freudiancascade:Can we give this a round of applause?I only started wearing make-up on a daily basis
freudiancascade:Can we give this a round of applause?I only started wearing make-up on a daily basis around six months ago … right around the time I started seriously reading feminist lit, following blogs, and forming my own opinions on the subject. I hadn’t realized how many features of day-to-day life I’d assumed were just “how things are” were actually functions of deeper societal pressures and expectations.It had always been presented to me as a dichotomy: either I was smart, or I was a girl. Smart girls didn’t spend time applying make-up, and girls who did must not want to be taken seriously. Making it worse, I was a chubby, geeky teenager with a slight acne problem who spent her lunch hours in the library and used words like “diction” and “presumptuous” in everyday speech. The cards were kind of stacked against me to begin with, and so growing up, “smart” was really all I had going for me. I was terrified to do anything that could undermine it.Then all of a sudden I started reading and realized how dumb that is, and you know what? If teal eyeliner makes me feel good, I am going to rock the hell out of it with or without your permission.And no, mom, I’m not doing it to “catch myself a guy” or “get attention.” I’m playing around with color and trying new products, applying lipstick and curling my eyelashes, and reading beauty blogs with the same ferocity that I devour feminist ones. And I’m doing this because I want to. It makes me feel good to catch myself in the mirror and go, “damn, I look great today.”The other day I caught myself deconstructing the presentation of Buffy as a feminine action hero while painting my nails magenta pink. And there’s no conflict there at all. -- source link