Good late evening Travellers,

 

This image pretty much sums up the past few days. I would say it’s been a mixture of unscheduled storms and delays, non-walking mornings and a general sense of atmospheric moistness. Then combine all that with a sort of drive by accidental moodiness only reserved for PMS…but aren’t those puffy low clouds just wondrous looking?

Sorry not sorry to the men in the room, but any lady can tell you that for let’s say about a week out of every month, it feels as though your mind and body are not your own. I’ve had many unpleasant fleeting thoughts in the past two days, but we’ll talk about the trafficking your mind another time. Then there’s the fact that I feel so bloated, like a non-land mammal, I’m thinking, a beluga whale. The disconcerting part is always the fact that my clothing fits pretty much the same, but I feel swollen, and I feel like I look swollen, but my clothes say otherwise…it’s just the most unpleasant deep down disorientation..

And it’s been making me think about a few things with regards to the card carrying vagina members of this society…maybe it’s just the estrogen talking here, but…

On Tuesday night, my dear friend and I were discussing how much we do not like participating in the accepted practice that women have to wear make up if they are leaving their home. In order to be a professional at work or to be seen as being put together in public, you should be wearying make up. Women wear make up to take away dark circles, or pimples or whatever isn’t pleasing to look at..can we agree on that? It is the expectation, whether you are participating or not, that hangs over us like those clouds in the sky.

She then elaborated about how it made her feel when her two year old daughter watches her get ready for work and wants to mimic playing with her make up. And that her daughter is unwittingly learning that this is what women do. It’s like she’s initiating her daughter into a system that neither of us want to participate in, but pretty much have to. We have silently conceded to.

I always tend to wonder if the more make up you put on to hide imperfections isn’t somewhat endorsing a move further away from self acceptance. Some women say it’s an “enhancement” tool and that makes me want to ask, were you not enough before? Why are we not enough as we are? And I wear make up, don’t get me wrong, but on Sundays, I don’t and it took me quite awhile to get comfortable with that choice. And that really bothers me. Also, I don’t know many men who like women to wear make up so that suggests to me that the problem is coming from within the lady population.

Earlier tonight, I watched the series finale of “Jane the Virgin” which I think is one of the best shows I’ve seen on network television since I can remember when. And it’s a female centric story. In fact, several of my favorite shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” “Sex and the City” “Orphan Black” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” are all about strong women who inevitably figure out it’s themselves that they can really count on. AND most of these shows showcase female friendships that are more supportive relationships less competitive cat fight bullshit, which I think is one of the reasons I like all of them. I never really thought about that until now.

After the show was over, I was wandering around YouTube watching movie trailers  and came upon this series that Vogue does with models, “putting on their faces”. The ONE that struck me the most was Cindy Crawford who said how her husband doesn’t care for makeup and that women are really wearing it for other women.

Women are wearing it for other women. What does that mean? You mean to outdo other women? Or to armor up your insecurities inside so other women don’t see them? I mean let’s be honest, too many women together is not a good thing. Isn’t that sad? And can we change that?

Before you say it, yes, yes, there are make up artists. YouTube is exploding with them but the Jeffrey Stars of the world are using make up as medium, are they not? That’s not what I’m talking about…

What I’m talking about is why can’t women release each other from the grips of our shared insecurities?

Just that question, right there, can we take a moment and give that some deep down honest thinking…