[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]

speedy, I'm part Latina and I know what you mean. I think a lot of it is trying not to live up to a stereotype of being poor and nappy/dirty/tacky.
My mom (mexican-american) was always into white guys, and went to great lengths to look less "ethnic", which took a lot of grooming and products. I guess it was like, if you're pretty enough some white knight will pluck you from the barrio. And it worked for my mom, who is still happily married to my father (who loves her for more than her looks btw).