I've been reading Self made Man by Norah Vincent. The title of the book kind of gives it way, it is her story of passing as a man for a year. She joins a bowling team, gets a sales job and evens goes on a monastery retreat , as a man. Norah, as Ned, is trying to experience what life is like for men. How men see themselves and how they relate to each other. Ned goes on dates and Norah is shamed when she sees what a hard time women give men. Ned regards his date showing him a pack of photos as a hostile act. I think she was just trying to break the ice. What really surprised me/dismayed me was that the men she spoke to like their "women" (you know what I really mean) to be odourless, tasteless and clean.
That makes me mad. One of my pet hates are those adverts for deodorant tampons or feminine wipes. the underlying message of you smell down there. You can shower/bath every day but you are never gonna get that clean. it is outrageous. I've got a thing against applicator tampons for the same reason. To me it is saying :because you don't want to put your finger inside that do you - yuk! You might catch something!
To be fair I think the same thing may exist to men. However I've got this opinion from watching Sex and the City, so who knows how true it is. it seems that American women perfer their men circumcised, they believe it is cleaner. Seems a bit extreme to me. Isn't is easier just to wash. Perhaps there could be a market in masculine wipes?
5 comments:
It's good to read someone who shares my opinion! Have you been reading Germaine Greer?!
IT's the same with body hair - having hair on your legs or underarms is seen as disgusting and dirty and we are expected to be totally bald except on our heads. Pluck out stray facial hair, bleach it, shave it, wax it, epilate it! I'm not sure who's to blame though!
Hannah x
Hello Hannah,
I haven't read any Germaine, but durimg my formative years i worshipped Simone de beauvoir and read my Mum's copy of The mirror Within..
BTW I tried tp view your blog but got a restrcited message. I'll try not to take that personally ;0)
Hey Gina........You know, that was one of the insights of the book that really touched me too. I spent alot of time thinking about that.....I came to the conclusion that some men just can't seem to want /be able to cope with 'real women'..prefering the plastic (mouth not active)type. The saddest part of this chain of thought was how many women recognise this fact and enforce this steyotype thinking it is empowering to them because they are being thought of as attractive - viscious circle really. All that fake hair, fake tan, fake boobs, fake nails eeewwww.....It's BarbieLand.
I agree with the previous comment - the wonderful thing about the man I'm married to is that he tells me I'm beautiful first thing in the morning - pre shower, pre make up, pre hair straighteners! Madness!
PS - corrected blog problems, should be fine now!
Hannahx
Paula - you are so right about the fake hair and nails. I feel posh as I grow my own hair and nails.
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