hello dudes

[hooveraardvark]

i recently started reading lj again, although not commenting, and embarrassingly it made me feel VERY PROUD, like i had ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING. I CLIMBED THE HILL THAT IS LIVEJOURNAL.

(i mostly stopped reading because at my former job i felt ok reading lj at work and at my current job i do not.)

but yes, i am mostly at tumblr these days, which

Comments

[myglock_yrface]

I'm glad you posted! If you ever need anyone to vent/talk to, don't hesitate to email me.

I feel like if I decided to do a fash blog (again) I want it to have something different going for it, as I have similar misgivings as you do.

[hooveraardvark]

aw, thanks hannah. i appreciate it.

it seems like fashion blogs now have to have a gimmick, a la the man repeller. i don't know. i like tights a LOT, but i'm not actually sure i can talk about them enough to fill up a blog.

i find them really interesting in a sociological way.

[hooveraardvark]

if you know of any that don't make you want to kill yourself, i'd love to check them out.

[myglock_yrface]

You probably know all th ones I still like...
fashionforestry
garbagedress
Julia's (http://alagarconniere.wordpress.com/)
Eline's
http://self-constructed-freak.blogspot.com/

[mmymoon]

Hahaha, half my livejournal lately has been filled with banal analyses of these very topics. Feminism versus fashion, ("Nooo, I am making a completely autonomous choice to do everything culture tells me to! Lipstick = EMPOWERMENTFUL!"), if fashion is even that important of a focus in the first place, fatshionistas versus body image (being chubby and NEVER having a problem with it, I am personally sick to death of fatshionistas, particularly the ~sexy~/cheesecake-y but when I tried to look up reasonable photos of post-reduction breasts and found nothing, I realized how powerful normalizing images can be for those WHO DO have body image issues) blah blah blah, etc. etc. etc

[mmymoon]

Which brackets? I uh, I got a little disjointed and rambly there.

I studied as a cultural anthropologist -- everything I like and dwell upon is pretty banal. ;9

I'm not sneering at the idea that lipstick can feel empowering, but at the absolute die-hard insistence a lot of people have that they're somehow making a complete autonomous social choice... that they are COMPLETELY UNAFFECTED by culture, and that lipstick/shaving/burlesque/looking-completely-normative-pretty is their own free will! I've read a lot of burlesque interviews that run along the lines of "Oh man, I discovered that when I look like a girly girl, everyone is nice to me! Tee-hee!"

I hear so much about "choice," but the reality is that it's not a "choice" if failure to comply = massive social shame. (Anyone who thinks that going braless/not shaving/etc. is really "not a big deal" should try doing it for a while. The fact is that most women cannot stand to give up normative beauty. Sure, they can dye their hair pink or get a tattoo or buy MAC products, but they

[verybadhorse]

hi!!!! i am glad you are here. i would love to know about your feeeeelings.

[hooveraardvark]

my feelings are very banal. i feel ashamed of them even as i feel them.

[mmymoon]

You know, you'd think I'd love them but I kind of SUPER HATE fashion goth blogs. Because they're all full of the same REALLY EXPENSIVE SHIT -- Fluevogs! BPAL! Corsets! BJDS! OMG! -- and absolutely none of that has anything with the sort of DIY/thrift-shop/make-do attitude that always was a backbone of the goth scene in the real world. I'd rather wear ratty old Old Navy clothes IN BLACK

[hooveraardvark]

yeah, i get really bored with fashion blogs because most of them really do fall into one of five or six different categories and they all like the same brands and designers and styles . . . so everything you see is the same and the same stuff gets reblogged on tumblr. and a lot of the hardcore thrifting blogs changed because they got sponsors and that means they got free expensive new clothes . . . which is good for them but not always great for the blog.

don't get me started on gala darling.

oh, i love clothes and i always will. i just don't really like most of the other people who also like clothes.

i read some of your posts and felt sad. :( i hope your medical problems finally get figured out! i actually had this freakish episode where this one doctor thought i was having a pulmonary reaction to one of my medications but it turned out to be nothing. this happened like three days before i went to india. ARGH.

[mmymoon]

HAHAHA YOU JUST WANT TO FASHION BLOG SO THE SPONSORS WILL FIND YOU TOO ;)

Oh please, oh pleaaaaaaaaaaase go off on Gala Darling! Please?

(My feelings for her were cemented when she trackbacked a link a friend of mine had on her boring, regular person livejournal and "LOL"ed our discussion of how she seemed forced. This was obviously back in the day when she was just a fledging "international superstar.")

oh, i love clothes and i always will. i just don't really like most of the other people who also like clothes.

Ahahah! And that's why I like you!

Don't feel sad for me! I AM OKAY! Or at least okay with my lot in life! MOSTLY! Although the doctor thing is kind of maddening. (I can't imagine how great "It's a HEART ATTACK! ... JK!" would be.) I've got all kinds of appointments coming up in the next few weeks, wheeeeee.... but yeah, I always worry I sound very depressing, like... a very pink Tiny Tim, hacking up into a little black hanky. But livejournal is for venting random crap!

[hooveraardvark]

yeah, gala darling is trying way, way too hard. also i tend to automatically dislike a blogger once they get rid of comments. i don't really get the point of blogging without any interactivity at all. i guess tumblr is kind of a step in that direction though.

i'm not depressed by your entries, i just want you to be well. i'll probably be whining a fair bit myself in the next few weeks.

[batarde]

HI
I AM GLAD WE ARE LIVEJOURNAL FRIENDS

[hooveraardvark]

HI ME TOO.

it's nice to randomly make a new lj friend through tumblr, it makes me think tumblr is less useless than i thought.

[batarde]

I think part of the reason I'm on tumblr so much (outside of its numbing and passive quality) is the amount of lj friends who are there and not here!
Let's bring back the livejournal!

[hooveraardvark]

a fair amount of my lj friends still post regularly, actually. it's not quite as dead as i thought. still, many people are just gone and i have no idea where they went! probably to facebook, but i'm not on there.