jenniferbundock:

A friend forwarded this asking people to write this woman because she felt offended by the things said in this post. I have sent her this response. I added my comments in Quotes like this one. 

By LISA KHOURY

Asst. News Editor

I get it. It’s the 21st century. You’re cool, you’re rebellious, you’re cutting edge, you have a point to prove, and you’re a woman. Awesome.

Thanks! I could say the same thing about you…. you have a point to prove… and you’re about to suck at proving it… but I’ll let you try anyways. Go on. Give it a go!

Ladies, I know you’re at least at the legal age of making your own decisions, but before you decide to get a tattoo, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A secret you may have not fully realized yet thus far in your life. What you must understand is, as women, we are – naturally – beautiful creatures.

Aww. See the trouble is that with that statement you just revealed that you don’t fucking get it because unless the next thing you are going to say is “and as a beautiful creature you can do whatever your heart desires with your own body, and tattoos are included on that list” then you are about to make a very big error.  

Seriously, though. Your body literally has the ability to turn heads. Guys drool over us. We hold some serious power in our hands, because – as corny as this sounds – we hold the world’s beauty.

Hear that ladies! Men think we are sexy! because everyone knows that everything women choose to do with their bodies is to get the attention of men!

But something girls seem to forget nowadays, or maybe have not been taught, is that women hold the world’s class and elegance in their hands, as well. So what’s more attractive than a girl with a nice body? I’ll tell you what: a girl with class. Looks may not last, but class does. And so do tattoos.

Oh joy! Aren’t we lucky ladies? We hold all the world’s class and elegance! I love essentialist shit that has been attributed to women by our oppressors so that we think that they are complimenting us when really they are saying “be quiet, be still, be calm, be seen but not heard, be clean, be neat, be soft, be tender, be of service…” what IS class. What IS elegance? Why are women who embody these things superior to women who don’t? Why are you telling me what I embody? Can’t I decide if I want to be elegant or classy or if I want to eat 6 cupcakes alone in my apartment in sweatpants watching spongebob with greasy hair and my gut all hanging out? Why can’t I do whatever it is that makes me happy and makes me feel comfortable? 

An elegant woman does not vandalize the temple she has been blessed with as her body.

She also doesn’t hate on other women for superficial shit and make them feel as though by doing what they like with their “temple” they are somehow betraying their role in society and diminishing their value…

She appreciates it. She flaunts it. She’s not happy with it? She goes to the gym.

Or she’s happy with it even without going to the gym and she puts 6 more cupcakes in it… and she flaunts it only if she is comfortable doing so… and she again appreciates it MORE when other women don’t shame her for doing whatever she wants with it… 

She dresses it up in lavish, fun, trendy clothes, enjoying trips to the mall with her girlfriends. She accentuates her legs with high heels. She gets her nails done. She enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with.

Does she? I’m beginning to get the sinking suspicion that you’re going to have a lot more problems with this particular “she” than just tattoos… I also really REALLY hate being essentialized and told that my temple is due for a mani-pedi and a mall trip. I love that a lot of ladies like to do their temple that way but me personally I like to take my temple entirely different places and do entirely different things with it. Like… riding my bike to protests and wearing the same t-shirt 3 days in a row! Is that suitable temple maintenance or no? What about sneakers? Can I or can I not drink from the soy milk carton? Am I in danger or forfeiting my pronouns if I go a certain amount of time between trips to the mall? Is there a specific quota that I should maintain of “girlfriends”?

But marking it up with ink? That’s just not necessary.

PHEW! finally. I have been waiting for you to tell me that something wasn’t necessary because the list of things I should be doing in order to be the blessed venus godess of all things elegant classy and beautiful in the world was really long and quite frankly, looking at it, I am way way behind… 

I’m not here to say a girl should walk around flaunting her body like it’s her job – that’s just degrading.

Oh good more rules. 

Instead of getting a tattoo, a more productive use of your time would be improving and appreciating the body you have been given, not permanently engraving it.

First, I think you’ve been misinformed about the tattoo process… and I am also going to say a big hairy fuck you to the suggestion that I should be spending my time improving my body. I like my squishy lumpy body. A lot. It doesn’t need to be improved… actually it can’t be improved. It can be changed, but that will only make it different, not better. See “improved” would imply that being some ways is bad and other ways are good, and though I understand that the idea of being accepting of yourself and others seems foreign to you, believe me when I say that improvement is not obtained in a gym any more than it is obtained at a chocolate shop. 

Can you get meaning out of a tattoo? Arguably. If you want to insert ink into your skin as a symbol for something greater than yourself, then maybe you are proving a point to yourself or the rest of the world.

Can you shame a person into fitting into your ideas of what a woman should or shouldn’t be? Arguably. If you want to write a tirade about inserting ink into your skin as a symbol for somehow lessening your worth as a woman to men and society as a whole, then maybe you are making yourself feel better about your own choice to not get tattoos.  

But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person?

So happy. 

Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth?

Has this blog post made you feel better about yourself for judging other people and making them feel like their bodies are wrong made you feel like an important person? Do you feel more connected to other women? Do you think you have done any woman anywhere a service by shaming a choice she has made for herself? Are you helping anything by propping up the same tired and specific standards of beauty and conduct for all women?

Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo.

Wrong. Tattoos come out of getting tattoos. Very few people only have one… 

You get a tattoo, and that’s it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That’s a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink.

….because people who get tattoos leave the shop and NEVER DO ANYTHING ELSE EVER AGAIN. Of course! 

Invest your time, money, and effort into a gym membership, or yoga classes, or new clothes, or experimenting with different hairstyles if you’re craving something new with your body, not a tattoo.

Or get a tattoo and do all of those things also. Or get 10 tattoos and some take-out, maybe rent a doc, rescue a dog, go for a run, then do your hair… take your books back to the library… empty the kitty litter… Shit! There are a million things you can do to pass the time! Tattoos only take a few hours… There’s no need to put that other stuff off. 

I promise, it will be a much more rewarding experience, and you won’t find yourself in a rut when your future grandkids ask you what’s up with the angel wings on your upper back as you’re in the middle of giving them a life lesson on the importance of values and morals.

Because your grandkids will 1) exist for sure 2) think that you are talking some SHIT because clearly you aren’t a moral authority if you have a tattoo of wings on your back (it’s not a pentagram on your forehead… come on. But, then again, if it was, maybe they’d listen more carefully to you because you’re intimidating as hell) 3) what makes you think that kids two generations from now will have your same rigid, obsessive, judgemental, gender-specific attitudes about tattoos? Don’t you think that your having raised their parents and them might contribute to a more accepting and non-judgemental attitude overall about not essentializing women or degrading and shaming them based on superficial bullshit like some art on their skin?

God knows the last thing this world needs is another generation of kids questioning their basic values and morals.

but what we REALLY need is another person telling women what they ought to be, how they need to look doing it. Thanks for making me feel like I’m doing it wrong, that I should be ashamed of myself, my body, my clothes, my hair, my non-existent gym membership, my choice to never have grand children, and oh yeah, everything you said about tattoos. Those are some great values and morals you have there… tearing other women down so that you feel better about your own choices is truly an elegant and classy way to conduct yourself. We could all learn a thing or two from you about respect. 

Email: lisa.khoury@ubspectrum.com

I will! Thanks. 

(Source: fundock)