Corsets, short hair and a word about "evil" sorority chicks

[Julie aka Viola]

Some interesting discussion going on here! ^_^

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Catherine Keegan
<keegan at m...> wrote:
> I got a laugh from one of the subject headers in
this morning's 
> download.  It had the title of corsetry and I
wondered Victorian or 
> Elizabethan?

And I thought it was in reference to the current,
possibly-Moulin Rouge-inspired fad for couture
corsets... some of which are absolutely gorgeous, but
I'm still too chicken to wear one. ^_^

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles"
<catlady at w...> wrote:
> I often wonder if I would have grown 
> up to be a different, more outgoing, less rebellious
person 
<<snip>>
> If I weren't so eager to avoid people, would I have
become a bookworm 
> and a [more or less] good student and a computer
pgmmer (maybe the 
> only job where one can hide in cubicle and avoid
going out on sales 
> pitches)? If not, who would I be? 

This is a really, really interesting question. 

My mother is an attractive woman, when she was young
she was considered beautiful. (I say she still is, but
she always shushes me and points out that she's over
50. Silly mummy.) She is also, and has always been,
painfully shy. A lot of her feelings about social
situations are similar to yours. She doesn't like the
unfamiliar, she doesn't like big social gatherings
because she feels awkward. I coaxed her out to a movie
theatre for the first time in ten years only because
she couldn't resist seeing LOTR on the big screen.

My mom, rather than feeling inferior about her looks,
feels inferior about her intelligence and education.
She doesn't like to socialize because she's a
stay-at-home wife/mother whose family couldn't afford
to send her to college, and she feels _that_ stigma.
(This is a woman, incidentally, who teaches school
part-time, writes charming short stories and regularly
kicks my and my Phd-student brother's respective asses
at Trivial Pursuit.) 

It makes me wonder about the pressures we put on women
in our society and how different women react to those
different pressures. 

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Pam Hugonnet
<pbarhug at e...> wrote:
> Oh, and Amy, it's always mustard on corned beef.  Do
otherwise and the
> deli-police will take you away  ;)

What about horseradish on corned beef? Or, in my case,
corned beef-style processed soy protein. Mmm.
Horseradish. On rye. Or, better yet, pastrami with
thousand island, coleslaw and melted swiss. Very
hungry now...

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Morrigan //Vicki//"
<morrigan at b...> wrote:
> Oh, and on the hair thing - I'd had long hair,
longer than mid-back, for
> nearly 10 years.  Two months ago I decided I'd had
enough.  I went to my
> hairdresser - who was beyond delighted, I might add
- and got it cut to
> chin-length.  I LOVE IT!!  

On short vs. long hair: when I was 19, I "chopped off
[my] crowning glory" and haven't looked back since. I
love short hair, not least because long blonde hair
has so many associated stereotypes in our society, but
also because short hair is fun, and fun to experiment
with. Of course, that led to my experimentation with
dying it auburn, but the less said about that the
better... ^_^;

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Starling"
<starling823 at y...> wrote:
> However, this has not caused me to become a sorority
chick (with all of the
> worst possible implications 

*tries to sit on hands to keep from pointing out that
most of her sorority sisters went on to earn master's
or other advanced degrees, and that most of them,
while attractive, are more than the sum of their lip
gloss, and fails utterly* Eep. ^_^;


As far as clothes fitting woes go, I used to think
that it was all part of some giant conspiracy to keep
us aspiring to be thinner and thinner. But last year I
got very sick and dropped from my usual 130-ish lbs.
to somewhere in the neighborhood of 110. On my 5'7"
body that put me just this side of Fiona Apple. ^_^
Shopping for clothes, I had the rude awakening that
even at a so-called 'ideal' weight, clothes just don't
fit correctly. All the same problems are there, just
in slightly smaller sizes.  I _still_ have to zip my
knee high Steve Madden boots up with needle-nose
pliers to make them fit correctly.

Oh, and swimsuits? Mossimo. Hands down. They're
sporty, indestructible and have mix-and-match pieces
designed for every body type. ^_^ 

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...>
wrote:
> (Tabouli, noting that no fellow fig-chested females
have joined her laments on list, wonders whether there
is some mysterious connection between cup size and
Harry Potter fandom.  >

*laughs* Tabouli, I'm with you. Actually, I'm
somewhere nicely in between fig and mango at 34b, but
I still have to dig out my Wonderbra for use under
clingy sweaters. Though 34b is, happily, the world's
most common bra size so I never have any trouble
finding nice/well-fitted bras.

-Julie


=====

Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termith it in his word mimesis, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth -- to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture; with this end, to teach and delight. -- Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, 1595


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