I am in about your same generation, but slightly younger; I caught the tail-end of the "hippy" movement in the early 70s. I like natural fibers, have no tattos, only wear one earring piercing in each ear, and have a fairly normal haircut. I have taken to having colored (pink, right now) streaks dyed in my hair, just for fun, and because most women approaching 50 arn't so daring. For my 50th birthday, I am going for purple streaks.

I really don't care if others have tattos, it just is not my thing.

maybe I'm kinda weird (huh I can hear my bf in my brain saying "Ya think?!?" LOL:O) but I go for comfy clothes I like natural fabric and I do prefer organic groceries, I am especially crabby lately about High Fructose Corn Syrup being in everyfreakinthing and I don't buy non organic milk anymore those growth hormones squick me out! and a few other things like that.

But as most of you know I have had lots of piercings it didn't seem like so many to me but apparently 9 is alot to most people in most places...just not so much in my group of friends(o:

and I LOVE tattoos. I think they can be as bland and about 'fashion" as anything people wear these days and that makes me sad. But for me they can also be magic and really about parts of us that we will always wear.

so I think a good picture of me would be in comfortable shorts with a plain black tank top. Comfy plain clothes and my tattoos.

Okay so I do agree that we are healthier if we put less synthetic things
into our body. I don't believe it's healthy to be too rigid about anything.
So I go with a balance between what's purely natural, and what makes
me feel good about me. I had gastric bypass surgery, and that's not
natural, but it helped me lose the 160 lbs that had held me down for
most of my adult life. I am WAY healthier how because of that, and I
look like a different person. You can't tell me it was better for me to
stay morbidly obese just because that was what was "natural."

I do have a tattoo, and my ears are pierced. Not a big deal to me.
I haven't had plastic surgery done, but if I ever had the chance to finish
what my weight loss started and fix a few areas that still look incredibly
unattractive on my body, I would do it. And the reason is it would make me
feel so much better, more free to dress as I choose (sleeveless etc...) and
more free to live my life doing things I want to do. In the meantime I work
out, and try to be as good as I can with natural methods.

I don't think we need to totally fix all the things on our body that come with age
like wrinkles and such. But for women even more than men, I think we need
to do little things for ourselves to help us accept those things that change as
we get older. If our society didn't make being physically "perfect" such a big
deal, then we wouldn't mind it when our breasts fall, skin wrinkles, or face
develops folds in it. I call those wrinkles, smiles remember by skin.

Vixxen

You've probably read that it's likely that our generation will be the longest living. In spite of medical and technological advances, external and internal polution will most likely reduce longevity. Though we've been exposed to many things known to be bad for our health, in most cases it was after our infancy and early development. That's not the case for today's children. After viewing the movie "King Korn" I had to wonder about the connection between the over-use of corn-based ingredients, and especially high-fructose corn syrup; and obesity and other health problem related to diet. I am very into whole foods and rarely eat anything out of a box. White hair with purple, pink and blue streaks doesn't bother me so much. But when I see a "girl" with a pair of breast implants that must have required parental consent to obtain.....?

My sister and I both consider that we had to in some ways raise ourselves, and most of that work had to wait until we were adults living on our own. Changes had to occur. Growth had to happen. Choices had to be made. Anything that expedites the process is probably a good thing (unless a person's in *too* much of a hurry to grow up and makes harmful choices.)
I could put post-its of positive affirmations on the bathroom mirror or a tattoo on my arm.
Life can imitate art.
Personal symbols and emblems can be very powerful.
Think of the sway that corporate logos can have over people.
Personal symbols like tattoos, certain types of clothing, etc. can be similarly psychically (if you will) charged.

They may be awkwardly fitting when we first try them on, but at some point one must begin by doing, not just reading and thinking about it.

And then, of course, some things we do just because we think they're pretty.

I think I like the idea of self decoration, self expression, but not so much for me. I'd rather be background. Okay, you guys know I love bright colors, but synthetics make me itch. I'm jeans and cotton and silk. I don't wear much jewelry, a single piercing in each ear because I like to wear moonstones dangling against my neck. No tattoos; nothing I can think of as sacred enough, and besides, I don't have great skin. I do wear make-up, and paint my toenails, highlight my hair. I'll never have elective cosmetic surgery. To me, whenever I try to make myself look pretty, I feel like I look ridiculous. I'm hopeless about current trends in fashion, and know better than to submit to fads; I can't carry it off. And although I indulge in a good hair stylist, as soon as I get home, I brush out the backcombing and wash out the hair product. She's embarrassed to see me on the street, horrified that I would treat her "cute" haircut this way, but hey, it's my hair, and when I say I want simple, that's what I mean.

My mother is a bit older than Papa Red but close enough that she counts as his generation and she is FLAMING. She loves sparkly and bright clothing. She loves jewelry with big chunks of amber and turquoise. Whether you believe in astrology or not my mother does and she is the quintessential Leo. Clothing, for Mum, is just another way to frame her glorious self. Otherwise why wear it? For her the hippie movement was about breaking out of a very conformist and controlling culture. She was raised a strict Catholic girl. Her parents absolutely refused to allow her to attend medical school, despite her excellent grades, because it wasn't "ladylike." She was the only girl every kicked out of her all-girls college with a 4.0 average. She was expelled for missing curfew and wearing bluejeans on campus! I think for some folks the hippie movement was about going natural but I think for others it was about finally being able to express their self how they pleased. You, Papared, are a nature-lovin' guy who appreciates the simple things the Earth gives us and doesn't need to adorn what is already beautiful, and your clothing perfectly reflects that. Me, I'm a flashy, mutable, peacock. One day it's fatigues and a "wife-beater" shirt, the next it's red latex and petticoats, the next a formal cocktail dress, and then a suit. That perfectly represents my personality. The only time I get cranky at folks because of what they wear is when they wear things that they don't really like just because they are afraid of standing out, which also reflects their personality but for some reason grates on me.

papared, you and i are of the same generation, you are two years older than i am.

people who are into adorment are into adormnent. when i was a teen, i was the first girl in my east coast conservative town to start wearing my hair long and frizzy and to become a hippie. i was almost kicked out of being drum majorette for not going to the hair salon before games... but they dealt with it. then i ran away and lived on a commune for a while, and when i was 18, moved to california on my own. i got my first tattoo that year, at lyle tuttle's, and i got a rosebud on my hand. i had it touched up about 15 years ago, and have a number of major tattoos now (7 to 12, depending on how you count them ;^)... the ink on my body is a work in progress... each piece is designed by me and has very specific meaning.... i am currently adding to a series of words i keep on my arm to keep me present to what i value in life.

i've worn lots of jewelry since i was young, and a trademark is an arm full of vintage bracelets. about 15 years ago, i started to stretch my ears and add body piercings, and i still keep them and love them. i love jewelry and handmade art, especially big handcrafted silver and stones. you will rarely catch me out of the house without my bracelets, and my earrings are always in. i will, however, leave the house without makeup, but i usually take a minute to put a bit on.

i have collected, made, and commissioned interesting clothes and jewelry all my life... to me, creating a physical manifestation of my beliefs is a powerful thing, and one way i do that is through my appearance. beautiful things make me happy, and creating beautiful environments is my art.

my ex-husband was a classically trained painter, with an incredible eye for collecting things... he taught me much of what i know about decorative arts... but his style was very simple... he wore button-fly jeans, black boots, plaid shirts, and a long beard and hair. my daughter just came back from visiting him in palm springs where he lives with his partner, and says he looks just the same, only it's hot, so it's shorts and a t-shirt.

do i need my partners to share my aesthetic? well, it sure helps if they think i'm beautiful, and part of my beauty is my body art, my dreads, and my style. and while i have had lovers who dress super-low-key, recently i realized that many of my newest friends and lovers have a similar style to me... but my two best friends are unpierced (except earrings) and have no tattoos. that's great, they should look however they want to look.

so, no, it's not a generational thing, and it' s not a hippie thing, papared, it's just a matter of personal preference. some of us are tuned into the aesthetics of decorative art for our body, and some aren't. you should do exactly what you want to do, and wear what you want to wear... just like that ilianowear guy (though personally, i give people in bought-it-on-the-internet burning man clothes a pretty wide berth ;^)

Heheh...Im guessing that mine is the aforementioned blog. That picture nearly made me wet myself.

Im kind of a mix between the two extremes, I guess. Most of my clothes are just plain comfortable. I love pretty, but I get dejected trying to find flattering beautiful things that fit me properly. I've started wearing more skirts after years of not wanting to, and I love it. I love jewelry. I *make* jewelry. I wish I had the wardrobe to go with the sparklies I create.

I love my piercings. They're part of who I am. My body hasn't liked a few that I've gotten, so those have gone away, but I have 14 left. My ears, my eyebrow and my nose. I'll get more in my ears, Im sure. Im stretching my earlobe piercings too. And I love my tattoos. I've just got two small ones right now, but I've decided that for my 40th birthday Im getting the big armpiece I've been wanting for so long.

As far as food goes, I agree that we eat too much crap. There are far too many unpronounceable things added to food and I *firmly* believe that if something has to tell you it's healthful, it's probably not. I eat my share of frozen stuff and take out, but cooking is magical and I try to do a lot of it. Increasingly I buy organic foods.

As for how I like my partner...our diets seem pretty similar (tho he eschews cheese as the devil's work...lol)....as for appearances, he's much more reserved than I am, no piercings, no tattoos and always crisply ironed. I like that. I tend to like men who are less "decorated" and a bit more formal than I am...I dunno, maybe I feel like it balances me out or something.

hm i really dont know how to answer that question.

i think it entirely comes down to how you carry shit. ive seen girls in really shorts skirts who look wrong in them not because they have bad bodies, but because they look uncomfortable in them. or people in tshirts and jeans who look like they dont quite "fit" in them. and people who wear all kinds of weird shit and just.. somehow make it work. cause they're just styling it, its an expression of who they are and how they feel in that moment (yeah i know, cheesy but true).

i personally have always worn whatever. ive sewed up shit that shouldnt have looked like it belonged together. i remember once i wore a saree and this woman looked me up and down all frustrated and said, you just make it look WRONG somehow (i took that as a compliment, i look sexy as hell in sarees). :P my husband puts colours and patterns together that make me laugh sometimes but they just fking WORK. he has a flair for it and i think its totally hot.

i think the essence is that if it feels right and works for you, you carry it with a certain grace and thats what counts. thats what makes it feel right.

PapaRed - I think it's partly generational but really more about affinity/affiliation. Each generation's culture seems to have their ascetic/purist and their aesthetic/freak versions.

I don't have any big thing against plastic surgery, it's just a shame that so many people who get it have no real sense of aesthetics - it's kind of the bland leading the bland further into the land of the mediocre. Obviously we generally only really notice bad plastic surgery since well done plastic surgery tends to be less evident. One thing I do find kinda painful to look at is when someone's had implants that are too big put in and their boobs like they're about to pop. It's probably not as painful as swollen real breasts but it looks it!

On the other hand, between having better things to do with the money and plastic surgery still being an elective surgery with potential complications that are really crappy, I doubt I'll ever get any.

I do sometimes wonder how many kids are growing up watching people who've overdone the botox and have facial expressions that are just "off" from natural, and how having this as a "norm" fucks people up. To me that's the weirdest thing, being so worried about wrinkles that you'd actually sacrifice your ability to communicate your feelings by freezing your face. Personally I kinda like wrinkles but then I like faces with character anyway (not that I don't enjoy a pretty one too). People who've lived are just much sexier in my book, as are people with some individuality.

I do quite appreciate Orlon who's made plastic surgery into performance art.