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. :)

[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.

[(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?

[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.

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