part-meming

[freckles_and_doubt]

There's a meme going around called "Twenty Things You Might Not Know About Me", and great is the tagging in cyberspace. wytchfynder set me off, and I started thinking about twenty things you witterers out there might not know about me. This was hard - I appear to wear my heart on my sleeve, generally speaking - but actually what stymied me was the first thing I thought up. I got this far:

1. I don't wear make-up, and haven't for about three years. I tried making myself up the other day, and it looked truly weird and unnatural. (This is only partly because I'm no bloody good at it). The only make-up I still own is over ten years old, including some St. Michael's pencils my dad bought me in England when I was 17. I don't believe in make-up. Apart from the fact that I think that the cultural space occupied by cosmetics is profoundly sexist, it's silly.

Then I stopped and thought, why? and, even remembering all my actually quite good and sufficient reasons, is that true? and does this mean that I necessarily condemn all those women out there who do wear make-up? and if so, am I a ranting feminist bigot? and even if that's the case, should I be condemning them anyway? And the whole process wound down in the usual self-doubt and honed ability to explode my own mind by seeing all the sides of the argument at once. Damned academic training.

Then I found this rather nifty post that articulates a lot of the actually quite complex issues, which at least means I'm not the only person worrying.

Then my attention was madly redirected by suddenly stumbling across this article about proposed legislation in Indiana which is actually using the term "unauthorised reproduction", and I was so overwhelmed by the sudden sense that we're living in a Sheri S. Tepper dystopian future that I completely forgot about make-up. Because, see, while I actually agree, as a drooling Tepper fan-girl, that we urgently need serious brakes on our population, I definitely don't think it should be the Republicans controlling it.

Comments

Blarg, makeup

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

Not one of my exes (executables?) has worn makeup, so I find makeup actually quite odd. Minor things like lipstick or eyeliner seem fine, but full makeup = unnatural and cloying.

So, in short, people are welcome to wear as much makeup as they like, but my preference is for little or none. :)

Re: Blarg, makeup

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I fear you under-estimate my total purism on this. I don't wear make-up. No lipstick, no eyeliner, not even lip-gloss. (Many of your exes wear minimal make-up, would be a more accurate statement). The only thing that goes on my face is cream, when I remember.

But you are clearly a man of taste, unshackled by the assumptions of modern beauty culture. Or something :>.

[pinkthulhu.livejournal.com]

Perhaps then heavy taxation on children beyond the 2.07 required to maintain the population? (like the Chinese do) :)

Although in some Scandinavian and European countries the reproduction rate is dropping.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

Then you get awkward situations like in Singapore, where you get all sorts of incentives to have *more* children. Because they're running short. Maybe they should just start importing from China or something. China: world's leading supplier of *everything*.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Damn straight. One of the few upsides of globalisation is never having to say "underpopulated." We live in a grossly overpopulated and ecologically punch-drunk planet. I figure that if every woman in every country anywhere was immediately limited to one child only, ever, we'd still probably crash and burn in the next few decades.

Things You Might Not Know About Me, #2: I truly believe that the human race is collectively a disfunctional idiot egotist, that we have stuffed up our planet to the point where it is highly unlikely to continue to support us, and that we're headed for some kind of godalmighty crash in the next few decades. I try not to let this depress me too much, but it's uphill work.

Planet hopping

[(Anonymous)]

That is why we have to figure out how to make other planets habitable!
I also try not to think about how we've stuffed up this one - and I think it's getting worse and worse. I think the world we live in now, politically and economically, is a hell of a lot scarier and more dystopian than I expected.

On the funky side though ... Rocket Racing!! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4307538.stm)

-stacey

[(Anonymous)]

I don't wear makeup because I can't be bothered. I never actually started doing it - although I have worn makeup on isolated occasions in the past, and really not enjoyed scraping it all off afterwards. I went through an all-colours-of-the-rainbow nailpolish phase, but eventually lost interest because it takes a long time to dry, and it goes lumpy when the solvent evaporates from the bottle, and if you leave it for a few days you get chips and pink roots.

I appreciate the Goth subculture because of its reasonably egalitarian standards of attractiveness. It really sucks that half of the population has been reduced by recent societal convention to looking boring and functional, and it's nice that *somebody* is carrying the torch for male beauty.

As for the "unauthorised reproduction" draft, which I have been following with morbid fascination, what gets me most is not the stupid criteria being discussed, or the obvious folly in letting conservative nutcases control who is allowed to breed, but the stunning hypocrisy and lack of logic in introducing draconian laws to restrict *assisted* reproduction, while letting people who happen to be able to manufacture spawn without medical help do whatever they like, no matter what awful, unfit parents they might be. WTF?

[(Anonymous)]

And that was me, Confluence. I am a spaz.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Are not! a moment's inattention is not spazworthy. I do it myself at times. Copy your comment text, delete the comment, and repost with attribution. Cheating is occasionally legitimate :>.

So with you on the "unauthorised reproduction" comment. What they should be doing, in my possibly fascist view, is restricting reproduction by any means, (a) to an upper limit for all, say 2, and (b) particularly for people who cannot adequately house, feed, clothe, educate and nurture a child (i.e. the British government teen-mother support scheme has it precisely backwards. Those kids should be getting contraception, not houses). Those who are looking to artificial means of reproduction are presumably the ones with the money and education, anyway, and therefore more likely to be good parents.

Human race, logic - it's been a bad break-up.

[rumint.livejournal.com]

"unauthorised reproduction" a class B offense...words fail.

I'm starting to think of cyberpunk as a relatively utopian future compared to what we're getting.

[ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Cyber was at least a neo-80s. What we're getting, worldwide - tweeness turned deadly, or alternately heart-o-darkness irredentism - is more like a neo-Edwardianism. When spats come back in and our leaders all sign a new Kellog-Briand Pact, I'm buying a flak vest and a bunker.

the usual offbeat perspective

[(Anonymous)]

I like wearing makeup. Not always, but when I'm putting on a "public" face, and I certainly don't wear a lot or worry much about it after I've put it on.

But for me it's not a feminist thing because I like both women and men in makeup. I have a thing for women's lower lips, so a pouty lower lip with gloss on it is A Good Thing in my book. I also think Eddie Izzard looks incredibly good in makeup. And then there's Lawrence Gowan's eyeliner...subtle, and probably just stage makeup, but it works for me. (Then again, anything Lawrence works for me, so I'll stop rambling now.)

I also have a big "Do Whatever Makes You Happy" philosophy. I like the dressing up thing sometimes, but most times I just can't be bothered.

Hugs,
Dayle/Rhieinwen

good, bad and oh my god

[(Anonymous)]

I like make-up. I like the ability it has to make me feel more civilised on bad mornings, and more glamorous on good evenings. I like men who feel able to play around with it (Eddie Izzard and a couple of guys I've known). Then again, I hardly ever wear more than a slap of lipstick (which wears off and doesn't get replenished), and I like that I have the freedom to do that within my work/social environment. And I think Naomi Klein should be required reading for every teenager, just to ensure they realise that it's not as simple as they might think.

As for unauthorised reproduction, world to hell in handbasket etc... I am reminded of a certain Johannesburg idiot who wrote to the newspapers (Star, Citizen) almost every day, spouting forth on - mostly - the evils of what he was pleased to call "gay abandon". The one that really made me see red (and, uncharacteristically, write a response) was when he attacked gay adoption, arguing for the protection of the poor little kiddies. Logic was singularly absent: prospective adopters, after all, have to demonstrate their suitability as parents. Natural breeders, not so much. Gah, seethe, etc.

There seems to be quite a discussion in UK right now about the falling birth rate, and what a supposed problem it is. (We must protect our gene pool! Don't let the world be taken over by brown people!) Amazing how little argument there is with the notion that it is a problem at all, given huge existing burden on planet.

Must stop ranting, or at least embark on writing proper, connecting sentences. Too busy and tired for latter. Will fulfil former.

scroob

Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize

[(Anonymous)]

Make up for me is something I enjoy doing for special occasions. I wear make-up far more often than I shave my legs (things you didn't know and probably didn't want to know about me #1 !!).

If I am going to something special, i.e. evening dress / formal or just really important, I wear make-up. I ALWAYS wear it for formal occasions, because for me, I'm not formally dressed without it.

So for me it's part of a dress-up thing. I've never really thought about it as a feminist issue - except to feel sorry for guys who don't get to have the fun of doing it while still being acceptable in a conventional way.

Then again, I have long suspected that I am, at heart, a picket fence girl :). If I could just figure out how to have 2.07 kids ... maybe I could time-share one of them.....

-stace

Re: Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

See, now, here's the problem. All three of you (Dayle, scroob, stace) are tough-minded women of considerable force of character who enjoy wearing make-up and have re-defined it personally as an act of self-confidence, self-liking, glamour, whatever. All three of you define it more or less as "not a feminist thing." I respect you all, but I don't actually agree with you.

I can't help wondering if you're not thinking deeply enough about it, and if it ought to be "a feminist thing". How far is that self-definition of make-up a result of gods know how many centuries of basically male-dominated culture inculcating the notion of "femininity" as desirable? When you get down to it, the basic function of make-up is sexual display, i.e. to make you look more desirable, mostly to men. (I actually don't know how far lesbians wear make-up for each other, it would be an interesting sidelight on the issue). Attempting to reclaim that as making yourself feel more glamorous doesn't do anything except try to disguise the fact that it's a male-related issue. Why should women's attractiveness to men be dependent on artificial beauty enhancements when men's attractiveness to women is not?

Even wearing make-up in work environments becomes problematical when you think of it in terms of women being socialised into a view of their competence for a job which depends entirely on (a) their looks, and (b) their conformity to a notion of femininity which is, once again, masculine. I'll be happier about work-place make-up when the notion of a man's competence for a job is judged not only by his suit, but by how he paints his face. (And, yes, I do like Goth culture for the more or less equal use of make-up across the gender divide, but you could also argue quite convincingly for an idea of male Goth physicality as including flirtation with the feminine aspect of identity, which could be seen as an intrinsic part of not only its socially transgressive nature, but its play with passivity).

I mean, hell, I like men, and sexual display is not always a bad thing, but personally I'd rather it didn't reside in a notion of "beauty" based on artificially enhancing superficial physicalities. As far as I'm concerned, sexual display has always been linguistic :>. Which is far more egalitarian.