I Like it When Girls Look Like Boys.

[Edit: really going to try to post more often. Really. No, really.]
 I want to talk about my personal struggle with traditional beauty ideals. Here is Agyness Deyn lookin' awfully schmexy all trussed up like the Rebel.

So James "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Not Exactly Better But I Can Still Do It" Franco did this photoshoot for Elle. Meh, whatever, cool photos, pretty ladies. I dig.

Continue reading after the jump:


Even pre-feminist awakening, I liked the concept of women dressed as men (or rather, what men are supposed to dress like). And my recent dive into gender studies has started literally bringing back childhood memories. I had all but totally forgotten about the three or so years leading up to high school when I insisted on getting a pixie cut, and was often mistaken for a boy. I recall being a "tomboy" at an early age, refusing to wear dresses, etc. And like most kids, I tried on plenty of different looks, experimented with my image in a variety of ways. And as I aged, and then hit puberty and went to high school (I was home-schooled up until that point), I was largely discouraged from my "boyish" ways and encouraged to be more traditionally feminine. I also, of my own accord, developed a passionate interest in make-up and its transforming effects. Partly due to my insecurity with my own looks and partly because it was a way to express myself artistically (it is only very recently that I have gotten comfortable going outside without concealer, foundation blush/bronzer on. Shockingly, my skin has improved now that it can actually, you know, breathe).
I’ve been a little conflicted of late. Sometimes I really want to butch it up, wear looser, more masculine clothing, but only if I’m appropriately femme’d out in some way (except for when I work out; prob the only time when I can’t give less of a shit if I look good or not). And the newly-minted feminist in me is all “You can wear whatever you want, it’s your choice, whether it be heels or cargo pants! Or both!” Which is true! But. Why is part of me still so desperate to be pleasing to the male eye? Why am I still so hung up on being conventionally pretty? I mean, I can’t be too tough on myself, as it’s normal to want to be considered attractive. I want to have my cake and eat it too(never understood that phrase...if I had cake, wouldn’t it be natural to eat it? Or is that a commentary on our society, that you can’t have everything you want? OHHHH.....anyway). It’s just fascinating to me that even I, someone who many patriarchy-deniers would consider a radical feminist, is still SO susceptible to influence when it comes to what I think about my own body and face. Which I think goes to show how seriously damaging and pervasive our current notions of a beauty ideal are. I know how much it damaged me as a young girl, and I’m only just now starting to get over it. We need to push back against this overwhelming wave of negative messages that are forced down our throats, our kids throats, our cousins’, friends’, nieces’, and so on. It’s everywhere you look and we have to make a dent in it; we are losing smart, talented young women to the endless cycle of self hatred and doubt that the beauty industry and traditional ideas of beauty propagate.

In short, I love seeing photo shoots like this, because, even though they’re of a skinny white blonde girl, they are something other than the norm.