I Has Grooming Habits, Acting Out Edition!
I do!
You know how there's this huge stereotype about feminists being man-hating, hairy-legged moustachieod fat butches with unshaven armpits, right? OK, that stereotype mostly died out by the 80's. Nonetheless, I know some people still buy it.
And then there's the stereotype about how the feminine women who pays any amount of attention to her grooming habit is just a colluder of the Patriarchy. Or that women create their own problems by buying into the superficiality of appearances and blablabla. I wrote about it at length here. (I also just had an argument on the Redux Edition about whether or not the Patriarchy exists and I was told that women are the ones who do the most oppressing. Don't ask me how this works.)
There are things which are, dare I say it, stereotypically girly that, dare I say it, I actually do.
And because I am particularly proud of my own femininity, I shall now catalogue my particular grooming habits, to the best of my knowledge, although some of these habits may sound absolutely re-donk-u-lous to you, because they are, after all, so pointless and shallow and oppressive and why do I ever buy into this idea that being pretty means anything?
Warning: Complete Self Absorption Ahead!
Habit #1: I shave my armpits.
But not my legs. I don't have to shave my legs (yes, I bask in your hate!) which are, oddly enough, inherited from my dad. I have silky-smooth legs. But I do shave my armpits. I haven't shaved them since February, but that's because it's been winter and I haven't been modeling, so I've felt no need to shave them. But I do shave them for purely aesthetic purposes, indeedy-do.
Habit #2: I compulsively buy shampoo and conditioner.
I do! I didn't for a while because I cut my hair short, but I used to have loooong hair, which used to touch the back of my thighs. I used two bottles of conditioner for every bottle of shampoo! So because I was living on my own and not using stuff from my mum's shop, I felt I could and should experiment with all the range of products available to me to see what I like best. At any one time there is at least one extra bottle of shampoo AND conditioner (none of that 2-in-1 crap for me, that's contradictory, shampoo rips gunk from your scalp and conditioner replenishes gunk in your scalp, so 2-in-1s are like ripping your eyes out so you see better) in my washroom cabinet.
Habit #3: I trim or otherwise completely remove my pubic hair.
This subject is often fraught, I know, I've been involved in three productions of the Vagina Monologues. Admittedly, this is ONE grooming habit I have which I perform for a practical purpose: when my Venus mound gets too hairy, discharge or menstrual gunk occasionally gets stuck and dried and performs as a glue between pubes and panties. Try peeing in a hurry then.
Habit #4: I dig heels.
And sometimes wear them around the house to practise dancing in them. Especially to Kristy McColl's In These Shoes? because it pleases me. I don't wear anything beyond two inches because I haven't gotten to that point and I don't want to accidentally die, but I do love the line of my legs when wearing heels.
Habit #5: I wear makeup. Sometimes.
I learnt how to wear makeup from watching What Not To Wear. I can put on my face in less time than it takes for my brother to shower. Usually it's just blush, lipliner (which I use to colour my whole lips), eyeliner. I don't do it everyday, of course, because my skin is naturally beautiful and I like to keep it that way. I go the full shebang when I model. Yes, foundation and all. Recently spent RM150 on foundation at Shu Uemera (there's no Shu Uemera in Canada). When I wear the full shebang, my fabness cannot be countenanced. OK, OK, it can.
Habit #6: I buy specific facial wash product.
Namely, ZA, Future Defense Cleansing Foam or Facial Cleansing Foam. I cannot find these products in Canada, so I make sure I buy a couple of tubes whenever I go home to Malaysia. I use the Cleansing Foaming Gel for makeup removal (after wiping off most of it with a facial cleansing towel), which is way more heavy-duty. When I run out of these, I seek out substitutes, but they are usually poor compared to ZA! (Also, when my brother last came to visit me, he was supposed to bring me a tube, and he forgot, and still he kept using my ZA cleanser! And he used a LOT! In the shower! How rude! When I was home and bought my own, he also used it! How rude! Why can't he get his own!)
Habit #7: I pull at my lashes to get rid of stray ones.
OK, I actually don't do this for aesthetic nor practical purposes. I do it because occasionally I get itchy-fingered and my lashes feel a bit weird and pulling at them to get rid of the few that're loose really helps me feel better. It's a tiny thing which doesn't actually affect anything overall, but I thought I'd mention it.
So, my wonderful audience, I encourage you to also share your completely self-absorbed grooming habits!
p.s. ZA is available in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hawaii...... but NOT VANCOUVER?! I call foul! T_T
You know how there's this huge stereotype about feminists being man-hating, hairy-legged moustachieod fat butches with unshaven armpits, right? OK, that stereotype mostly died out by the 80's. Nonetheless, I know some people still buy it.
And then there's the stereotype about how the feminine women who pays any amount of attention to her grooming habit is just a colluder of the Patriarchy. Or that women create their own problems by buying into the superficiality of appearances and blablabla. I wrote about it at length here. (I also just had an argument on the Redux Edition about whether or not the Patriarchy exists and I was told that women are the ones who do the most oppressing. Don't ask me how this works.)
There are things which are, dare I say it, stereotypically girly that, dare I say it, I actually do.
And because I am particularly proud of my own femininity, I shall now catalogue my particular grooming habits, to the best of my knowledge, although some of these habits may sound absolutely re-donk-u-lous to you, because they are, after all, so pointless and shallow and oppressive and why do I ever buy into this idea that being pretty means anything?
Warning: Complete Self Absorption Ahead!
Habit #1: I shave my armpits.
But not my legs. I don't have to shave my legs (yes, I bask in your hate!) which are, oddly enough, inherited from my dad. I have silky-smooth legs. But I do shave my armpits. I haven't shaved them since February, but that's because it's been winter and I haven't been modeling, so I've felt no need to shave them. But I do shave them for purely aesthetic purposes, indeedy-do.
Habit #2: I compulsively buy shampoo and conditioner.
I do! I didn't for a while because I cut my hair short, but I used to have loooong hair, which used to touch the back of my thighs. I used two bottles of conditioner for every bottle of shampoo! So because I was living on my own and not using stuff from my mum's shop, I felt I could and should experiment with all the range of products available to me to see what I like best. At any one time there is at least one extra bottle of shampoo AND conditioner (none of that 2-in-1 crap for me, that's contradictory, shampoo rips gunk from your scalp and conditioner replenishes gunk in your scalp, so 2-in-1s are like ripping your eyes out so you see better) in my washroom cabinet.
Habit #3: I trim or otherwise completely remove my pubic hair.
This subject is often fraught, I know, I've been involved in three productions of the Vagina Monologues. Admittedly, this is ONE grooming habit I have which I perform for a practical purpose: when my Venus mound gets too hairy, discharge or menstrual gunk occasionally gets stuck and dried and performs as a glue between pubes and panties. Try peeing in a hurry then.
Habit #4: I dig heels.
And sometimes wear them around the house to practise dancing in them. Especially to Kristy McColl's In These Shoes? because it pleases me. I don't wear anything beyond two inches because I haven't gotten to that point and I don't want to accidentally die, but I do love the line of my legs when wearing heels.
Habit #5: I wear makeup. Sometimes.
I learnt how to wear makeup from watching What Not To Wear. I can put on my face in less time than it takes for my brother to shower. Usually it's just blush, lipliner (which I use to colour my whole lips), eyeliner. I don't do it everyday, of course, because my skin is naturally beautiful and I like to keep it that way. I go the full shebang when I model. Yes, foundation and all. Recently spent RM150 on foundation at Shu Uemera (there's no Shu Uemera in Canada). When I wear the full shebang, my fabness cannot be countenanced. OK, OK, it can.
Habit #6: I buy specific facial wash product.
Namely, ZA, Future Defense Cleansing Foam or Facial Cleansing Foam. I cannot find these products in Canada, so I make sure I buy a couple of tubes whenever I go home to Malaysia. I use the Cleansing Foaming Gel for makeup removal (after wiping off most of it with a facial cleansing towel), which is way more heavy-duty. When I run out of these, I seek out substitutes, but they are usually poor compared to ZA! (Also, when my brother last came to visit me, he was supposed to bring me a tube, and he forgot, and still he kept using my ZA cleanser! And he used a LOT! In the shower! How rude! When I was home and bought my own, he also used it! How rude! Why can't he get his own!)
Habit #7: I pull at my lashes to get rid of stray ones.
OK, I actually don't do this for aesthetic nor practical purposes. I do it because occasionally I get itchy-fingered and my lashes feel a bit weird and pulling at them to get rid of the few that're loose really helps me feel better. It's a tiny thing which doesn't actually affect anything overall, but I thought I'd mention it.
So, my wonderful audience, I encourage you to also share your completely self-absorbed grooming habits!
p.s. ZA is available in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hawaii...... but NOT VANCOUVER?! I call foul! T_T
I have the same ones as you seemingly but I wear make-up more often as, although I'm perfectly comfortable not wearing make up, I tend to mess with my face when it's bare. Today I have only mascara on and that seems to have put a stop to my eyelash pulling (although I do pull the bottom mascara free lashes - is lash pulling OCD or something?) and I haven't touched my face so maybe there's some sort of psychology going on there. Also, I just love brightly coloured eyeshadow, I am perfectly happy wearing green, gold and purple all at once and do not see the point of the 'natural' look, surely looking natural involves no make up right?
ReplyDeleteI think my main 'girly' habit is my hair. I hate getting it cut, although I have just forked out GBP40 for a cut, it's all layers that I can happily razor myself rather than go to the hairdressers in the future. Colouring is my main thing with my hair, currently red but it can always be that bit brighter or that certain shade or I could just change it altogether.....I spend far too much time on hair.
Man, I do the same lash-pulling thing when I have mascara on too! I don't know if it's OCD either.
ReplyDeleteI used to spend a lot of money on colouring my hair myself. I quit after a while because I didn't have $80 to spend every other month anymore, and I was missing my natural black. I used to get a red/plum-layering combo.
OK, I come to close to the dreaded feminist stereotype who doesn't give a fuck about her looks. I don't like make-up very much, though sometimes I put on some sheer, faint rose red lipstick. Even then, I feel like I've done a little much on the war paint. When I want to look particularly gorgeous, I apply a moisture tint that 'brightens' my complexion. You see, I don't like to beautify myself and don't like the idea of being beautiful. I just want to look acceptable, at least in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI have mad, unruly hair. For a long time during my school years, my mum would say "oh, you'll look better if you straightened your hair". So I did, with dire consequences.
I used to wake up in morning with a new pimple and would apply concealer as routinely as I wear my underwear. As a result, for a loooong time, My self-esteem depended on the straightness of my hair and concealed pimple/popped pimple scar.
Now I have better control of my hair. Miraculously, after years of lion-taming my hair, it became less unruly though thick as hell. As for my complexion: birth control pills magicked away any kind of facial blemish. I love you, contraceptive pills.
I feel liberated from not wanting to use make-up to look complete when I go out. Though I do pluck my eyebrows to not look too neanderthal, and trim/epilate my pubic area so that it's nicer to the touch.