(no subject)

After almost two years on LJ, I have finally changed my color scheme. Go look! Got the images off stock.xchng.

Shopped like mad on Sat. and Sun. with fannishly and the boy. OMG I miss shopping so much! Well, I got to go a bit in Taiwan with my sister, too, but usually there is no shopping to be done here unless my mom or sister are visiting, given that the boy is bored to death when I do it. Bought lots of pretty stuff. Apparently I am very into light pink right now. Also found a nice sweater for my sister. I really like having a sister and a mom who are roughly my size, so I can just swap clothes with them. Although I swap clothes a lot more with my sister, since our tastes are a little more similar. And I was thinking, and I realized that for me shopping isn't just about going out and getting pretty new clothes. Well, a large part of it is, of course. But a lot of it is also time to hang out with my friends and talk and ogle over assorted pretty clothes and shoes or to make fun of whatever crazy fashion people have come up with. And it includes the periodic stops for snacks and juice and street food (if we're in Taiwan). I'm sure this is one of those "duh" moments, but I never really thought about it that way before.

Part of me has always been a little ashamed of being so very girly and liking all sorts of frivolous pretty things because I'm a bit frightened that it's anti-feminist. And in a lot of books, being tomboyish and unfeminine is equated with being feminist. I used to not be able to figure out how to reconcile it, but now I guess I can be very stridently feminist (and pretty vocal about it) without it having anything to do with liking cross-stitching or floopy clothes or whatnot. Plus, nothing ruins a good shopping trip more than body-image issues. I think when it goes well, it's a giant game in which the objective is not wishing that you could fit into whatever clothes are there, but to find clothes that make you feel good. So the whole point isn't going around wishing that you could fit in whatever clothes there are, but to go find whatever clothes look good on you. I forget this a lot when I go shopping, which leads to much bitching about why I can't lose weight or why I have those dreadful things known as hips or why my arms don't look good enough. Or something. There's always something. When I was fifteen pounds thinner in college, I still had all these issues! Which was ridiculous, because you could see my collarbone sticking out way too much. Must always remind myself to just go look for things that make me look pretty and that I like, like a-line skirts and the perfect pair of jeans. I like clothes that make me feel good about my body, and I like walking around thinking I look good, because I am vain like that.

And it is the best thing ever having a girlfriend near enough to hang out with! I love the boy and all, but as stated before, I am a very girly girl and he is not so much the kind of guy who likes to sit around and look at clothes and stuff. I always think it's so interesting seeing how many people on LJ comment on fandom being their first real experience being social with other women. I'm totally opposite -- I grew up in a very female society, with my mom and her friends always around, and while I like guys and enjoy hanging out with them, I never bond to the same degree as I do with a good girlfriend.