Hate on for restrictive beauty norms.

[hermionesviolin]

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.

Comments

[helholden.livejournal.com]

(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.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

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?