I hear what you're saying and I agree with the main argument. The only thing I struggle with is the bit where stilettos, corsets and make-up are attributed to the patriarchy. Thinking about the women I know and live with, modern beauty culture seems to be much more of a self-contained, woman-regarding rather than man-regarding phenomenon? I'm not naive, of course many women do beauty in order to be attractive to men. But there are also aspects of female beauty culture that seem to be much more about intra-gender status than male desire. Nails, piercings and some types of obvious cosmetic surgery, for example. These things are a mystery to me.
I'm implicitly claiming here to be a reasonably representative man, with no proof except what I've observed from myself and women, girls, men and boys around me.
I only make this point because it's important to untangle what women are imposing on themselves because of pressure from the patriarchy, and what part of that social pressure might be either class signalling or just a baseline level of social pressure thats harder to shift.
I hear what you're saying and I agree with the main argument. The only thing I struggle with is the bit where stilettos, corsets and make-up are attributed to the patriarchy. Thinking about the women I know and live with, modern beauty culture seems to be much more of a self-contained, woman-regarding rather than man-regarding phenomenon? I'm not naive, of course many women do beauty in order to be attractive to men. But there are also aspects of female beauty culture that seem to be much more about intra-gender status than male desire. Nails, piercings and some types of obvious cosmetic surgery, for example. These things are a mystery to me.
I'm implicitly claiming here to be a reasonably representative man, with no proof except what I've observed from myself and women, girls, men and boys around me.
I only make this point because it's important to untangle what women are imposing on themselves because of pressure from the patriarchy, and what part of that social pressure might be either class signalling or just a baseline level of social pressure thats harder to shift.
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