h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah so now I figure I show the world what I am made of. If anyone has a question concerning girls, ask away. I have been alerted by a certain person that it is unfair to say that girls are not to blame for things. Plus I thought it would be fun to see if any problems with girls actually exist, cause everyone knows us girls are perfect(yeah, right). Heh, I am no piece of work, but still, I am Rat, and I can help.

Okay, so I go to post it this, right? And the connection is refused. So I try again, and again it is refused. So I give up, and then Iodine alerts me that it was posted twice. How this happened, I don't know. I'm so embarrassed!

Proof right there. But you know us guys aren't going to ask you girls any questions, since we know that either the question will answer itself, or it will expose us to 'feelings' we don't want to handle.
Besides which, since you are a girl, you cannot ask the question, you can only be an authority on the answer. The question has to be from a guy, a hermaphrodite, or an asexual being, like a streptococci bacteria.
Being one of those who can ask the question, I suppose I'd better, and get this forum rolling. Why are girls girls? What makes them tick? Do they tick, and if they do,at what cyclic rate? Is the rate universal or independent?
What is the effect of having two X chromosomes?

Do women still feel repressed? That's what I want to know. For ages they were undoubtedly seen as objects to the male side of society, but now it seems to ME like they aren't. However, there are always feminists going around fuming about repression... I haven't noticed it, but what about a female's point of view?

Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, right?
Heh, dead wrong. Never underestimate a girl. The female of the species IS more deadly than the male. We want to get behind the wall, change you for the better, and make society a better place. Do agree with this? Not really, since girls are girls and I am one and I for one want society to go down. What makes a girl tick is chocolate. We love the stuff. Makes us feel great. I like cheese. I also like video games. That kinda stuff makes me tick. Other girls, they seem to like pink stuff, smelly stuff, anything with roses or flowers.

Ok, this is anything but serious, but I am in a weird sorta mood. I apologize, please dont hesitate to ask specific questions and if they are meant to be serious, I will try to be as serious as possible.

rat

Girls run on the same stuff boys do - or at least, among my high school friends and I. Hormones. Desire for attention. Et cetera. But, because of the structure of society (getting to the opressed bit) most of them express it in different ways. The girls wear the tight shirt, the boys wear the big baggy one. That applies to a lot of other things, too. But when you get down beneath the forms of expression of self, they're the same people.

OK oppression. First off - the world you live in is totally different from the world of, say, third world countries where the men's literacy rate hovers at fiftyish and the women around fifteen. or the Islamic countries where women can be beaten for exposing their ankles. Second of all - women, at least in the US, have the potential to go places - but somehow over three-quarters of top corporate jobs are held by men. This is due to the upbringing we all have, because, like it or not, it's in there. Picture the stereotypical attractive male and female. Which one has the muscles? Thankfully women have every legal right to do everything men do, but the stereotypes fade much more slowly.

Sorry to preach there

Preaching's okay, as long as you share the soapbox

Basic truth: people are animals. No matter how much we try to pretend that our "intelligence" puts us above our members of the Animal Kingdom, we still have instincts and hormones and societal conditioning that's as tough as a cockroach and twice as ugly.

In normal animal society (with some exceptions like spiders and lions, just to cover my arse) the male is generally the hunter and the protector. He is generally dominant in all ways.

The problem with humans is that with our increased intelligence and ability to reason has come the desire in the female to have an equal share of the action. Along with that has come the realisation that for that to happen we have to negate instincts that go back thousands and thousands of years. And along with *that* has come the realisation that that is a pathetic excuse for an excuse.

How's that for an about-turn?

The guy who uses the instinct excuse is the one who hits a women if she nags him. He is wasting the higher intelligence he's been given in an attempt to lift us above the level of apes. The guy who uses the religion excuse is the one who is scared that if a women is given equal opportunity he will lose his power over her. And he's right.

For as long as we have these sorts of people in the world and allow them to stay thinking they way they do we will *not* have real equality. The only thing that can defeat instinct or fear is intelligence. Unfortunately in some parts of the world intelligence of this level is in short supply and oppression of women is alive and well.

Woah, I'm so far from the point of this conversation I can hardly see it in the haze. Has that soapbox got wheels on it?

Whay are girls girls? I wouldn't have a clue. That's part of the attraction

Seriously, though, girls are girls because of hormones, physiology, social conditioning and a bunch of other things we haven't even discovered yet. The only reason they're not boys is because they're different sorts of hormones, physiology, social conditioning etc. etc. An interesting thing to remember is that all boys start off as girls.

What makes girls tick? Lots of things. I like cheese and video games just like Rat, but I don't think that is representative of the majority. I also happen to have a shoe obsession as well, which is considered to be a female thing.

Most of the repression of women in this day and age is internalized. That's why it's hard to see. Women have been expected to act a certain way for so long, that we think it's the way we should be. Like me feeling that I didn't have a right to break up with my ex-boyfriend, because he hadn't cheated on me or hit me. And women blaming themselves for things that men do to them over which they have no control. When I say that most of this is enternalized, I'm speaking from a western point of view.

...I just returned from shaving my legs. I'm not going to tell you that I do it for personal aesthetic reasons because that's not true. I do it because I'm giving in to the pressures of society and because I'd like to wear shorts around. Any thoughts?

Yeah, mainly I was speaking of myself in comparison to the majority. I guess if you want answers, guys, I will give the answers of a typical girl. Ha hah ah

I shave my legs because of society too. In the winter I maybe do it once a month, if that.

Hmm. I think my mom's about the same way.

I don't personally shave my legs (seeing as I'm a guy). However, I have these really neat little patches of bare skin where I think my constant use of socks (which I never would have wore if it wasn't for my mother) has rubbed every folicle off. Like bald patches on my lower shin. Male patern baldness.

I can't really argue about those women who don't shave their armpit hair/legs/eyebrows/toenails/eardrums, seeing as I very rarely shave my neck, and never my beard. I find it very amusing that so much of the population is so adamant about hair removal. Of course, I'm from Western New York, so our weather isn't the hottest either...

-jb

Western NY! What are you doing up at 3:30am?

I used to hang out with skateboarders, and this was when only skaters wore big pants, and I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but none of them had hair on their knees.

I could go w/o shaving my legs, but I don't think I could deal with having hairy armpits. And I pluck my eyebrows, but don't shave them, because I wouldn't be able to draw them on straight.

I have friends who shave their whole bodies. I couldn't stand that, stubble on my arms and stuff like that. Ugh!

Yes, western NY. 3:30. Actually, it's 4 o'clock now.
I'm a night person. I don't like mornings, and have found work & things to do that suit my tendencies. The benifits are-
I'm always the last person to go to sleep at my parties
I get to avoid annoying people
Etc, Etc
By the way, it's a Friday

& yes, precisely the same thing with the skateboarder's knees and my shins, though their hair removal process was probably far more painful than mine.

-jb

I'm late for the conversation! Let's see if I can catch up here.

Hmmmm, I agree with the two gentlemen above about us girls being girls (er women, in my case) because of all sorts of factors like biology and society and such. And I agree that using biology as an excuse is crap.

As for feeling repressed? Yeah, sexism is still out there. It's not as bad as it was 20 years ago, but it still exists. I was once told by a man, during a job interview (at MIT no less), that I wasn't really suited for the position, because I was a female. Does this ever happen to guys? And look at politics. See many women? Nope. I thought that our elected officials were supposed to repesent their constituancy. Well, I'd say about 50% of my state is female, but only about 5% of my government is made up of women.

It's getting better, though. We just elected a woman mayor in my city, which is surprising because it's mostly an old boy neighborhood, with a smattering of Irish mobsters still lingering. I guess the "hip" college kids actually bothered to vote for once.

Finally, shaving. I shave my legs about once every week or two, mostly because I wear lycra bike pants (you know, like tights) almost every day, and it irritates my legs to have hair under the pants. I only shave my armpits if I'm going out on a date or something and I'm wearing something sleeveless. I prefer to leave them unshaved as much as possible, and if I'm not trying to impress a guy, I won't bother.

Oh, and jbliqemp, just thinking about being awake at 4 am makes me sleepy!

*I do sleep until two or three in the afternoon.*

The last time I shaved my legs was about a week ago. That was after about four months. Its kinda gross, but who sees it anyways?
Question: do you guys actually like makeup(on girls)? I hate putting that stuff on and rarely bother, usually its just foundation and powder, thats it. What do you think?

I'm a nocturnal type also, but as a high school student it's not something I can cater too so much . But when I can, go to sleep 3 AMish and wake up soon after Noon. Wish I could do that all the time.

I like guys with beards... fuzzy.

Where did the whole leg-shaving bit for women come from, anyway? Seems pretty strange. But I don't have the right to talk, I suppose.

Rat- I personaly don't like makeup. Sometimes a little is okay, but I don't usualy notice, so the effort is wasted. I like an un-made up face better than a made up face.

loreth- Thanks for stroking my beard's ego. It's pretty sick and tired of taking flak from the 'Bare Face Fan Association'.

I don't know where leg shaving came from. I can't imagine it would have been practical for any women except the elite up to a century or so ago.

-jb

I don't know where all that started either.

I wear lots of makeup some days and others almost none. I like being able to change the way I look depending on my mood. But, I can't stand it when women pile on lots of makeup and think it looks natural, but it's really obvious and scary. When I wear makeup it is very obvious, and I like it that way.