This is what a feminist looks like.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 12.40pm here in Wellington NZ |

Okay apologies about the cliched header - but I've had a dual experience in the last week that reminded me of the pervasiveness of old ideas about what a feminist looks like.

I was back in my hometown for a visit, and an old schoolfriend made a quip about another of our old schoolfriends, saying "she's back in town looking like a feminist" [insert snigger here].

I happaned to have met up with the discussed woman the day before - yes she's a feminist, in fact a very hard-working academic one - and knew exactly why she had said that: unplucked bushy eyebrows, no make-up, dark clothing and a generally masculine appearance.

(Yet ironically the person saying this was herself sans eye-plucking or make-up, and in dark sporty clothing. In fact, it was later quipped by her sister that she would pass for being a man. Apparently what you look like is only up for joke and judgement if you've just finished a doctorate in gender equality.)

I took great delight - sitting there in my floral dress with my flouncy long hair and make-up - in pointing out that I'm a feminist. And that actually that these days there is a core thread of feminism that ardently dresses feminine and embraces make-up, hair and shopping because we don't believe that feminine should equal less important/ serious/ valuable/ worthy than masculine.

So move on to last night when I attended the below mentioned feminazi boner-killers bloggers' drinks and looked round with glee at the women in attendance: make-up, no make-up; pretty dresses, jeans and hoodies; flouncy long hair, short and spiky cuts; short, tall; big, small; certainly a lot of boob... pretty much every variation of [white] lady on display.

Oh how I wished my old school friend could have been there.

So what does a feminist look like? It looks like me, like Bel, like our friends - male and female - and probably a lot like you.