[miss_jane]

As I read through some of the threads about various aspects of beauty (cosmetic surgery, shaving, makeup etc) I noticed that the majority of them were distinctly not about the politics but about hints ands tips. I thought it would be useful and nice for busties to have a place to discuss the politics behind the "beauty myth" and hopefully clear some of our thoughts on it.

The type of topics that have been playing on my mind:

*Cosmetic Surgery
*The Removal of Body Hair
*Diets
*Makeup
*The Media's Attitude

Just to make everything clear I don't want this to become a place to attack busties who chose different ways of expressing their beauty.

So what are your thoughts? Can stereotypical beauty maintenance sit comfortably with feminist politics? Feminism is about a lot about choice for the individual, but is any choice (specifically about beauty) that a woman makes necessarily feminist? How difficult is it to stand up and fight the beauty myth?

As a side note : The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is the book that stemmed these thoughts in me and a few years own I still haven't cleared in my mind the way I feel about things.

[greenbean]

Lemme see if I can explain better: I think your image is more of a state of mind than actual looks. I think you can just tell when someone is being true to themselves and when they are just trying to fit in. For instance, take plastic surgury,..a lot of the women who go overboard with the fake boobs and the fake lips seem like vapid and sad slaves to our media's ideals....BUT someone like Dolly Parton doesnt seem that way to me. I mean, she looks silly but she is proudly a cartoonish, bawdy lady who is doesnt rely on her appearance, its just packaging on a self-assured, funny, smart, talented human being. Does that make sense?

also--stillvery, one of those high school guy friends was my boyfriend, and he was the most disturbed by my new look, because he loved that I was on noncomformist.

and ven--I could handle folks looking bad, tacky even, I just think in the suburbs there is more conformity, more Walmarts and more laziness. I'm just saying if youre gonna look tacky then be balls out john waters trash! If you are cheap then shop at the thrift store and go vintage, not Walmart-evil-boring blech. If youre fat, right on! Work it! Just dont be sedentary, its bad for the heart. If youre gonna be skinny, do it right, dont starve yourself, its not cute. etc etc