One of the things that has struck me over the last year or so is how often women create women's spaces for themselves without naming them as such. This actually occured to me for the first time when I was invited to a Christmas party at a local beauty salon (I go there to get my legs waxed sometimes)-- they put on a bit of a do with drinks and nibbles, and everyone who turned up was female. I know that the beauty industry as a whole is about women fitting ourselves-- often torturing ourselves-- into unrealistic moulds: the industry as a whole is about enabling the idea that women's bodies are things that need to be controlled. Knowing this, I wasn't expecting what I found at that party: a hugely diverse number of women: though most of us were relatively privileged (after all, we were all wealthy enough that we could go to a beauty salon at least once a year), we were different in terms of race and size, occupations and interests-- and there was a really excellent sense of supportive women's community there. I've only had my legs waxed once this year, and I think that my main reason for doing it was that I wanted to secure my invite to this year's party. :P

Anyway, I've noticed that we often create little women's spaces for ourselves, but we need to cloak them in something socially acceptable-- and by socially acceptable, I mean, cloak them with something that reinforces discourses through which women are controlled. I've already mentioned the beauty industry, but the whole "girls' night" thing strikes me as another one-- these are often typified by "chick flicks" that encourage women into conservative heteronormative relationships, and activities for which women are belittled-- of course, even the name "girls' night' is a belittling when you're referring to adult women.