So proud! So unclear!

I had a shining moment of geektitude on the weekend when I decided it it pointless to keep a shopping list on the white board on the fridge if I don't actually take it with me to the store. Not wanting to wander around with a small whiteboard tucked under my arm, never mind the fact that the ink would all smear off all over everything, I took a picture of it with my Treo. Then, once at the store, I was able to consult my list by viewing my photograph. It worked out perfectly and I was so proud of myself.

When I first got my Treo I actually attempted to make use of a shopping list application, but what a pain. So much easier to do the initial input using a human/reality based technology and then digitize it for ease of use.

Completely unrelated, I had more thoughts on the nature of conspicuous femininity. Which is that maybe many women who dress in a conspicuously traditional feminine style are doing so because they are following traditional convention. Which is that if you are a female you should look female. Different cultures have different interpretations of this. A fellow school parent is always demurely feminine, sweater sets, neat unobtrusive makeup, coiffed hair. She hangs with a group of similar women at our coffee shop. They are all happening women, make no mistake, but are maybe a little conservative in their outlook too. Conservatives like authority and tradition, so maybe that is why they follow the traditional female look for their set. Not that they want to project any kind of image; they just feel more comfortable in the uniform than out of it.

For other cultures, and what comes to mind for me is the perfectly brilliant yet slutty looking women on the Spanish language channels, there are different looks. Perhaps for their culture, gobs of makeup and revealing clothes is what feminine is all about. They have no intention of looking like street walkers; they're just wearing the uniform. Progressive, successful, all woman. This is what she looks like.

Or maybe it's just me; I'm stuck in some prolonged state of preadolescence where I want to stay hidden in ambiguity and visual androgyny. Why work to define new visions of the feminine when you can discretely opt out? You can glorify your femininity or you can just go dig in the garden.

Comments

[Jo]

It just seems like too damn much work to me. And yeah, I think it's a display to please the opposite sex, most of the time, and it makes me feel ill. Not that women shouldn't dress up and look professional, but pandering to the tits and ass thing is self-abasing in my view. I'm an old-style feminist too.