[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.

[speedy]

Great thread! Some of the posts made me think that over the color line, the rules, if that's what they are, work a little differently. I'm generalizing broadly, of course, but: for black and Latin men (and some strata of Asian men), looking good is normal and expected. And not just looking good in terms of basic grooming and clean clothes, but having a style, being in vogue, and being conspicuously attractive. Of course it averages out to conformity in the end, but it's a masculine style that encourages, almost demands self-conscious beautification.
As a black guy, I've always marvelled at the divergent rules the men of different races live by. My white buds are baffled by (if not suspicious of) my devotion to clothes, grooming, fragrances, etc. But among other black and Latino men, I feel dowdy and undergroomed. I guess being too old and too square to wear Timberlands (I prefer Chippewas anyway!), I don't register as "dressed" at all to these guys, even in my handmade English shoes!

And of course, for black and Latin women, this idea of NOT aestheticizing oneself is damn near anathema. Any Busties of color on this thread? I'd love to get your two cents.