Feminist Pub XVIII, in which the Bluestocking greets the first signs of spring with a glass of something soothing

[PuffinsAreFictitious]

Just starting this one as the last is nearly full

I don't shave very much either. But like Ebear I'm not particularly hairy anyway and I suspect I would bow to social conditioning and shave my legs if I was going to have them on display. I do shave my armpits every couple of weeks because I swim quite often and don't like the looks I get when I leave it too long.

I have pale skin and dark, abundant body hair. So I wax. I figure as long as I don't judge women who don't (and I really do not judge), I'm not doing too badly on the feminist stakes.

MsDragons - I also swim 3 x a week & have got quite fixated about it & my times & justify shaving as it will reduce the drag.

If you swim competitively, then full body shaving may be reasonable.

I reckon at the times I go, most people are swimming without their glasses and can't make out much more than there's another person in the pool.

(This isn't fully logical - after all, I am probably not the only one who has had their eyes lasered, and some will have naturally good eyesight, but even then, I doubt they're staring at me anyway. My swimming is neither so good nor so bad as to be noticeable.)

Actually Ebear, you make a good point. I certainly can't tell whether people have shaved or not when I go swimming, due to not having my glasses on/goggles being steamed up. It's more the changing rooms/ getting to and from the pool that bothers me. People can see me then, and it's uncomfortable for me to show hairy armpits, more than it is for me to have (not very) hairy legs, or an untrimmed bikini line.

So on Monday I start my new job, and it's the first job in a very long time where I have to wear clothes that I actually own and choose myself. For the past 5 years I've worn scruffy, ugly and crap-fitting scrubs under a lab coat. Figuring out what on earth normal people wear at work is causing more panic than any other part of starting a new job!

What were they wearing when you interviewed? Smart casual or suits? I would aim for slightly smarter than usual until I'd sussed it out.

They seemed to range from jeans and t-shirt to office smart. I'm going for office casual - slacks and top/blouse but no jacket. I want to stay fairly smart - dress for the job you want and all that. But being a slob around the house in a tracksuit sort of girl, even though I think I have it sussed, chances are I'll cock it up somehow! It's just weird having to have a work wardrobe again.

Sounds like us (it's not in Reading is it?) I'd be going for office casual, too. I'm usually in trousers and a plain top - I rarely wear skirts after the day I had to to the datacentre unexpectedly. Crawling around on the floor and going under the floor space to trace cables is not as easy in a tightish skirt. I did wear a dress on Thursday when we had a high-up manager from the US over, though.

No, EBear, but DH works in Reading, as it happens.

In IT?

(I can't believe I'm the only one in the building with MN connections.)

Hello!

Could I join in too please? Long time lurker here as well.

So, body hair... I stopped shaving about 6 months ago and although I wasn't too enamoured with my legs, I loved my pits. Then, maternity leave finished and it started to get warmer. Without tights my legs itched each other when I walked and I kept getting electric shocks from escalators!

Anyway I shaved my legs. My pits followed soon afterwards when I went back to work. I'm vaguely annoyed with myself for giving in though.

Morning!
I gave in and started shaving my legs in my 30s. Before that I bleached my leg hair, it was always quite blonde. Now I get them waxed. But DH shaves and always has and won't consider a beard even though I've asked. Is that in any way equivalent?
Refuse to do anything about hair higher than my knees and lower than my navel though. A rather forthright beautician once suggested I must "because you are a woman after all".

Just contributed to a thread about the oldest age to be a mother. Not a SINGLE person has mentioned the oldest age to be a father.

Morning everyone, new and old/familiar

It is 3 am and I am wide awake worrying about problems which dint even exist. Gah!

Welcome lagar!

I don't think men shaving their face is quite the same. There isn't the same level of revulsion in discussions about men with beards I think.

kickass I was awake stupidly early too, but more because I went to bed early in a huff! Hope the mental treadmill stops.

lagar I quite like that unforeseen shortening of my name.

I meant to add that over the years I've found discussions on here really thougt provoking (and eye opening in terms of some of the attitudes) and they've shaped my thinking no end. Cheers!

There's certainly revulsion towards beards in some areas. Possibly just age related though - when you're fifteen and you fancy seventeen year olds the big bushy beards are a bit thin on the ground. I recall my peers being revolted by beards at that sort of age. (Not me though - thanks to early exposure to Commander Riker I've been a beard fan for many a year.)

I don't think anyone I know is on MN (apart from the lovely people I know from MN ). Some of them find it too sweary.

DHs inability to grow facial hair (its patchy and short at best) is actually quite well matched to my (patchy and short) attempts at body hair.

So he's left feeling like a crap man while i feel like a crap feminist!
(Only joking btw, neither of us care that much)

I've never waxed anything. Sounds painful. Is it?

I'm quite shortsighted and somehow have got into the mindset that if everyone looks blurry to me at the swimming pool then I must look blurry to them too.

Yup. But the pain fades fast,

Waxing gets less painful the more you do it. I don't feel it when I do my underarms any more (have been waxing them for about 10 years) or my ankles (which I wax due to wearing trousers with heels at work, too lazy to do whole leg!) but the rest of my legs - ow.

I only have experience with epilating rather than waxing. It hurts like an absolute buggery the first time you do it, but after that it's just a slight prickles.

Ebearhug - DH does indeed work in IT but surely there's lots of it in Reading? He's a database developer for a well-known used car sales website. But I don't think you can work there too or you'd have been grumbling about being made to relocate or be made redundant.