Friday evening comes around all to quickly.
Although I shave my chin semi-regularly,
I’m reluctant to shave my legs for fear of cutting myself.
Mum gave me a tube of Veet and instructed me how to use it.
She warned that the tingly sensation is normal and advised me to leave it on for a good ten minutes for best results.
I took it and myself into the bathroom and stripped down to my underpants.
Judging by the amount of hair there is to remove,
I could be here for some time.
It took far far longer than I’d expected.
About ninety minutes later I sheepishly emerged wearing my bathrobe.
Mum asked me if I’d showered and moisturised afterwards like she’d advised.
“Yeah.” I replied.
She smiled and asked how they felt.
“Er… quite nice I guess.” I confessed.
“Let me feel.” she asked.
I put my foot on the chair arm and she ran her fingers over my knee and down my shin.
“Very nice… did you go all the way up?”
I gulped and nodded.
“I’m not sure if I was supposed to but…
I did my arms too.” I said as I showed her my forearm.
“Oh. You didn’t have to go that far.” Mum replied.
I explained that I was in two minds but it made sense under the circumstances.
“That explains why it took you so long.” she smiled.
“Yeah.” I coyly replied.
I rolled my sleeve down and headed toward the door.
Mum asked where I was going.
“To put my shoes on.”
I returned a moment later wearing my pink heeled shoes along with my pyjama bottoms and bathrobe.
“Don’t your toes get clammy without socks?” Mum asked.
“A bit.” I replied.
Mum suggested I put some socks on.
“Nah… it’d have to be those frilly ones and I’d rather have clammy toes,” I said.
“I’ll wear those tights tomorrow I think.”
“I was hoping you would.” Mum smiled.
We watched TV for a while before Sally’s absence dawned on me.
“Still deciding what to wear I expect,” Mum replied before suggesting that I go up and help her decide.
In spite of my total lack of interest regarding my sister’s party outfit,
I sauntered upstairs,
trying my best to work with my heels with each and every step.
I knocked on Sally’s door and she opened it.
“Oh! Hi Pete. I thought you were Mum.”
“Nah. Just me.” she invited me inside.
“Blimey!” I said as I gorped at a selection of dresses that lay strewn across her bed.
I turn towards her wardrobe and my jaw drops.
“How do you get those…”
I pointed to the numerous frocks on her duvet.
“…in there?” I asked, turning to her wardrobe.
“With great difficulty,” she replied.
I’m not surprised.
“I might have to start putting some in your wardrobe.” she suggested.
“It’s bad enough having one dress in there.” I retorted.
“No wonder you can’t decide what to wear.”
“I know.. and deciding for Kirsten, Sarah and cousin Mel… it’s no easy task.”
I cast my eyes over the frocks on her bed.
“Well… there’s four pink ones. And it’s a pink theme so…”
“I know but Sarah doesn’t want to wear pink and Melanie doesn’t want to wear a dress at all…
maybe I could get her into a blue one but…”
“What about those really girlie shorts… them frilly dungaree things”
Sally rummaged in her wardrobe and dragged an item out. “These?”
“That’s them.” I said as she laid them on a chair and told me that Melanie won’t wear pink.
“If I was given a choice between those or a dress…
I think I’d go for the dress.”
“Yeah… I love the look of them but I didn’t like wearing them very much.” Sally commented.
“Why not?”
“Too boyish.”
“Sally… there’s nothing boyish about those.”
“Apart from the fact they are for boys.” she retorted.
“Look…” she showed me the label, “
…Kawaii-Boi… it’s a Japanese boy’s brand.”
“Hmm… it’s quite worrying that they’re actually making this sort of stuff for boys.” I said.
“Especially when most girls don’t even wear stiff like this any more.”
“I think it’s a bit weird but it sort of makes sense.”
“In what way?”
“Well… if the girls aren’t buying, sell it to the boys.” she replied.
“Maybe in ten, twenty years time boys and men will be wearing the skirts and dresses?”
“I can’t see it somehow.”
“Me neither but… you never know.
My sociology teacher said that girls and boys are gender-neutral these days and the pendulum could swing the other way before long.” she explained.
I’ve had similar lectures and discussions in sociology class,
However I, along with most believe the ‘pendulum’ has stopped swinging and the future is one that’s more gender-neutral than the past.
But maybe the metaphorical pendulum is still swaying a little?
I am after all preparing to wear my first dress.
I cast my eyes over the collection on her bed and ask which she’s going to wear.
“I don’t know!” she whined.
“I think I might be able to shoehorn Kirsten into the lilac one, and put Melanie in that blue one…”
“Or those.” I interrupted, grinning and pointing at the pink dungaree shorts.
Sally smiled and raised her eyebrows.
“…and Sarah’s wearing pink whether she likes it or not.”
“And you?”
“I don’t know!” she giddily exclaimed.
“I’ve got too many to choose from!”
“I guess I’m lucky having just the one.” I dryly stated.
“I’d best leave you to it.”
“You can stay if you want… you could model them for me… help me make my mind up.”
I glanced at the dreadful dungarees.
“Er… no thanks.
I’m only gonna wear one dress and that’s hanging in my wardrobe.”
I replied before opening her door.
“Got your shoes on I see.”
“Yeah.” I replied.
“I’m kind of getting used to them,” I said before leaving.
I returned downstairs and described the scene to my mother;
dresses all over the bed,
wardrobe wide open,
shoes all over the floor.
Mum was amused by my account.
I told her about the pink dungarees which will be used to ‘hopefully’ get cousin Melanie to wear a dress.
“Even I’d rather wear a dress than those,” I stated.
“They’re gross!”
“Oh I think they’re quite sweet.” Mum replied.
“Not very practical for a girl though.” she added, before casually informing me that they’re actually a male garment.
“Yeah Sally said.” I replied.
“Hard to believe eh?”
“It is… but the world is changing.”
Mum grew up in a time when girls were mostly girlie by default.
She often talks about how things used to be and how much better things are these days.
Women were looked down on if they didn’t dress up by wearing skirts and heels, make-up, and so on.
Now they’re looked down on when they do dress up.
Femininity in the modern world is more about being a feminist rather than feminine.
Trousers and flats,
short hairstyles,
minimal and often no make-up is worn in the workplace.
My sister however is a throwback from another age.
Mum often says that she should dress down more often…
especially for school where she wears ribbons and bunches,
lace trimmed socks
and the old fashioned school skirt.
She’s more than happy for Sally to be as girlie as she likes in the home, but the lesson is that at school and later, in the workplace, being overtly girlie won’t do her any favours.
I guess this is possibly why Sally’s so keen on having a girl’s birthday party…
the older she gets, the more she’ll have to either grow out of or suppress her girlie instincts.