Girly

There are sometimes I enjoy a good (or a bad) chick flick, or chick lit book. I love reading Marian Keyes, and watching many of those older Meg Ryan movies. I like wearing sundresses in warm weather. I like the color purple an awful lot, although lately not as much as burnt orange. I like to knit, to sew, and to cook. But there are sometimes nonetheless when I feel that my girly card should be revoked.

I spend less time in the bathroom than my husband, for one. I am a very wash and wear kind of a girl. I only use a hairdryer during cold snaps when I'm feverish (meaning less than once a year.) My summer dress shoes are birks, and I hate heels. I like to play video games (though the ones I play tend towards the gender neutral.) I don't even have a wedding or engagement ring at the moment. We got married a bit quickly, and as time went on, I begain to think it was kind of cool not having rings. It's almost like the relationship is so important we don't need posessions to symbolize it.

One of the things that probably sets me aside the most is my beauty regimen. I wear lipstick sometimes, but very little else by way of makeup. When I was eloping in January, I went to Sephora to get a new lipstick for the occaision, and they tried to get me to buy a lot more; powder, foundation, blusher. I felt so fake with the stuff on, and knew I probably wouldn't wear it again before it expired, so I passed. However, since it was free, they did sign me up for their rewards program. This means that on a weekly basis I get email reminders about what I'm not interested in buying, and special offers on stuff I don't use. Occaisionally I see a sunscreen or a lipgloss, but overall, I'm just a big 'ole tomboy, I guess.

Sometimes I wonder a little, though, how deep this gender idea has permeated. How many more grown women out there would prefer not to wear makeup? How many like me only wear the stuff for job interviews and family weddings? How many of you all feel beautiful without makeup, like I do, or just feel frustrated with the upkeep, which is part of my problem as well?

Some of this does go back to my memories of watching my mother put on her makeup daily, spending 20 minutes or more with the foundation, eyeliner, powder, and all that, and thinking to myself at the end of it, she looks exactly like she did before she put the makeup on!

I can enjoy, just as much as the next girl, looking extra pretty in a nice shade of dark lipstick, but I also am a little distressed at a culture that convinces so many of its women that we aren't pretty enough without all these little enhancements.