hermionesviolin | Hate on for restrictive beauty norms.

Question on Millionaire today: "A unibrow is a fashion faux pas remedied by what type of grooming?" Dude, the levels of wrongness. "Faux pas"? Like Frida Kahlo wasn't a total hottie.

After a comment thread with

ranaeressea last night, I was thinking I could use an androgynous person icon; and I've been wanting a "real women have curves" icon for some time (I lack any picture to use for it); this makes me think I need a Frida Kahlo icon (complete with unibrow and mustache) for a "nontraditionally beautiful" icon. [Though I would still like a "real women have curves" icon. And no I don't endorse the "zomg, you are so skinny you must be anorexic" type of thing; I don't mean to elide the women who are naturally skinny; being a female who has passed through puberty you have some curves, though, so you are not being negated by the still-theoretical icon.]

I was thinking about writing a disclaimer about choosing/owning your own aesthetics and I remembered that last night

kurukami posted a poll about preference for smooth-chested vs. hairy-chested (for those attracted to males) and in this context it got me thinking about how when we're talking about men the hairiness issue gets to be an aesthetic choice, but with women it becomes this huge deal -- and interestingly, women are in many ways less restricted in terms of appearance choices (women wear pants all the times, but how many guys get away with wearing skirts?) but whereas guys get to make choices about shaving all the time (facial hair especially) it's a given that women will shave everything except their heads (and that one's okay either way) and if you don't shave and don't cover that up then it's this huge deal.

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(Whoops messed up first comment. Re-post.)

Frida Kahlo is feckin' pretty - and how did she end up with that ugly husband of hers? H'anyway.

I have serious curves. I don't know how the hell that happened, as A.) I am white (I am discriminating against myself!), B.) I'm not heavy set, and C.) no one in my blood-related family has them.

My brother used to shave his legs. I have female friends who sometimes put off shaving for days or weeks until they wear shorts or a skirt, too. And these are usually girls with boyfriends. I think underarms are the only instance of a woman not shaving wear people actually have a strong negative response. Underarm hair is just yuck anyway. At least to me.

Since the beginning of civilization, a huge part of a woman's role was to look pretty so a man would take her. So. I'm not surprised we still groom ourselves more than most men.

I personally am attracted mostly to hairlessness. My husband has very little hair on his body and so have most of the men I've dated. But my husband is very different than most of the men around here in that what little hair he does have, he mostly gets rid of (under his arms, the occasional chest hair he plucks, most of the hair in his nether regions).

I shave under my arms, mostly, and my legs sometimes LOL, but I hardly ever wear a dress or skirt and never shorts, so I figure it doesn't much matter. And as far as nether regions go, I'm hirsuite all the way.

I'm having a hard time thinking of androgynous *women* for your icon. Maybe J. Andrews in Victor, Victoria?

(Your icon keyword says "Ariel." From The Little Mermaid?)

Well Diego Rivera was one of the biggest deal painters of his day.

I definitely don't much see the point of shaving your legs during seasons when you're in pants anyway (though some of my friends just really enjoy the feel of smooth legs, which is perfectly valid). I think hairy legs look kinda icky (on either gender) and while with shorts one could rock the casual thing I think I would wanna shave for a skirt (which is a major reason I only wear pants and sometimes long skirts/dresses -- because I don't feel like bothering with shaving my legs).

I actually don't mind underarm hair much at all. I certainly see the aesthetic appeal of smoothness there, especially if one were wearing like an evening gown, but I don't find it aesthetically unappealing much at all.

Since the beginning of civilization, a huge part of a woman's role was to look pretty so a man would take her. So. I'm not surprised we still groom ourselves more than most men.

Yeah, that definitely makes sense.

See my comment above to Rana for a response to much of this :)

Nether regions . . . I could definitely see trimming, especially depending on what kind of sex you're having, but all out shaving? I so wouldn't wanna deal with that prickly feeling of regrowth ;) And it honestly always freaks me out in visual porn (what little I've seen) that the women are always so shaven.

I'm having a hard time thinking of androgynous *women* for your icon. Maybe J. Andrews in Victor, Victoria?

Well I was thinking with androgynous the birth sex of the imaged person wouldn't really matter and was actually considering Rana's picspam (http://ranaeressea.livejournal.com/64733.html).

Yeah, The Little Mermaid Ariel.

Indeed, he was. I could never escape him in art class or history, but he isn't a very attractive man at all, despite being so famous and popular.

I just shave my legs constantly because I like the smoothness as well. It's not that leg hair bothers me, unless it's really long and thick, but I like smooth skin and the way it feels by itself. So I'm a fan of shaving.

Go for it. I think I have the perfect Gackt pic for it, actually. Lemme check when I get home. I'm at the college right now.

Interesting choice (since I always think of her legged state as a sorrowful one -- influenced by reading the HCA version, I'm sure).

Well, personality and other characteristics can make someone appealing even if they aren't traditionally physically appealing but yeah.

I look forward to it :)

P.S. I totally hadn't realized you were a commuter.

Oh yes. Community college doesn't have dorms, and dorms are not to my liking and expensive anyway.

The new picspam has some very feminine Gackt pics, as well as some caps from when he wears a nurse outfit in one of the tour DVD skits - complete with fake boobs. One of them should probably be perfect. ;-)

I knew when I was looking at colleges that if I commuted I would barely make any friends since I'm bad at putting myself out there socially even when I'm around people a lot. Makes me sort of wonder how things work out at places that are predominantly commuter schools.

Oh, it's just meant to be more of a comedy icon. Wrapped up in a ship's sail for a dress and feeling pretty about it, and all.

Fair enough. I fully admit the fact that my tendency is to overthink things :)

You know, to be way more specific about the nether regions than you probably want, I'm okay with the hair on the pubic bone. It's more the ah....hair in the more sensitive areas that I'd get rid of if like you I didn't find hair regrowing more than annoying to deal with. My hubby shaves only his testicles, not the hair on top, and he swears it doesn't itch or poke, but he shaves pretty much every other day.

In my pre-college years, I was very much (and still sort of am) a generally unsocial person. Not in the sense that I don't want to talk to other people, but more I am not one who brings it upon myself to make a first move. I sort of expect that of others, which people have at often times characterized as 'snootiness,' even though it isn't meant in that way. With my usual facial looks, though, I'm not really surprised they walk away thinking that.

I am quite small and humble, but I carry myself and wear a mask that says I'm extremely proud. And I think that steers people away if they don't know what I'm really like. I never thought I was much of one who didn't easily make friends, though. I like people enough one general principle that it's easy. But sometimes I can be so strong and opinionated that it scares them away. So . . . keeping friends is more my issue.

I combine disliking people with being intimidated by the awesomeness of people, so the reason for my quietness around people is always up for grabs. I honestly don't know whether I come off as snobby or just shy. I got "aloof" I think more than once on that nohari window thing, but that's a very flawed mechanism for reasons including the fact that it forces you to select 5 adjectives even if you only want to pick 3.

I'm never really sure how I manage to acquire friends. By the time I'm actually at a point with someone where we would call each other friends, we've usually had conversations about at least some of the stuff I get tetchy about and they've seen how I complicate everything and hate people and suchlike; so combined with the fact that I tend to scope out people for a while before committing, I like to think that I'm fairly likely to keep friends, but there are a lot of people with whom I've drifted (though most of those people would be categorized more as acquaintances than friends).

Hate on for restrictive beauty norms.

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