This is what liberation looks like

[firecat]

In one form, anyway.

http://www.dressaday.com/2006/10/you-dont-have-to-be-pretty.html

(via various people on my friends list)

Comments

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

This is interesting. I have a short friends list, so that I won't spend all day reading live journal, but two of you have posted this link.

As a teenager I felt very strong ambivalence about "pretty". I was not pretty, but I didn't feel like lifting a finger to learn about makeup and clothes -- maybe I wanted "natural" beauty and felt that the kind you work for isn't worth anything? At the same time, I felt a great deal of anger at society/peers/THEM for insisting that I be pretty.

Anyway, it turned out that sex was the cure for all that fretting. It also helped to go away to college in a part of the country where I was "exotic" rather than "ugly". I almost never think about it now, although I am vain about my appearance in my own fashion.

[bookofnights.livejournal.com]

Interesting and synchronistic that I was just exploring this concept today. Where did I get the idea that I want to be pretty? Why did it become important to me? Why do I let the fact that I'm not pretty, crush me?

[opus119.livejournal.com]

Even though the article seemed to be aimed at women, it really spoke to me and the way I choose to live now. As I've gotten older, I've gotten less interested in trying to "look good" all the time. I'll just wear what's comfy now. It makes me stand out like a weirdo, but I hardly care any more.