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From: K.Spagnolo@massey.ac.nz (Ken Spagnolo)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: female human aesthetics
Message-ID: <1990Nov16.041808.10465@massey.ac.nz>
Date: 16 Nov 90 16:41:29 GMT
References: <1990Nov13.074541.22400@athena.mit.edu>
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In article <1990Nov13.074541.22400@athena.mit.edu> rebecca@athena.mit.edu (Rebecca D Kaplan) writes:
>someone, i forget who, said
>| The fact is that even in a female-only env. (army, jail) most
>| women still try to look as beautiful as possible...
>
>Umh, how can i put this tactfully, umh, BULLSHIT.  I don't know who
>posted this, but i doubt that they have ever been in a women-only
>space.  I spent a summer living on army bases, even where it was coed,
>there was very little effort put into appearance, simply because it
>was impractical to impossible.  Have you heard of michigan womyn's
>music festival?  It's a gathering of 7,000 womyn for 5 days.  And at
>it, almost no one wears makeup, there are no mirrors.

I don't think its bullshit, though I can accept that the examples you
state don't support the theory, which I would state more generally as
"people don't dress to look good for members of the opposite sex, but
for members of their own".  This applies for men as well as women.
I'm not saying this points to who is at fault for the standards, but
for instance, the vast majority of men I've asked the question "Do you
prefer women wearing makeup?"  say they do not.  If this be true, then
why do women do it?  To live up to someone's standard, but not
necessarily men's.  A friend who wears no makeup went to a University
where she was a real minority.  So much pressure was put on her to
wear makeup that she actually started doing so, until she realized it
wasn't worth it and transferred.  She said she got no pressure from
men; it came entirely from other women (this was an American
university, btw).  I find this easy to believe, because, for most
people, lovers may be of the opposite sex, but the main peer group,
who exerts the most presure to conform, is not.  Same with the macho
male.  Men care mainly how they stack up in the minds of other men
That's who the competition is really with, even though the criteria
for judging may suck to the point that its counterproductive in
attracting the opposite sex.
--
Ken Spagnolo - Systems Programmer, Postmaster, Usenet Administrator, etc.
   Computer Centre, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
K.Spagnolo@massey.ac.nz  Phone: +64-63-69099 x8587  New Zealand = GMT+12