# Weird American female customs. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 23, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486 "2003-04-23T01:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/21 "2003-04-23T07:56:14Z")
[semi-hijack: probably doesn’t apply to our intelligent and sensitive Doper women, but it needs to be said] Memo to certain women: If you want to do such things, some involving physical pain, for your own pleasure or self-confidence, it’s fine. But what bothers me is when women look at me and say, “You men! YOU’RE the reason why we have to wear high heels/wear makeup/shave/pluck/tweeze/etc.!” Well, what are you looking at ME for? I would be perfectly content if every woman I know stopped shaving, plucking, tweezing, wearing high heels, etc. I must admit I do prefer when certain aspects of feminine cosmetics go overboard, but as for the little things, it really won’t make a difference to me whether women wish to do them or not. So it sort of pisses me off when some women act as if I’M the reason for their issues with their beauty routines (because, of course, I’M the reason for vast human cultural trends dating to ancient times… uh huh). [/semi-hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/22 "2003-04-23T14:19:45Z")
> [@](#): > > My sterling is Rose Point! \ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/23 "2003-04-23T14:41:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*American media **are** so ubiquitous. \*\* [hijack] The word “media” is both a plural of “medium” and a collective single noun. Either verb form is correct. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/24 "2003-04-23T14:51:13Z")
[To continue the hijack:](http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/M0195100.html) > [@](#): > > The etymologically plural form media is often used as a singular to refer to a particular means of communication, as in _The Internet is the most exciting new media since television_. Many people regard this usage as incorrect, preferring _medium_ in such contexts. > > People also use _media_ with the definite article as a collective term to refer not to the forms of communication themselves so much as the communities and institutions behind them. In this sense, _the media_ means something like “the press.” **Like other collective nouns, it may take a singular or plural verb depending on the intended meaning.** If the point is to emphasize the multifaceted nature of the press, a plural verb may be more appropriate: _The media have covered the trial in a variety of formats_. Frequently, however, _media_ stands as a singular noun for the aggregate of journalists and broadcasters: _The media has not shown much interest in covering the trial_. This development of a singular _media_ parallels that of more established words such as _data_ and _agenda_, which are also Latin plurals that have acquired a singular meaning. The singular _medium_ cannot be used as a collective noun for the press. The sentence _No medium has shown much interest in covering the issue_, would suggest that the lack of interest is in the means of communication itself rather than in its practitioners. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/25 "2003-04-23T15:15:54Z")
To continue continuing the hijack: “Media”, although still technically correct as a plural term, is mostly like “rice” – more of an aggregated singularity than a plural. When I’m cooking, the peas are sometimes needing extra salt, but never is it the case that the rice are nearly done. “Hey, this rice is aggregated! You know I hate aggregated rice! Yecch!” ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/26 "2003-04-23T15:45:04Z")
European women shave their armpits. Prolly American influence, but the cliché about the hairy European woman is all a myth, at least when we’re talking women under age of 50. ---
**Author:** ![Mimi\_McQueeny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Mimi\_McQueeny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mimi_McQueeny)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/27 "2003-04-23T15:47:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Aspidistra \* > \*\*I remember one Doper 'fessing up to shaving her arms. It would never have occurred to me that somebody might do that. Is it common in the US? \*\* I have known women who do this. But I do not believe it is common. The women who are most likely to do it are those with very long, black hair on their arms. Funny, isn’t it, the taboos we have about body hair?😉 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/28 "2003-04-23T15:47:57Z")
Nobody’s mentioned piercings yet? I’ve always been used to ear piercings, and I’m _getting_ used to belly-button piercing, but anyplace else is unattractive to me, and all piercings, on the face of it, are strange. ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/29 "2003-04-23T16:47:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pjen \* > \*\*link: > > [http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html](http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html) \*\* [total hijack] **Pjen** , thank you! I read this in eighth grade social studies and have been searching for a copy since then. [/total hijack] ---
**Author:** ![bradwalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/30 "2003-04-23T17:09:26Z")
1. The pierced men/women of today are going to have children. 2. These children will have to adopt “unusual behaviors” to disturb their parents. Two Possible Outcomes: A) Clay Plates inserted in the lips might be the fashionable choice for the class of 2020. B) Bell-bottom pants will come back. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/31 "2003-04-23T17:25:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Aspidistra \* > \*\*I remember one Doper 'fessing up to shaving her arms. It would never have occurred to me that somebody might do that. Is it common in the US? \*\* My son (age 15) shaves his arms. He thinks girls will get grossed out by arm hair, so he shaves his forearms. Got razorburn the first time; he asked if I had anything for that, and it was very difficult not to laugh… [bradwait:](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=bell+bottom+pants) B) Bell-bottom pants will come back. They’re back. Fortunately for your theory, there’ll be plenty of time for them to go out of fashion and come back again by 2020. ---
**Author:** ![bradwalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/32 "2003-04-23T18:21:29Z")
TO Ethilrist: Bell-Bottom pants are BACK? For men and women? Do I have to go to Saint Paul to see them? 🙂 I’m a 47-year-old guy: I didn’t want to wear bell-bottoms in 1973; but the pants I wanted to wear were called “Grandpa Pants” by my friends. I also went through a phase where I thought my forearms were TOO hairy, followed by a phase where the top of my head wasn’t hairy enough, followed by a phase where my ears were TOO hairy. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/33 "2003-04-23T18:32:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*My son (age 15) shaves his arms. He thinks girls will get grossed out by arm hair, so he shaves his forearms. \*\* I’m worried that he’s right. Is there a trend now against male body hair? You don’t see anyone on TV nowadays showing off there manly chest hair like Lee Majors and Tom Selleck used to. I just think its weird to see women who have obviously spent an hour on their hair and makeup who then go out in public dressed in sweats. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/34 "2003-04-23T19:06:51Z")
I know a girl who got her back pierced multiple times. It scares me. Teflon coated wire or something, with beads. She’s an industrial goth, so it’s part of the aethetic, but still… A close friend (who usually dyes his hair purple) pointed out to me that in a few years, when he has kids, he’s going to be saying, “Tommy, are you _sure_ you want to dye your skin blue?” to his son. Oh yes, I have also seen teenagers with ear-spools (like the lip plate thing), so I doubt that lip plates are too far behind. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/35 "2003-04-23T19:22:09Z")
Screw all this make up and such. I’d settle for a _rational_ explanation for why Lady Chance spends and hour or more cleaning up for the maids. And don’t give me that ‘it’s so they’ll be able to work’ stuff. When she’s on travel I leave the place a sty and they still get the job done. ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/36 "2003-04-23T19:48:23Z")
Purses and bathrooms. Crammed so full of bottles, and tubes, and jars, and metal instruments for God-knows-_what_. I look and see 17 containers of identical mascara, foundation, or whatever-the-heck is in those things. Open a drawer, more of it! Open the medicine cabinet looking for some floss – more tubes and little boxes! Where’s the bathroom tissue? All I can find is spray, gel, deodorant, eye makeup remover, and things I’ve never even heard of (e.g. skin toning lotion). Try to find a place to put your toothbrush – there’s no room! (Note to self – get. away. now. while you still can…) ---
**Author:** ![Amethyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@Amethyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amethyst)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/37 "2003-04-23T19:53:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TGWATY \* > \*\*I’m worried that he’s right. Is there a trend now against male body hair? You don’t see anyone on TV nowadays showing off there manly chest hair like Lee Majors and Tom Selleck used to. > > \*\* I recently read that hair used to be ‘OUT’ for male models (and so many of the waxed their chests) but that body hair is coming back in style for men (so look for more male models to be sporting chest hair). On the note of weird female customs, a few years ago some fashion magazines wrote about there being pubic hair styles that were in fashion for women. These styles involved some degree of waxing and trimming. I believe ‘the Brazilian’ was one of the most popular styles. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/38 "2003-04-23T21:08:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amethyst \* > \*\*I believe ‘the Brazilian’ was one of the most popular styles. \*\* This is on topic. What is a “Brazilian”? ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/39 "2003-04-23T23:51:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ellen Cherry \* > \*\* > Down south you have the really great customs like absolutely no white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, \*\* A woman could get killed wearing white shoes after Labor Day!! ( see the Kathleen Turner movie: Serial Mom) Amerian woman did not wear high heels or shave their underarms or legs until the 1900’s. In the 1700’s, it was the men who wore wigs, ribbons in the hair, lace, face powder, stockings, high heels, etc. European women, the ones I knew from Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, did not shave their legs until the 1960’s, and in Italy, the women did not shave their underarms until the 1970’s. I know a few male body builders who shave their entire body, and the same thing for boys on my high school swimming team. Shaving, or more commonly, waxing arms, is becoming vry common now for women in America - every salon now offers waxing, and lots of men(esp from the middle east) who have very hairy backs are getting their back hair removed by electrolysis. Besides body builders and swimmers, I dont know any men who shave their arms. I dont know why a 15 year old boy would want to shave his arms. Hair seems to hold oder/smells. The less hair you have, the easier it is to be clean and smell good. Some women like hair on guys, some dont, but no guy I know likes hairy women that resemble apes. Shaping eyebrows is an optical illusion, it makes for a prettier more symetrical looking face and eyes, decreases the forehead area, and enlargens the eye area. Painting toenails, allows women to use another nail color. Changing hair styles and hair color and highlighting, is a way to keep from getting bored - Once gray starts to set in, you have to color it anyways. Being a man would be very boring to wear nothing but a shirt and pants day after day every day for 80 years, wearing your hair the same way, not wearing any jewelry except a watch, and coloring or painting nothing. If you are having a bad day, or a bad week, men have nothing to do to pick up their moods except get drunk. Men cant buy a new outfit, pretty lingerie, get their nails or hair done, buy a lighted anklet or earrings, try a different colored stocking, get a new purse or pair of shoes to get a quick pick-me-up and feel good. As far as the big lips and stretched necks of africa and Thailand, I thought those customs were started because the men did not want their women to be stolen by other tribes. Binding of the feet in China, was a sign of upper class. Women with bound feet were telling everybody that they were rich enough that they did not have to work. ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486/40 "2003-04-24T00:50:00Z")
Brazilian: bikini waxing that ensures no hair will show when you wear very skimpy thong bikinis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-american-female-customs/170486.md?page=3)