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

I might just do that. Blogs, especially. Enjoyed reading some comments about Living Doll and The Beauty Myth on Amazon as starters!

However, I'm leaving you to your discussion now. Thanks for engaging with me. Enjoy your varied body hairs and your individual wrinkles. You are all fearfully and wonderfully made! Just don't get obsessive about your appearance, now! :o

Have fun Lostinafrica, see you around!

But why should men put their shirts on? Shouldn't they be allowed to display all their large hairy paunchy glory just as we should be allowed to display our hairy legs?

I thought of my line in the sand in the shower this morning - unpainted toenails. I think unpainted toenails are disgusting (sorry I know it's a strong word), My toe-nails are never seen in public without some sort of brightly coloured coating.

Also style and beauty is one of my favourite forums.

And yes I shave my biscuits, if I ate a whole one I WOULD GET FAT .

Didn't finish the toenail thought - so prehaps I will try this summer NOT to wear nail varnish on my toes and see if anyone backs away in horror from me. Maybe I will ease myself into this with wearing clear varnish first...

I don't paint my finger or toe nails, but then I have hairs on my big toes and think red polish would attract attention to them :)

I have waxed my toes in the past.
that's actually quite funny, isn't it?

I don't care what men wear or don't wear on their tops at a distance but there's nothing worse than when they're in your personal space, and that does seem to happen.
maybe bare flesh needs a greater personal space around it than clothed and men aren't aware of that which is why it so often feels invasive and aggressive.

Libra - the thing is with Style and Beauty, they are very good at what they do. If you actually need to buy something they are extremely helpful and you get a very high quality of information there, if you don't need to buy anything sometimes it is just very impressive to watch them find clothes for other people, just like it is impressive watching people do anything well, whether it's riding a unicycle or perform complicated calculations in their heads

Ah toes

When I shave my legs I always do my toes and fingers as well. Have done ever since I started. My logic I think was that if you're doing your legs then obviously feet need doing? And fingers as well looked better to me - rings without fur underneath IYSWIM.

However when I have mentioned this to anyone they have looked at me

Which sums it all up really. Most women would nod sagely at a woman saying she shaves her legs. IME most women give a surprised start and ask "why???" when i mention feet and toes. But it's all the same hair isn't it, on the same bit of the body. So that proves it's all a social construct, I think.

There you go, job done, point irrevocably proved

BTW the stuff about women and girls getting their emotions and how they look all mixed up is fascinating.

Thanks for that point it is extremely thought provoking.

Engelbert - I don't even know what a toe separator is! It sounds like an instrument of torture.

I saw my neighbour this morning. She always looks groomed, I have never ever seen her without make-up, even when she's just outside in the communal yard (we live in flats in the same building) with her son, her clothes are co-ordinared, you get the picture. But this morning when I saw her, her usual straight hair was curly! "Wow! I love your new hairstyle!" I said to her "It looks great!" She stared at me in confusion. "Oh, this is just my natural hair!" she replied. "I'm going to the hair salon later today, so I didn't bother to straighten it."
I told her she should leave it curly, as it looked lovely, and her reply was that she liked it too, but felt she should look like she had made an effort and that curls did not look groomed...

alexpolismum, hair styles and colours are what always strike me when I watch older films or TV footage. There seemed to be much more variety in days of yore.

Oh, and can you suggest co-ordinared as a new term on S&B? I love the way it sounds and it really should be a fashion word.

I understand Libra's 'ugly toes'. Until the latter stages of pregnancy when I was so big I couldn't reach them with DS I was a religious toenail painter and could not abide having 'unclothed' toes, they seemed obsncene to me. Since then, however, due to a combination of laziness and apathy I haven't bothered and, you know what, they look ok, normal EVEN nice. AND they're no longer stained a horrible yelllow colour.

Engelbert I have uploaded a photo of my toes just for you, taken 1 hour pre-elcs.

hahaha to gorgeous toes!

They are immaculate, very nice indeed. I keep mine a little longer and prefer a deep purple or deep red

I know what my line I couldn't cross is BTW, i was thinking about it earlier. For me it's The Hair!

I'm very impressed by Libra's toes. We must keep that photo up our sleeves in case anyone ever stereotypes feminists as not having nicely-kept toes.

No hair removal here today. Too busy making a mahoosive cake for DS's 3rd birthday party on Saturday. One kilogram of butter and 15 eggs And then I have to make it look like a blue Mini. Should I have outsourced 500g and 7.5 eggs to DH in the name of equality? :o

I don't particularly like toenails, and do wish mine were a pretty colour to look at, but yet again I have too much better to do with my time. Painting them might be one grooming regime I add in if I do forgo other ones for good as part of this project.

I think my line in the sand is my chin hairs actually. They have to go tomorrow. I have tried to let them grow over the last few days, but they are thick and dark and numerous and I feel really really like a man :( Am leaving alone the slightly random cheek hair (darker than most of the fair downy ones I have one my face) though as I think it might add a bit of character to my face.

sq, you shave your fingers?

i want a picture of your fingers unshaven, now. gorgeous or otherwise.

really?
your fingers?
wow...