Eye make up and cycling

[lph]

Rebecca, that was beautiful :-)

I will admit that I used to be one of those who looked down on women for being (what I considered) overly vain. I sincerely hope I'm past that now. I would add that even though I don't use make-up daily and never for exercise, I love dressing to the nines for a special occasion, floor-length gown, high heels, as much make-up as I can get away with, jewelry, the lot.

But, ya know, when I pick up a magazine and read an article that in not so many words basically tells me that "a woman should always look her best", or "what you look like is a lot more important than what you can do", or "old is ugly, and old is more than 30"... I can't help getting a bit prickly. There is a huge industry out there very happy to prey on our insecurities, and blow them out of proportions, and I hate that.

I hope I'm not offending anyone personally when I rail against prevailing norms, because I don't mean to. I just feel that they are unfair and constraining. And especially when I'm out there doing my favourite sporting activities I want the freedom to look "ugly" if I want to. But I don't mean to convey any feeling of superiority, we're all vain in some way or another.