On body.
Unfortunately, they missed a point; they skipped my "awkward phase"
You know, those hell-like years of bullying before young girls learn how to "make themselves look enticing."
You want to know why I shave my legs? It's not because I want some strange man-figure to comment how sexy they look smooth.. it's because I don't want to remember the comments from middle school girls before I learned to hate that part of my body. . .
We learn to dress up because we were taught to fix ourselves. I know what's "wrong" with my body and what's "right" with my body and that if you play up your lips maybe they won't notice how your teeth don't fit just right.
Life is easier for people who more closely resemble socio-ceptable (u kno what I mean) beauty standards.
Why wouldn't we make life easier on ourselves?
As tween and teen, I learned that conforming to beauty standards at school made you less of a target to your peers -----
Not having sporadic hairs or blemishes on your face and body was of huge importance, along with: white teeth, straight teeth, long eyelashes, 5 billion other things and clothes that made you look thinner -- or curvier -- (depending on which direction you were born to be "wrong" in).
If you did not learn these things -- me -- the summer before middle school, I hope you too have silenced those creepy little voices in your conscious since.
During the same developmental years, I learned that conforming to societies beauty standards outside of school made you more of a target for men 18-80 commenting on how "grown up" you look.. at this point, making it through the school day without curling into a ball of crippling insecurity during math class is of the utmost importance and feeling a little bit uncomfortable about men on the street starts to feel "normal".
On top of that, it's okay to look sexy because U do want people to think you look sexy. This does not mean you want any shmuck who your look may be workin' on to touch u or make weird as fuck animal noises when you walk by.
So, I'm just gonna throw it out there that we don't glam up to get harassed, because harassment just ain't that much work to come by.
Ima wear what I'm feelin' myself in, however I'm feelin'.
Let it b. 👄
xx Monique
Ps.