question of etiquette

[wickedflea]

Is it appropriate to compliment a woman on her facial hair? Like, "Nice goatee, ma'am." "Fantastic facial bush, Kathy."

This is actually a question I've had for several years, but it had never really come up until this summer. When I was at Columbia, there was a woman staying in my building who had a full-grown goatee. I'm not talking about a few hairs scattered about on the chin, either -- I'm talking about a full-on, old-school, fuckin' Billygoat Gruff goatee a good three or four inches long. And she didn't seem to be in any sort of transitional phase, either; she wore skirts and heels and makeup, and she was -- well, dammit, she was a woman. (I got a very butch lesbian classmate who's much better than I at these sorts of calls to confirm this for me.)

I never did figure out why she was there, either. Almost everyone staying in the building was there for the publishing course, except for three Germans who were there to steal our bagels and coffee, and the goateed woman. Perhaps her purpose was merely to strike fear into the hearts of a bunch of publishing neophytes. She certainly did that.

Comments

[notmyworld.livejournal.com]

Wow - you must have finally met my ex-wife! Tell her "hi" for me, could ya? Thanks.

[dangerpest.livejournal.com]

There is no proper way to approach a female about facial hair. There a girl at the coffee place i go to that has sideburns that would put lemmy from motorhead to shame.
-p