(no subject)

[rhivolution]

...I wrote a long disclaimer for a post and now do not have the energy/spoons to write the post anymore.

Hate it when that happens. Saving the disclaimer to write the post another day. General synopsis: disconnect on personal (privileged) level regarding standards for women's clothing in UK, combined with own gender identity issues.

Also hate when the pharmacies close at 1 pm on Saturdays so I can't go get cough medicine. [sulks] Why are tissues so damn expensive here? It's not like other paper goods are pricey, and most other health/beauty products are reasonably or equally priced. (Except for contact solution, at which I am still boggling...£10 for 240 mL?)

Comments

[rhivolution]

My personal experience is that day-to-day attire, even casually, for younger women here is chockful of skirts and leggings and other stuff-Rhi-is-not-prepared-to-wear-in-crap-weather, as well as far more makeup than I'm used to seeing. It's much more de rigueur than what I'm used to...and I had that experience both in Birmingham and here in Glasgow. An English friend on my postgrad course who had lived and worked for a year in British Columbia noticed it as well.

But this divide may very well be regional and personal experience based--I went from Smith back to the US Midwest, and neither was particularly fashion-forward. I feel like the Womany expectations are higher than anything I've ever experienced, though.

[littlebutfierce]

Ah. Well, New Yorkers are prepared to wear anything in any weather as long as it's cute. I mean, obviously there are lots of women who aren't like that, but there are tons who are. So maybe I'm just used to seeing that sort of thing?

Also, MA & WI are colder than NYC, so yeah, I'm assuming you're much more used to super-bundling-up than I am (though I still bundle!). Plus now that I have discovered layering thin sporty long johns under tights, I feel freer to wear skirts when it's cold, hahaha.

What surprises me is how many women seem to be into fake tanner. I've never met so many who used it before, nor been privy to so many convos at work about it. One of my coworkers used to come in w/it on before going to fancy parties or on holiday, & we'd laugh at her b/c she somehow always missed spots--really obvious big spots, like she'd have a big swathe on her upper arm that wasn't orangey-fake but pale, & she'd be like, wtf, was I drunk when I did this???

I feel like the Womany expectations are high here, too--obviously there is a lot of that in NYC, but there's also so much more diversity, in general but specifically in terms of gender presentation, there, so... it is easier to ignore the Womany stuff at home if I want to, or choose something else. Whereas here it's kind of like Womany & I Can't Be Bothered But Still Womany By Default.

[futuransky]

That's interesting and doesn't surprise me, though it's not something I noticed particularly -- probably because goes against my personal fashion/gender presentation trajectory. When I lived in the UK I wore mostly vintage and art-studentish clothes, very rarely skirts, and now I dress more "professionally"/conventionally and more femme and wear skirts several times a week. California has its own particularities, of course... But with the exception of my now knowing how to dress for hot weather, I still feel that my fashion sense makes more sense in the UK than it does here even after almost 5 years.

I do notice that the UK stores I can afford to shop in are only really the 'fast fashion' ones, where the clothes are really of the moment and often full of stuff I can't possibly imagine myself wearing. There doesn't seem to be the equivalent of, say, Old Navy in the US for cheap basics, and I bet that contributes to the femininity-pressure you're feeling a well.

[rhivolution]

Yeah, that's very true about the whole inexpensive basics thing, definitely. It's also on a professional level as well--even in media land, which is SO casual in the UK outside the BBC, it's all about the skirts and 80s redux style.