Personal is Political

In early October I stopped shaving my legs. I stopped for two reasons, the first being I broke up with the person I was seeing, the second being I kind of wanted to see how long I could go without doing it. I started when I was 13 and since then I've probably not gone more than three weeks without.

Now, almost six weeks later, I'm kind of disapointed that the hair seems to have stopped. Unless you're looking my ankles you probably can't tell I stopped, or you catch my legs in the right light. Quite frankly, it ain't much different. And I'm considering stopping altogether. This shall be my experiment for the winter.

While I suppose I've always known that shaving for women becomes a political issue, I was still shocked when I realized that's what it's become for me.

I know I said I would write about seeing Jean Kilbourne speak, but I just haven't been in the mood. Quick little blurb, she was good, but I wasn't blown away. Four days before seeing her live I saw (again) "Killing Us Softly 3". Before Dr. Kilbourne began her presentation she did warn us that it would be similar to the film, but it was nearly identical except, including the exact same jokes. I was disapointed. The reason she was in Winnipeg was for a conference the next day on tobacco and body image, but apparently that wasn't the subject of her talk at the University of Winnipeg (which was free).

All in all, while she does amazing work, I was not wowed by her in-person presentation skills. I realize she does this same talk over and over, but it would be nice if it could be jazzed up a little, at least don't recycle identical jokes. A couple of my class mates picked up her book. I hope to borrow it in the new year to see if it's good.