Posts Tagged: pretty

Reader Request: Internal Style Conflicts

by Sally on in the category: body image, proportion, style

What do you do when your dressing preferences clash with expert recommendations for flattering your figure?

Reader Sarah e-mailed this request to me:

I’m short and small-boned and hourglass-shaped, and I can find lots of advice for dressing that body type (full skirts, v-necks, nipped waists, tailored pants, etc.). However, I feel like there’s a clash between my body type and other elements: my face (apple-cheeked, not conventionally pretty), my hair (very short), and my personality (tomboyish, casual). When I wear skirts and dresses, which I do think suit my body, I feel very self-conscious, like I don’t match what I’m wearing. Clothes that I feel more like myself in (bootcut jeans, casual graphic tees) do not make me look my best. I wonder if other women struggle with this type of conflict, and how they deal with it. read more

Originally posted 2013-07-31 06:05:30.

Reader Request: Smart vs. Pretty

by Sally on in the category: body image, feminism, psychology, reader requests, style

Reader Judy sent me this request via e-mail:

One of my fellow engineering students made the comment that girls in engineering are either “hot” and dumb, or really smart, socially awkward, and “ugly.” Upon remembering that I am, indeed, a girl, he babbled something about a happy medium, but the meaning was nonetheless clear. Time spent with power tools can limit my skirt and dress wearing, but I like to believe that I can be perceived as a woman, even an attractive woman, and also as competent and intelligent. read more

Originally posted 2011-08-09 06:22:31.

In Defense of Pretty

by Sally on in the category: body image

I love this poem and its amazing author. I’ve watched this video more times than I can count, and it stirs me every single time. This poem challenges the pervasive notion that women must do everything in their power to look as pretty as possible. At all times and at any cost – be it financial, personal, or emotional. Which is, as you all know, utter bullshit.

Before my blog even existed, Erin wrote this amazing post, in which she points out that no woman alive “owes” the world any amount of beautification, but also points out that pretty CAN be a choice. She says (italics her original): read more

Originally posted 2011-01-06 06:15:06.