrophysics.

No they don't, they get pretty pics and graphics and three seconds of bland basics on gravity. It is insulting to all.

for FlamBing

Ooh the inverse to the Project Princess threads. Mn is complete again

I am in the middle. And can't bear the sensation of previously shaven underarm or lower leg hair getting too long. And just got my hair highlighted (although bit annoyed with what I decided to do, too blonde). So won't be changing much.

But liked the overall mn balancing vibe.

I skimmed.

I went through a stage at uni (what a stereotype) when I didn't shave my legs or my armpit hair. Not sure what I did about my moustache .

Oh yes, Hully, agree progs would only be 20 mins long if they cut out all the pointless visuals and music, but some of the graphics are fab and the explanations are very good.

Still don't know who Nicky Haslam is, though - although delighted to now know what he looks like!

He's had stuff done hasn't he?

I don't think that obecting to or removing rogue unsightly hairs on your face or nipples has anything to do with feminism tbh.
I never wear makeup, despite having a scar from a skin graft under my eye but I pluck the hairs from a large mole on my cheek because I think it's ugly and make me like an old woman.
I rarely shave my legs and underarms, I'll do them when going on holiday but I don't take a razor so I'm fuzzy within a couple days because I have thick dark hair. DH will stroke the fusewire like nipple hair I get occasionally, he doesn't mind it but I do so it's gone.
I'm actually far less tolerant of his rogue hairs, like the one on his eyebrow and I get really quite cross that he won't let me pull the ones from his shoulders, plus I'd divorce him if he wanted to grow a moustache or beard because they repulse me.
I rarely wear skirts or dresses either, so I don't think I'm a very feminine woman, never really have been, when I took off my wedding hat/veil, I sported a perfect flat top underneath it but then it was the 80's .
Other than shaving my head, I don't know how I could downgrade my femininity any further, I don't particularly wear jewellery, DH bought me a beautiful pandora bracelet and it bugs the hell out of me to wear it.
Tbh, I've never understood this pressure to conform stuff I see on here, it's never been a part of my life and DD was certainly not brought up to be gentle/quiet/compliant/self sacrificing etc.

I would judge a woman with fake breasts/st tropez tan/whitened teeth/fully depilated far more than a woman with unshaven legs and underarms and a bit spider leg showing from her bikini.
The amount of fake breasts we saw in Las Vegas was really quite alarming, they are ugly in the extreme and why anyone would want to put them into their body is beyond me, we also saw a few gay men with pec implants ( they certainly looked fake), which was just as alarming.
I think it's consumerism and advertising that control our society at the moment, selling us things we don't need or want, it's not about gender, it's about whispering to peoples' insecurities, regardless of sex.