Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

Little seeds of shame and fear and competition were planted in our baby girl brains with every image they fed us. Now we claim the tools of oppression as tools of harmless girly fun.

Our continued participation in and defense of the beauty industry worries me. Women should be free to play with identity, beauty, and modification of their own bodies in whatever way they choose. I don't see any need to defend or preserve a corporate hyper-femininity that only limits women's exploration of the feminine spectrum. Beyond the industry's societal mindfuck, there are concerns like slave labor, the tons and tons of unnecessary waste it produces every day, and animal testing torture. Indulging in a system of capitalist patriarchal oppression for "our own pleasure" or "girly fun" is not feminist reclaiming. It's not even freedom to choose it for ourselves if we simply adhere, but never imagine or pose new challenges.

We'd rather play the games we know - woman against woman, woman against self.