How many of you shave? I was reading an article my friend wrote and she brought up a whole lot of good points. I dont want to twist words, so this is what she wrote. in a materialistic, youth-crazed culture, none of us are allowed to be as we are. truly. have you never wondered what you would look like without all the addons, extensions, replacements, paint/dye/trim/pluck etc jobs? we have been ROBBED OF OUR WOMANHOOD! "wrinkles are ugly", they say to us. who are they???? who is it that is telling you to inject yourself with toxins to appear younger? who is it that tells us to hide our faces behind masks of makeup? what drives us to prick ourselves with needles, allow incisions to be made and our faces changed forever, to look in the mirror and sigh because we don't look as we did when we were 16? perverts!!!!!!! we are catering to lowlifes who are enslaving us into some lofty unachievable, fake idea of beauty! they want children in their beds! "hair on a woman is disgusting". who are you to tell me not to wear my hair that is my birthright? NAZIS shaved the heads and bodies of the jews. it was a way of degrading them. it was a control and terror tactic. i was born with hair! all over me! certainly it has gotten darker and thicker as i grew older. it, if given the chance, is a lush garden, each hair truly alive. it is a sign of adulthood. in cultures around the world adulthood and even old age is revered, looked upon with admiration. it means you are strong, you have survived, you will survive. you are one to be respected. but this world, led by the strange "rape" mentality that has taken over like a virus, sees women (and people in general- in fact, everything is supposed to be "dead") as objects. today i went online to the penthouse website. there was a picture of laughing men in a semicircle, and one woman. or rather, her ass, bent over, with a glass placed on top of it like she was nothing more than a holder for their brandy glass, a receptacle for their sperm, an object.. i am outraged. i am only one woman. i cannot change the world- i learned this years ago. but by the grace of the goddess and god, i am ONE WOMAN. and i can change mySELF. i don't need you to look at me and think "sex". i likely do not want to have sex with you. sex is ultimately an expression of love. if you loved me, you would love me as i am. i don't need your validation to tell me i am worth a glance. i am worth more than that, and even if you never know it, i will never care, because I know i am sexy. I know i am beautiful, because the DIVINE made the natural world, and i cannot look upon anything she/he/it has made without recognizing it a beautiful. in its natural, purest state. if you cannot as well, perhaps you may want to question whether or not you have been warped by our culture. the DIVINE made me. I am DIVINE. it is my RIGHT to be as i am made. hairy legs and brows, long hair or bald if i want. barefoot and dirty or clean and dry, i am still worthy of your affection, your attention, your kindness, your love... your opinion of my looks need not determine them. the warped opinions beaten into us by even the most entertaining and mind-opening books, movies, lectures and messages, are only that- opinions. i am no different than a man. i think no different, and given a chance to be myself without gender roles forced upon me, gender determines NONE of my character traits. yet even those in the media who claim to want to empower us fall prey to stereotyping and make their message a mockery. example: tyra banks and her "so what" movement. yet she tells "america's next top models" they're too fat, too this, too that. perfectly plucked, masked, skinny, weaved, prada'd, gucci'd tyra banks says "so what" and shakes her nonexistent flab, directly after telling crying "fat" girls to lose weight. what a joke it would be- if it was funny. fuck you, tyra. fuck you, warped sense of beauty. fuck you, small place inside myself that *just wants to fit in* whatever the cost to my soul. let us welcome the dawning of the new era in a new way. an ENTIRELY new way. an age that rather than trying to remodel, tries to truly understand what it has been remodeling-- without killing or dissecting it. yes, it is possible. i believe that to truly gain an understanding of a tree, you must be with it in life. once you chop it down, it is deap. it has gone from here. what is there to understand? in all our hundreds of years of dissecting, experimenting, poking, prodding, torturing, we still can't figure out how that one little seed contains all the genetic structure for a tree. or how to reproduce LIFE. all we have learned in out hundreds of years of science is that there are a billion stars, a billion ways to die, a billion things to hurt you, a billion things that science will never explain. certainly you don't have to believe me. feel free to continue on as you always have. but i would like to ask you one favor before you go. will you grant me one wish? i ask you to look deep within, and ask yourself- are you happy? do you understand? when you fade away into death, will all of this "stuff" you've worked so hard to earn endure forever, or go to the nearest trash heap eventually? what will truly make you happy when you take your last breath? what will you have contributed to this world that has nurtured you other than more crap on the trash heap? ******************************************** this is my promise to myself: i swear to love myself. i will treat myself as a cherished child, a beloved friend, a dear relative, a lover betrothed. i will not put myself up on display. i will not force myself to suffer to make anyone else merely happy. i will age gracefully, and be beautiful as i am, and love myself no matter who i am. i will undertake a quest to learn who that truly is. i am not promising to you or anyone else i will never shave again. i may find it more convenient, more comfortable, more fun to shave later on. but for now, i do this because i want to. my message to you: kids, don't be just like me. just be yourself, and learn to love you. and by doing that, maybe you'll learn to one day love another. agree? disagree? share your thoughts
How nice I agree. WE are women and we are NOT objects and unworthy things to fling to men in lust or whatever their reasons are! Aging is a part of life and I believe women who let their hair get grey & let their wrinkles shine are absolutely beautiful. Michelle Pheiffer even said that people have lost the meaning of what beauty really is! I do shave my arms, basically I was getting gawked at and always felt uncomfy. Im letting it grow back out because the hell with what those rednecks think around here. I am italian and damn proud of my dark happy trail, dark & think head of hair, and hairy legs etc. Hair is very natural and lovely on a woman...it shows they accept themselves. Im not going to go wax it just to make someone else happy. Whatever I do, I do it for myself. Peace
ehhh... idealizing youth and young beauty doesnt make someone a pedophile i know what i look like without makeup, and i know what i look like with some. its my personal choice whether or not to wear it, and i respect her for having her opinion but just remember that it doesnt mean that opinion is right for everyoen (ie, choosing to shave or wear makeup now and then doesnt make you less divine or an object or buying into society or whatever)
It's been a journey gaining enough sence of self to be able to not care what other people think and just be who I want to be...and that's a natural GREEK woman...I don't need to pretent that I'm hairless- as some people are (well not hairless exactly but fair haired) it's just not who lots of people are, not who I am. I feel like it's taken a while, but I am finally starting to really look at myself and feel more feminine and beatiful when I have the hair I was born to have...Like I have not shaved in a long time because I just had this fundamental erk about doing it, and after researching the history of why western ladies started shaving it was just to degrading to keep it up- but now it's starting to feel really beautiful.. like if people want to be smooth and shaved, that's sweet for them. each to their own. But I really dig on keeping my hair.
oh no...not at all, I'm sorry if i gave that impression. I was just saying she brings up some valid points, and wanted to know how people felt. I do not frown on shaving or not shaving, it is everybody's decision for their own.
naw, i know -you- dont. just wanna be careful that yer friend doesnt try and impose her opinions on others, yknow? sometimes people geta little, um, vehement and heated about stuff like this
Oh, yeah, she does....I just thought she brought up some valid points. She claims to be a free-loving kind of person, but she is wrong...she's not a nice person, and i've been stabbed in the back many times by her. But, she does express herself well, i'll give her that much.
I will admit that if I do shave, it's so I don't piss off anyone. I've gone through long periods of hairyness, heh, but the thing that makes me uncomfortable most is making others uncomfortable. I don't like to be the center of attention, really. My thoughts and words are strange enough to anger people and I really am a natural pleaser. I don't follow most of society's standards because, as you said, they're essentially degrading bullshit but the government and society fucks us over in so many ways that I'd much rather focus on bigger battles rather than anger someone in a first impression with my beloved body hair. I guess I really would just rather people hear what I had to say by talking to me or reading what I write.
Sorry to interrupt, just passing though and thought I’d share one man’s point of view on the matter. You may be too young to remember but Maybelline, I believe it was, use to run a full page ad filled with before and after photos of faces with and without makeup and I always thought that the before was prettier than the after. It would show, say a woman with the prettiest freckles and then they were all gone, like that was a good thing, and with them all the character of the face and all the after photos looked more like mannequins than real people. I think people forget that makeup was designed for the stage, so that you can see facial features from a long way off, but up close it looks like clown makeup. Now as for shaving as was said, it’s a personal decision but please keep in mind that sleeping with someone who shaves is like sleeping with a power sander, if they have day old stubble. While shaved legs, again, can be nice to look at from across the room, many times they’re no fun to sleep with! So, I prefer unshaved myself, makes it easier just to jump in bed and snuggle.
I've never been able to understand why people want to cover up their freckles. I've always found freckles to be gorgeous.
i agree. especially when they show through even more during the summer time. i know red heads who try desperately to cover their freckles...and in return they just look like a cake face. freckles are natural, therefore they're beautiful.
I have some freckles, and i used to hate them when i was younger, but now they are just there. I don't love them, but I don't mind them at all.
I shave because I like it better that way. I've gone without shaving and I just don't like the hairy feeling. I like the make-up I wear. I wear eyeshadow and mascara. I don't hide my face, I just enhance my eyes because I love them. It's not about the man being a pervert. Different strokes for different folks. Y'know?
I don't shave, but I do give myself routine trims. If I shave down there, then I'm miserable for a few days.
Some reason I read this thread (not much in the news today), but I thought you girls could use a male point of view. My girlfriend just shaved the other week after being bushy for a bit it looked so hot!!! Just from being a bush of hair to looking a sleek and sexy, a lot of it is you can see a vigina not just a bush of hair and it feels really nice on a clean shaven face. It looks hot to see different things when my GF has been shaven for a while it is cool and sexy to see some hair grow in for a while. About make up most of my GFs have never worn make up, I do think a little make up looks nice SOMETIMES, not clown paint but some high light around the eyes on an evening out looks classy and nice once in a while. I think it is about looking nice and making life fun and beautiful. It’s not about male dominated society fueled female repression. You guys that think it is all about male domination and all that whacked shit have fun being an old single lesbian. *Reality check* like men really force women to open beauty salons, go get wax jobs, shop for make up all after noon.
This sparks my interest as I'm an avid waxer. I love it, but I don't do it for you - I do it for myself. What bugs me about this is that people need to discuss this. Shouldn't we just be happy with ourselves regardless of image. If you wanna be hairy, go for it. If you wanna wax your hoo-ha or legs, fine, but don't make comments that sound as if one is better than the other. Is being a liberal better than a conservative? Is being a feminist better than a chauvinist? All I'm saying is don't permit yourself to fall into the typical stereotype because you think it will help you conform. Do what is in your heart - not what your outer body reveals. Oh, and for the sandblaster comment, I suggest olive oil to soak up that mess. Christ, doesn't everyone know a little salad-cream will make the pricklies less tickly?
I'm not a dude - if indeed you are referencing WK. I can be, however, if you permit me to use leather and lube. I swingy both ways!
