Also, never ask a girl with winged eyeliner why she's late. If I could say anything to my younger self, it would be this: you do not owe it to anyone to look a certain way. You don’t have to be sexy. You don’t have to be beautiful. You can just be you. The right ones will see your beauty without the accoutrements. They’ll see your heart, your smarts, your occasional snark. If you want to wear makeup, wear makeup. If you don’t, don’t. But all the power you think you have because makeup and a tight top are a siren song to predatory men—that, my dear, is a primrose path. Boy, do I ever have firsthand knowledge of that.
I love this. And you’re right about men. My sartorial philosophy: “If I can’t do it in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, what’s the point??” I like being comfortable. 😁
I am a hairdresser , 40 years behind the chair and wear make up everyday and very rarely go without it on weekends , it’s just part of me. My two daughters on the other hand despite my horror, go without it every day and are perfectly comfortable and functioning adults .
See, that's the way it should be. You like it and wear it; they see no need to. I'm definitely not against makeup, just the double standard of women feeling as though they MUST wear makeup or be beautiful or trip around in five-inch heels. You get attention that way, but not always the right kind of attention, and there's the rub.
Shit. You just triggered another Gary story. Sorry.
So, Robert A. Heinlein wrote a story, "Starship Troopers." This was about 1960 (the date is important.) It has been roundly disdained by many for its "rah-rah militarism," and with a fair amount of justification. And while that was certainly present in Heinlein himself (he was career Navy until a health crisis that was supposed to kill him forced him into retirement. He became a writer because he needed something to do, the fucker.) But that was just the external decoration for the real story. Two things happen in that story, and almost no one bothered to notice.
First, the central character, who rises through the ranks of the Interstellar Marines (hence, the book's title) pauses at some point in one of the breaks in combat during this massive interstellar war that Earth is involved in to discuss how, and what kinds of makeup he likes to wear. (I can only assume that Heinlein got some coaching from his wife on this one.) Obviously not during combat drops, times about base or out on the town, he had his favorite eye liners and such.
The second one? At the end of this rah-rah, "Sands of Iwo Jima" John Wayne war story, 3 pages from the end, Heinlein has the character look at himself in a mirror. And you discover that the central character is black. Samuel R. Delany read that and decided to become a writer. (A world in which race is so irrelevant that no one even notices; Delany is black, and in his own words it turned his world upside down.)
Unrelated to the above: why couldn't I have been born rich instead of good looking?
Way I figure it, a brilliant artist will set the dial just an inch forward. The rest of that artist's life might be shite, he/she/they might have a Chernobyl's worth of personal issues, but there's that one thing they did that nobody did up until that point. And that's Heinlein.
These days I describe him as a "failed libertarian." He explicitly embraces individualist philosophy, but his stories always placed community above all else.
Well, I'm still wearing makeup when I am in public (thank goodness for semi-permanent eyelashes, which *really* changed the game for lazy ladies like me), but I am no longer killing myself to be a size 0. It's a process...
Yes, thank you. We need more of this insight, women and men. It adds to our lives an extremely valuable commodity, inner peace. This in turn increases another, outer freedom.
I prefer 'roadkill' as appearance, it makes me see the story of the person more than the momentary advert.
And what are we trying to advertise?
I pondered on that years ago and the the insight I arrived at was: 'All we have is a fasade which tries desperately to express the state of our soul.'
I never understood makeup, never had any tutelage in it and have never used it successfully. This led to a diminished sense of self, balanced only by my innate understanding that the more-feminized anything is, the less-important it is. Thanks, society. 🤔
Hey, at least you got THAT message! Growing up first in So Cal, and then in Texas, we get two antithetical messages: one, women are second-class citizens, two, if you don't look hot, NOBODY will pay attention to you.
I love this. And you’re right about men. My sartorial philosophy: “If I can’t do it in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, what’s the point??” I like being comfortable. 😁
I've taken it a step further. I go beyond comfortable and aim for positively dissolute.
Which likely means no pants ;-)
Well, I do have to go outside occasionally ...
(But commando, baby!)
I am a hairdresser , 40 years behind the chair and wear make up everyday and very rarely go without it on weekends , it’s just part of me. My two daughters on the other hand despite my horror, go without it every day and are perfectly comfortable and functioning adults .
See, that's the way it should be. You like it and wear it; they see no need to. I'm definitely not against makeup, just the double standard of women feeling as though they MUST wear makeup or be beautiful or trip around in five-inch heels. You get attention that way, but not always the right kind of attention, and there's the rub.
Shit. You just triggered another Gary story. Sorry.
So, Robert A. Heinlein wrote a story, "Starship Troopers." This was about 1960 (the date is important.) It has been roundly disdained by many for its "rah-rah militarism," and with a fair amount of justification. And while that was certainly present in Heinlein himself (he was career Navy until a health crisis that was supposed to kill him forced him into retirement. He became a writer because he needed something to do, the fucker.) But that was just the external decoration for the real story. Two things happen in that story, and almost no one bothered to notice.
First, the central character, who rises through the ranks of the Interstellar Marines (hence, the book's title) pauses at some point in one of the breaks in combat during this massive interstellar war that Earth is involved in to discuss how, and what kinds of makeup he likes to wear. (I can only assume that Heinlein got some coaching from his wife on this one.) Obviously not during combat drops, times about base or out on the town, he had his favorite eye liners and such.
The second one? At the end of this rah-rah, "Sands of Iwo Jima" John Wayne war story, 3 pages from the end, Heinlein has the character look at himself in a mirror. And you discover that the central character is black. Samuel R. Delany read that and decided to become a writer. (A world in which race is so irrelevant that no one even notices; Delany is black, and in his own words it turned his world upside down.)
Unrelated to the above: why couldn't I have been born rich instead of good looking?
LOL! Gary stories are the best stories. LOVE me some Gary stories. Plus, they're always thought-inspiring, brilliantly written, and informative.
Heinlein was ... um .... complicated 🤔 but his exploration of sexual stereotypes in "I Will Fear No Evil" was mind-blowing for me, 45 years ago.
Way I figure it, a brilliant artist will set the dial just an inch forward. The rest of that artist's life might be shite, he/she/they might have a Chernobyl's worth of personal issues, but there's that one thing they did that nobody did up until that point. And that's Heinlein.
Not Woody Allen. Just Heinlein.
These days I describe him as a "failed libertarian." He explicitly embraces individualist philosophy, but his stories always placed community above all else.
Well, I'm still wearing makeup when I am in public (thank goodness for semi-permanent eyelashes, which *really* changed the game for lazy ladies like me), but I am no longer killing myself to be a size 0. It's a process...
If you're like me, you always find some size 0 jeans stuffed in a drawer somewhere and, marveling, ask yourself, was I ever really this small?
#truth
Yes, thank you. We need more of this insight, women and men. It adds to our lives an extremely valuable commodity, inner peace. This in turn increases another, outer freedom.
I prefer 'roadkill' as appearance, it makes me see the story of the person more than the momentary advert.
And what are we trying to advertise?
I pondered on that years ago and the the insight I arrived at was: 'All we have is a fasade which tries desperately to express the state of our soul.'
"Roadkill," in a size 40 waistband. Hell yeah!
I never understood makeup, never had any tutelage in it and have never used it successfully. This led to a diminished sense of self, balanced only by my innate understanding that the more-feminized anything is, the less-important it is. Thanks, society. 🤔
Hey, at least you got THAT message! Growing up first in So Cal, and then in Texas, we get two antithetical messages: one, women are second-class citizens, two, if you don't look hot, NOBODY will pay attention to you.