Categories: Random Musings
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by Candy • Monday, February 18, 2008 at 06:39 AM
I’ve been pondering makeover stories (and its Mirror Universe Twin, the reverse-makeover), the way make-up is treated in fiction, and the different things make-up signifies in our culture ever since I saw the Avon Cover Deathmatch.
I don’t wear make-up, personally. Part of it is laziness and general incompetence. Holy shit, I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning and making sure my hair doesn’t attempt to confound mathematicians and physicists by demonstrating in the concrete that there are at least 88,000 dimensions in the universe, each inhabited by an individual strand of my hair. I don’t need to be jabbing pencils at my eye or attempting to make sure the red stuff doesn’t go anywhere but my lips when I have things like “make hair obey fundamental laws of physics” to worry about.
But part of my aversion to make-up is also an attempt to reject what I think of as arbitrary cultural standards of beauty that requires us to mask minor blemishes, and that make big deals out of inconsequentialities--eerily smooth skin, for example, seems to be a The Thing Everyone Needs to Aim For. It’s one of those things that I get on a visceral level (ooooo lookit so soft), but at the same time, I am, to put it mildly, intellectually ambivalent about the idea that a certain sort of impossible youthful ideal is what we should aspire to.
But make-up can be art, usually in one of two contexts: when it’s used subtly to enhance your natural features--so subtly that you don’t even notice it’s there--and when it’s used in a deliberately overt fashion to make a statement. The awkward space in-between I don’t generally find attractive. My friend Chris crystallized it for me when he pointed out that there’s a difference between well-applied artifice and self-consciousness through foundation. It’s why I find dark, smudgy eyeliner incredibly hot on both boys and girls, but especially boys, and for entirely different reasons. For girls, it’s mostly aesthetic appreciation. For boys, there’s the aesthetic appreciation and an indication that they’re willing to transgress certain gender norms.
One thing I’ve noted is that as people are used as visual commodities, we tend to remove traces of our animality. This happened with women first: for example, as parts of their body were exposed to the public gaze, body hair is systematically removed, either shaved off by the person, omitted by the painter or airbrushed away in post-production. Part of it’s practical too, I suppose: it’s difficult to depict body hair; it often comes across as grime. Men were largely exempt from this for a long time, but shaving and waxing off body hair has become much more common in recent times, and I think a large part of it’s due to the greater visibility of male models and gay porn. The use of make-up is, I think, part of the drive to mask certain parts of our animal nature (zits, hair anywhere other than the head) and to artificially emphasize the parts deemed sexually desirable (lips, eyes).
(I think, by the way, that my explanation accounts for the rise of anal bleaching. Visibility and acceptance of buttsex = increased need to make buttholes appear pristine and a work of abstract art.)
However, enough about my conflicted attitudes and thoughts about make-up! (I could write a 50-page paper on the issue. Oh, to be a woman’s studies major instead of a law student.) On to the conflicted attitudes towards make-up in romance novels!
I like the reverse makeover story when it symbolizes an effort/result of the heroine simplifying her life. Its very freeing.
I also enjoy any story that emphasizes the arbitrary nature of perceived beauty.’Cause as it is so often expressed on this site “like damn and whoa”, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
verifications word: hair65, yes I have had 65 hairdos thruout my 40 yrs from Dorothy Hammill bowl, to college punk/feminista crewcut to my current mane a la lionesse
“Not too many romance novels have been written in which the experienced, sexually mature woman gets the man when pit against a younger, softer, more innocent rival.”
This made me think of Gone With the Wind and My Best Friend’s Wedding, which are bad examples because they DON’T get the man they’re after but not terrible examples because at least they’re the protagonist. I don’t know if Scarlett and Julia Roberts’ character are really painted as more sexually experienced, but they are both up against a really annoyingly sweet and innocent rival. I really feel like I should be able to find a GOOD example but nothing’s springing to mind.
Also, hooray for men in eyeliner.
See, I like the Moonstruck approach to the makeover story. Nicolas was into cher before she went and got a makeover and a fierce opera outfit and became the CHER we all know and love.
So the makeover was just icing on the proverbial cake not the reason for the lovin’.
Because CHER knows personally that a Bob Mackie gown can only do so much and then you better be able to belt out a rockin’ song to bring the house down.
I’d like a story in which the heroine is fully aware of how beautiful she is. Not in a nasty way, mind you, because then she wouldn’t be the heroine. I’m thinking in a self-confident way. Maybe she’s built like a real woman, maybe she’s built like a stick, maybe she’s blond, maybe she’s brunette, her eyes may be blue or green. But she knows *she* looks good as she is, and what’s more, sees this same beauty in women who look very differently than she does. I can dream :)
RJ said on...I’m afraid to ask, but ... anal bleaching? Never heard of it, will I be happier if I leave it at that and don’t wiki it?
I don’t know either, RJ, and personally I’m too afraid to google. I’ll just let you check it and report back, k?
Well, it certainly doesn’t sound like a do-it-yourself type project, yet somehow it’s not really something you want to have someone else help you with either…
Anal bleaching - how would you like to have *that* job?
Back to makeup - don’t wear much personally and now that I think about it, I don’t spend much time describing my characters makeup habits either. Hmmm…
Janice said on...Hmm, yes, conflicted is the word. Half of it is some kind of change of mindset by the heroine - an increase in confidence about herself, but then the other half is - she needs to look good for her to feel good about herself? So.. it depends on how seriously you take it I suppose. I feel conflicted about this everywhere, not just romance novels. It’s a huge kettle of fish I tells ya. I take it like this: you can make yourself look nice and make the extra effort and its all good and fine, but mostly (if you dont count massive surgery), there’s not a huge amount you can do to change how you look. Exercising and eating right may lose you weight but it won’t change your nose and eyes and haircolor and lip shape and height and a million other physical things. You CAN work on what’s inside and change it significantly. It’s like that Golden Girls episode where Blanche wants a promotion, and spends money on a degree, and her competition spent the same amount on a buttlift and got the job - “One day her butt will turn to mush, but I’ll ALWAYS have my degree!”
MplsGirl said on...I would imagine it becomes hard to write about anyone that is other than traditionally beautiful if the writer is trying to make the book appeal to a mass audience. Beauty is such a subjective concept, that perhaps it’s easiest to use the stereotypes? I wonder how well romance books sell when the characters are not beautiful?
Elizabeth Boyle recently wrote a beautiful bad-girl gets the guy story, His Mistress by Morning. The heroine is the most notorious mistress in all of London, she’s beautiful and sophisticated, and in the end she gets her happily ever after.
P.C. Cast’s Goddess of Spring flouts the beauty thing. The hero is looking for his soul mate and isn’t concerned with physical beauty.
Anal bleaching? Ouch!? Jeez, I must live in a cave; I had no idea that was done. I’m still working up the courage try a Brazilian bikini wax . . .
Lisa, I wrote one like that. Of course, said heroine was a courtesan, but she knew how beautiful she was and she used it to its full advantage.
As per heroine getting makeover and therefore Wonderful New Life with Wonderful New Love Interest, I’ve just finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s Remember Me?, in which the heroine, who has crappy job, crappy teeth, crappy hair, etc. wakes up after an accident to find it’s three years later and her life is perfect. Amnesia has erased the story of how she came to be thin and gorgeous and living in a perfect apartment with a perfect man, but bit by bit she starts to realise it’s not so perfect, and that all the new cosmetic changes are just that, cosmetic. I won’t give away the ending but there is of course someone who loves her despite her eating carbs.
All I can say is, it took years and years and a round with Accutaine before I felt like I wouldn’t frighten small children if I left the house without a quart of cosmetic spackle on my face to cover the blotches and scars(my brother actually did make a child cry; we have wicked nasty acne problems in my family!) It took me three or four years to get used to tinted moisturizer or mineral make up instead, but I’m there.
I’ll still never go completely naked. My face is so red (from scarring, and also because my skin has so little melanin you can take my pulse from across the room in veins three inches deep) that my face looks like a new born baby’s without the wrinkles. Red and raw and angry. There’s nothing I can really do about it, either. My skin is so sensitive that I’ve had to go to olive oil as moisturizer because even the hypoallergenic moisturizers make me break out in a rash. Actually, it’s helping my skin calm down and almost, almost has my cheeks looking the right color. Not yet, though. And probably (unfortunately) not ever. On the upside, I save a ton in blusher--I just put the tinted moisturizer on my cheeks a little thin and have a healthy glow. :-)
So I don’t think of women who use make up as either desperate to look young and/or more beautiful than they are or tarted up whores--maybe, like me, they’d just like to look like themselves, only without the obvious scars.
Here’s a HaBO: years ago I read a book where the heroine (narrating in first person) had a disfiguring facial birthmark. It was set in C19th England, and of course a lot of people considered her cursed. Her sister was very beautiful, which only compounded the problem, but in the end the ‘ugly’ sister (it might have been called that, I’m not sure) did get a happy ending.
Oh, yeah, and ditto on the boys in eyeliner. Teh hotness!
Oh Kaite, I’m so with you. My acne was never severe but it did dent my confidence tremendously, and I’d never leave the house without foundation. I’d happily forego all other make-up, but not my foundation and concealer.
I did read once that acne was your body’s way of repelling mates because you’re not sexually ready yet. Fine when you’re sixteen; makes less sense when you’re thirty-five and have three kids.
Cat, really ought to get back to work now…
boys in eyeliner: Hot!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirimoonsong/866056539/in/set-72157600939733690/
Not that i’m pimping my Flickr site again, but I thought i’d share my sister and I followed this poor guy around all afternoon! Hot!
The beauty/booty makeover for the heroine for me was always a fun read, I always took it as a sort of the outside reflecting the inside when it was done right. The ones I liked the best was when the hero was sort of oblivious to the change because that’s the way he’d seen her all along. *sigh*
Lisa,
Try Christie Ridgway’s The Care and Feeding of Unmarried Men. The heroine is a hot, sexually experienced and dominant big-chested blond and uses her looks for her own benefit CONSTANTLY, usually to distract lovers from intimacy with the whole “he’s trying to see my real self! Quick! It’s time to whip out my boobs! Double-D Distractions Ahoy!”
Naturally, she ends up falling for a guy who’s looking for the Real Deal, not just Real Nice Tits.
It’s actually a really good read. I’d recommend it.
As for make-up, I’ve just started using it, but it’s because I’m terribly unphotogenic. Lots of times make-up is used - especially in the entertainment industry - because it reflects the light differently (read: better). I watched a behind-the-scenes bonus feature on “Veronica Mars” the other day, when she’s being interviewed on a handicam, and she looked like a tart with all those cosmetics - but on screen, with all the professional cameras and lighting, she looked fine.
P.S. Candy are you fixing to see Penelope?
snarkhunter said on...My skin’s worse now than it was when I was a teenager--I’m nearly 29! (Seriously, what did I do to deserve bizarrely awful back acne--the latest punishment--on top of the fact that I am allergic to my own sweat?) So makeup feels like more of a necessity than a luxury to me, most days. Just some basic powder or a very light foundation can at least control the oil problem on my face, and make me feel capable of functioning.
I hate my skin. But I embrace makeup, b/c in addition to helping me feel more like myself, as Kaite said, it’s fun. It’s like playing dress-up. For me, jewelry and makeup can be like armor or warpaint, and I love a heroine who recognizes that. When you’re out to intimidate, you go for the makeup that will help you do that. When you want to look soft and innocent (since I naturally look like a china doll half the time anyway, this is not a look I go for), you go for that makeup.
Darla said on...Oddly enough, my husband told me about anal bleaching. He saw it on an episode of Nip/Tuck. A porn star was asked to have her orifice bleached because, evidently, it looked dark and discolored and fug-ugly on camera. I was tempted to say, now I’ve heard it all. But I didn’t, because I’m sure I haven’t.
When I was a teenager, Boots’ 17 make-up range was launched with pictures of girls armed with giant mascara wands and duelling with lipsticks, and the tagline: It’s not make-up. It’s ammunition.
I know I’ve used it as a diversionary tactic more than once. Bad skin, hair looking crap--add more eyeliner, no one will notice.
I’m old enough to remember the Dark Ages of Romance (aka “Bodice Rippers") as well as Madison Avenue’s pitches of “Blondes Have More Fun” and “Only Your Hairdresser Knows For Sure.” Housewives were told that they needed to primp and be beautiful in order to keep their men because OMG!!1! WOMEN were entering the workplace and ZOMG!!1! wearing short skirts and burning their bras! And if you were one of those single women having to work because you hadn’t yet found a man to support you, full hair and makeup were guaranteed to get you noticed so the boss would ask you out, bend you over his desk and....yeah. Anyway…
Frankly, I mostly quit reading romances for years because heroines were young, beautiful, busty and TSTL. I eventually came back to the genre because some of them finally got some sense, but they are still mostly young/er, beautiful (even if they don’t realize it) and their figures are more sane rather than some male’s pubescent wet dream. Now that I am a mature woman, I would LOVE to see (and would buy!) romances with mature heroines - older women secure in their sexuality and secure in themselves. Are they not sexy? Are they less deserving of their HEA? Agents, writers, and editors out there...would you wade in on this issue? I’m curious as to what the industry reaction is to a heroine and story out of the tried and true.
senetra said on...I’ve worn makeup fewer than 6 times in my life: the prom, my wedding, and Star Trek conventions. I don’t like the feel of it on my face; it’s very mask-like to me.
I used to work with some women whose makeup regimen was so intense that when they came to work without, I could barely recognize them. They were shades lighter and washed-out looking, but nothing a little sun wouldn’t have fixed. They were olive-skinned, so less chance of burning.
I don’t know if I have a point, but I do have two books off the top of my head where the sexually experienced heroine won over the innocent virgin. I think that the fact that the hero and heroine were married had something to do with it made a difference, though.
Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s Mirrors and Mistakes had a heroine whose husband told her that he’d met someone else while away, and the heroine figured that possession was 9/10ths of the law, and if sex had to be her weapon of choice, then so be it. The book is from the early 80s and a little dated, but still a good character-based story. I even have an extra copy to lend.
The second book is Laurey Bright’s A/The Perfect Marriage (SIM 621). There is adultery, and maybe the heroine might have been a little passive, but that was her character. The hero discovered the grass wasn’t greener, and HEA. The book worked for me, but YMMV.
I was going to comment on how I don’t really notice makeup in romance, but I do. It’s always when some overly made-up man-trapping vagina (also known as the other woman/villain) enters the scene.
darlynne said on...Populating romance novels with beautiful or soon-to-be-beautiful characters makes me grind my teeth less than when another genre, particularly mystery, does the same. I have deliberately avoided mysteries whose blurbs included “beautiful” to describe the female forensic expert, detective, reporter, blah blah blah. Perhaps that’s because beauty is the third leg on the romance novel footstool and I’m conditioned to accepting it.
It’s so unnecessary, though; physical beauty will never be the reason I am attracted to or intrigued by characters in any novel. Since I can’t picture them in any detail as it is, it’s their actions and words that scintillate and move me. Otherwise, they’re just little stick figures humping--or anal bleaching--in my head.
How many people do any of us know personally who are truly beautiful, real show-stoppers? I can think of one in my 50-plus years of existence. There are many attractive people, but most of us are made up of parts that don’t particularly go well together. And that is real beauty.
I will read the comments and the rest of the post shortly, but first I gotta say: adorable picture of you, Candy!!!
I learn something new every day. Today I learned that I write villainess as heroine romances. LOL! Fuck Snow White tempting the whole would with her sweet innocence*. Give me the “I could be evil if I wanted to, but today I’m in too good a mood” bitch who just plain tempts!
*This clearly falls under my oft mentioned policy of ingénue = yawn.
Sherb said on...Candy, I think our hair is related somehow. I keep mine long because, holy mother of God if it doesn’t have some weight to it to pull it down! I’ve had many a morning that it looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket during changeable high winds while coating the whole mess with hairspray. You’re a brave woman to take a pic of morning hair and post it on the internet!
Anyway, I’ve actually read some books, (LaNora has written several) where the heroine is intelligent and beautiful (with the knowledge of how to use enhancements) and aware of all that, but not in a snotty, wanna-slap-her-silly or evil way. Her In Death series has secondary characters who are fully aware of their attractiveness, but aren’t evil with it; of course, the heroine of the In Deaths is neither aware of her attractiveness nor cares a whit about it. Personally, I’m a former won’t-leave-the-house-without-full-makeup type of gal who now barely remembers to put on sunblock moisturizer every morning. When I do decide to put on makeup, I stick with a less-is-more method in tones close to my natural skin tone. Even my mascara is only a shade darker than my hair. Like I’ve told my daughter: if someone can list what makeup you’re wearing, you’re not applying the right colors in the right way.
That said, I enjoy the makeover stories when there is more than just physical changes occurring. When the physical changes are a result of inner growth, yaaay. When the physical changes are a result of an “I’ll show you” or “I hate myself” attitude which result in only physical, not emotional or psychological change, I dislike them intensely. Book meets wall. If the only reason the hero “sees” the heroine is because of the physical changes, another introduction of book to wall.
And gee, thanks, for the mental picture the mention of anal bleaching put into my head this morning. I’ve never heard of it, but just the two words: anal + bleaching + mental piture of bleaching facial hair = nasty, nasty mental picture. Ick and ouch.
I did read once that acne was your body’s way of repelling mates because you’re not sexually ready yet. Fine when you’re sixteen; makes less sense when you’re thirty-five and have three kids. [\quote]Ye-what? If that’s the case, I’m still not sexually ready at 34, because I’ll get little bitty baby zits every so often. Nothing like it was before, but I had that until I was...25? So, yeah. New meaning to the term “late bloomer”. :-o
I recall at one point seeing a documentary about Dusty Springfield and her eyeliner/lashes. She was so terrified of performing on stage, that she started using the heavy liner and thick lashes as a ‘mask’--because really heavy eyeliner does mask your emotions (if nothing else, it freezes your facial emotions by hiding the true line of your eyelids). I thought it was fascinating, because until that point (I think I was about 25 or so) I hadn’t realized you could use make up to disguise yourself like that! *shakes head* Talk about naive....
I can totally relate to the frustration with the “reverse makeover.” That was the only problem I had with the last romance I read, Suzanne Brockmann’s Out of Control. The hero meets the heroine when she’s all disheveled and falls for her, and when she gets back into her regular high-powered lawyer gear, he’s freaked out, and says, among other things, that she looks like her mother, that her business clothing is ugly, and that she should be wearing *his* clothing with no bra instead. Some of these insults are supposed to be just that, while others are “cutesy” flirting. There’s no acknowledgment on his part that a barely-five-feet-tall woman who looks like a Kewpie Doll might have to dress a little severe to get anyone to take her seriously in the courtroom.
kaetchen said on...Another angle: often the ‘makeover’ doesn’t just make the person look better, but feel better about how they look. I think that that’s the kicker.
I started doing stage and film makeup 15 years ago, and then got into photography and performance myself. So I knows some makeup. But it’s simply a tool. One of the best burlesque dancers I know is in her late 40’s, saggy, and bucktoothed (no kidding!). But she’s *fantastic* - and it’s all attitude and talent. Is she ‘beautiful?’ Uh, no. Is she attractive? Hell, yeah.
I’d love to see a story where the heroine learns some of this for herself, instead of having someone else come in and ‘fix’ them. A Galatea without %*#&ing Pygmalion - how refreshing!!
Funny, I’m writing a makeover story right now. Then again, it’s not really a makeover, as far as makeup and a new hairstyle, just pretty dresses and heels. She’s not discovering she’s pretty or hoping to attract a certain man. The heroine is a mechanic, so she spends all her work time in coveralls and boots. When she decides to go buy a dress and heels and get her a little strange, it’s because she’s just beginning to realize all the dreams she gave up earlier in life. She’s symbolically throwing off the coveralls and becoming the woman she’d once thought she would be, if only for a few hours.
But to suit my own personal tastes, the hero was there, noticing her in her coveralls before she ever put on a dress. The dress is more like a sign that she is looking for action. “Vacancy. Please inquire within.”
shaunee said on...I’ve always viewed make up as fun dress-up time. Lipstick and eye shadow help to reflect what kind of mood I’m in. Shy but slutty, a gunk-load of mascara, a light colored shadow on the lids and blush colored lipstick glossed up to porn star proportions. Aloof but drool-worthy, liquid eyeliner and red lips a la Marilyn. Most days, I’m like Candy and go without, mostly because I’d rather sleep longer than get up and put crap on my face.
Still, I’ve always noticed the make-up discrepancy in romances. Off the top of my head didn’t the heroine in Jude Devereaux’s Knight in Shining Armor discreetly apply make up while she was cavorting in the 16th century? I believe she did and I believe I applauded her when she shaved her legs in a fountain.
Re anal bleaching: I can’t help but be horrified by the bleaching process. I’m imagining a degrading horror that includes a bottle of Clorox and sun lamps. Please, someone tell me that it isn’t as uncomfortable as I think it is.
Huh, I just wear make up because I LIKE it. No deep thoughts, sorry.
I’m short, chubby, and acne-scarred, I wear glasses and usually don’t wear makeup or style my hair. (Also happily married; when I was dating, I was a little thinner, wore makeup a little more but had raging acne—foundation doesn’t work on my skin; it gets too dry and patchy and oh look, I’m sharing too much—and didn’t wear glasses.) I’ll doll myself up once in a while, but usually, I just can’t be bothered. Then again, I work out of my house usually and am exhausted frequently from having two full-time jobs and two young kids.
When I do do the makeup thing, there’s an entire process involved that’s perilously close to a ritual.
When I created Jezebel, I wanted her to go through some of the angst I go through when I do the makeup/hairstyle/leg-shaving thing. Jezzie isn’t gorgeous. She’s short, has an overbite, and describes herself as “second-glance pretty” when she doesn’t wear makeup.
But what she does have is confidence. She’s a succubus, no matter whether she’s a demon or a human, and her sexuality shines through. That makes her utterly breath-taking.
Confidence. The other white meat.
That’s one of the things I love about Jennifer Crusie’s Bet Me - that (a) the heroine’s epiphany (helped by the hero) is that she doesn’t NEED a makeover, she’s perfect as she is, round and un-model-like but very, very hot; and (b) the ex-girlfriend gets a happy ending, too (and one that’s much better for her than if the hero had stuck with her in the first place).
Shaunee said: Re anal bleaching: I can’t help but be horrified by the bleaching process. I’m imagining a degrading horror that includes a bottle of Clorox and sun lamps. Please, someone tell me that it isn’t as uncomfortable as I think it is.
I can’t be the only one to remember a product called Porcelaina - a skin bleaching cream to lighten age spots on hands and faces. Why am I now picturing an infomercial for PORCELANAL - THE BLEACH FOR YOUR MOST INTIMATE PLACES…
RStewie said on...I wear makeup if I have to impress someone. Meeting the auditor to review my program? Makeup, skirt, nylons, jewelery. Meeting my boss to review my program? Slacks, cardigan, no makeup.
I read recently a book that had a young-ish heroine, previously ruined by a stableboy, I think, who wore makeup and patches and wigs to great advantage. The hero couldn’t stay away from her hawtness. Also, most Robin Schone books have a natural heroine. One even had...gasp...gray hair!
But I’ve noticed for myself the impact of romance novels, fairy tales, and magazine and billboard ads. When can we, especially in the Romance Novel department (dominated by female writers for female ausiences) throw off these conventions and start writing the truth: my T&A might have lured in my Hawty other half, but it’s the me *Inside* that keeps him coming back with the whip crean and handcuffs after ten years together.
I’ll read ANY book by ANY author that manages to portray *that* in a book, because that’s the true romance.
The exception being women of color - who are often given animal qualities esp. in print media to imply rampant sexuality. Their animal qualities are often used to show inherent, deep sexuality (think jungle cat).
I was thinking about things like this over the week-end thanks to reading an article in my husband’s Playboy (The Sexual Male, Part Four: The Look of Love). The article essentially breaks down the most recent scientific theories about what attracts us to one another.
I found the whole thing depressing - I suppose because it makes me feel as though so much of human behavior is driven by things outside of our conscious will (Scott Adams’ “moist robot” theory striking again). Across cultures men are attracted to beauty and women are attracted to status. In several ways what’s considered beautiful is universally the same, but then cultural cues can also play a part - such as how the preference for women with some body fat is considered desirable except in western cultures where the leaner body is currently the “standard”.
I’ve been ambivalent about make up my whole life, though I eventually gave in and started using it regularly. I remember my mom called the process of getting made up “putting on my face” and that’s always stuck with me: that notion that the real purpose of make up is to create an illusory you to show to the world; the real you is to be left at home for only intimates to see.
Some time ago I saw an anthropological study on make up. Unsurprisingly, the conclusion was that its purpose is to enhance the physical characteristics which males focus on first when determining attraction (eyes, mouth) and to minimize flaws in order to create a greater overall picture of good health (foundation to smooth out blemishes).
I like how people have been able to play with those concepts...I’m thinking of males using make up as well as people such as Amy Winehouse with her exaggerated eye make up. It seems a way of saying “look at me” even while hiding the real person behind a screen. (As does all make up, at the heart of it - it’s just most noticeable, it seems, when it’s used in an unexpected way.)
As respects the make-over story, I have mixed feelings. In some ways, those stories seem to be about characters coming into a realization of who they are and coming into the power that’s inherent in displaying characteristics of the feminine ideal. Show such as What Not to Wear always include a part post make-over section where the person speaks of a realization of how much of themselves they were hiding behind baggy clothes and wild hair. The process of making over their outside begins a process of strengthening their inside and raising self-esteem. Stories that focus on that aspect of a make-over I can appreciate since it’s a taking stock of self for the sake of self and deciding to use human nature to one’s advantage. Make-over stories that are about other things - things related to changing oneself in order to become a particular person’s ideal - those I have a harder time appreciating. It makes me feel impatient that the hero of the story has to be practically hit over the head with the illusory heroine in order to appreciate the real heroine that’s been there all along.
“I’m short, chubby, and acne-scarred, I wear glasses and usually don’t wear makeup or style my hair.”
Jackie, I’ve met you in person, and I don’t see you in the light you portray yourself. You look terrific, and if you wore makeup, I certainly didn’t notice. I think part of it is how you come across. You’re friendly and have a great personality and I thought you were pretty.
Personality—*that’s* what’s important. I think personality is what makes a person beautiful--or not. If a woman is considered a beauty, but she’s a bitch, I don’t see the beauty. I see the ugly. I don’t know if I’m making sense, but to me it’s all about the person, not what she’s wearing or not wearing on her face or body. I don’t notice looks much or size, and definitely not height. Funny little story--I honestly didn’t notice my petite federal agent friend was pushing 5’2” and I’m close to 5’ 7"--that was until I went out to lunch with her, my editor, and agent. We walked out of the restaurant and they’re all about the same height and I suddenly felt like a giant. I had never noticed individually my friend’s, agent’s, or editor’s heights until that moment when I was towering over everyone.
I’m wandering, but to me it doesn’t matter, makeup or no. When it comes to my books, IMO it all depends on the personality of the heroine. They’re like people we know in everyday life, so it just depends on who they are, not what they look like. But no matter what the hero finds her beautiful for who she is not what she looks like.
Although the hero has to be hot . . .
TracyS said on...Cat said, “I did read once that acne was your body’s way of repelling mates because you’re not sexually ready yet>“ So why did my acne problem start when I was 30 years old, married with two kids?! LOLOLOLOLOL
Oh yeah, hormones and PCOS. le sigh, being a woman is such a pain sometimes.
Leah said on...I used to wear makeup, in the days before I had kids. I also used to curl my hair and spray it with everything under the sun, because I have, maybe, 5 stick straight, thin hairs on my entire head. But then I had 3 kids in 4 years and the make-up/hair/nail polish pretty much had to go. I have recently started trying to remember to put makeup on again--it makes me feel like a woman, and not like “Mommy.” Imagine my dismay when I realized that the frosty pinks and mauves and sparkly eye shadow that looked fine on 33 yr old skin now look clownish on a 41 yr old!
As for the weight makeover story...on the one hand, it’s not healthy to be fat, and we should do our best to try to be healthier, because life is more fun when you can walk upstairs without hyperventilating, wear clothes that aren’t from Lane Bryant, and live to see your grandkids....but hey, I was fat when I met my husband-to-be, and it didn’t bother him at all, so it does bother me when the heroine has to lose her weight to be happy, or get her HEA.
love26--nah, take it from me, 41 is FAR better!
Kallie said on...I don’t wear a lot of make-up either. And most days not at all. However, when you have certain features/flaws, wearing make-up helps you feel less freakish.
I have these really dark circles under my deep set eyes. And it’s not because I don’t get enough sleep. Lovely genetics have tossed these my way. Without some form of concealer, I look tired & sickly.
You wouldn’t believe the number of comments I got from people on days I didn’t wear concealer. To the point that I felt like it detracted from my overall appearance so that people only focused on that one aspect of my face.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate...but it was a constant comment. Really.
So I don’t see anything inherently wrong with wanting to mask minor flaws with a bit of make-up.
Overall pancake foundation with tons of eye goo and loads of lip liner & glass? No. But a bit of subtle eye make-up does wonders for how you feel about yourself. Plus, I don’t get the comments anymore..."Oh, did you not sleep well last night?” “Oh, have you been sick?”
“Jackie, I’ve met you in person, and I don’t see you in the light you portray yourself. You look terrific, and if you wore makeup, I certainly didn’t notice. I think part of it is how you come across. You’re friendly and have a great personality and I thought you were pretty.”
Chey, I (heart) you! Thank you. I’m actually also incredibly shy. Before I went to RT, I cried because I was utterly terrified of going. But I went anyway—and I had a great time.
Heh—I wish I were as confident as the characters I write about!
Tina said on...Okay, several things:
Boys in eyeliner
I always thought that was sexy, even though it’s not a look sported by the majority of the guys I’ve dated. The funny thing is that my oldest used to wear it quite often before he went into the Navy. (He dyed his hair a lot, too, and had several piercings that I wasn’t I didn’t like nearly as well.) One of our male acquaintances was taken aback when he saw my oldest wearing the eyeliner and said something after he left along the lines of, “You don’t say anything about him leaving the house like that?” “No.” “Why not?” “Two reasons--one, some guys look hot in eyeliner and mascara and he happens to be one of them. Two, I believe in picking my battles and that seems like an awfully silly one to lose.”
Makeup, in general
I don’t wear it at all anymore, but I’ve gone through periods where I have. I did wear it much more often when I was in my early 20s and a lot more insecure. Now that I’m 41 and a heck of a lot happier, I just don’t feel like taking the time most of the time. I think I’ve always treated it like a mask to hide behind. (I also no longer bother with itchy, annoying contact lens--I wear glasses and if some guy doesn’t think I’m hot because of that, he’s a dumbass.)
Makeover Stories
It’s always bothered me a lot more in the movies than in books, for some reason. Well, I know one big reason--they take some obviously gorgeous girl, give her messy hair and put glasses on her, and we’re supposed to think she’s a hag. Take the glasses off and she’s magically transformed into a hottie. Ticks me off every time.
A couple of Makeover Stories that I did like a lot, though, were a little less conventional. Three Wishes by Jude Devereaux--the hero happens to like big girls (his mother was an opera singer and he has fond memories of all of her hot, sexy, big co-stars being around the house) and he’s a bit upset when she starts getting thinner.
There was another one and I can’t think of the name. The book opens with the heroine having been left by her husband because she’s “too fat”. Her best friend (the hero) is a personal fitness trainer (I think) and he tells her that if she’s that upset about it and she wants to loose the weight to get her husband back, he’ll help her, but he thinks she’s fine the way she is. She gets in shape, gains self-confidence, learns to love herself enough to know that she doesn’t need a guy who would leave her over her weight and certainly doesn’t want him back now that she’s lost it, and realizes (finally) that her best friend has been in love with her for years and she loves him back. I liked that story. Wish I could remember what it was called or who wrote it.
Sarah S. said on...There’s seriously wacky stuff about make-up in the 16th and 17th century literature I’ve studied. Annette Drew-Bear made something of a career as a literary critic studying cosmetics as portrayed in English Renaissance drama.
It’s been a while since I read her stuff, but the bit that sticks with me is from The Revenger’s Tragedy where a guy is poisoned by arsenic laden make-up that’s been put on the skull of his dead girlfriend. (He’s nuts, and kisses the skull’s painted mouth because, with all that make up on, he can’t tell the dead bones from the woman they used to be.)
Grisly, no?
she wants to loose the weight to get her husband back
That was supposed to be lose, not loose. Not the biggest mistake in the previous comment, but it’s the one that bothers me the most.
Oh, and the preview option isn’t currently an option.
The older I’ve gotten the less make-up I wear (I’m now in my 30s). I was the most awkward teenager imaginable with thick glasses, pimples, ever evolving hairstyles/hair colors, and a clothes budget earned from by babysitting in an era when parents paid $1/hour. College, contacts, a good haircut and a roommate who let me borrow her clothes changed a lot of that, but at best one might call me “pretty”.
My hubby and I had a special party to attend last fall and I had my hair and makeup done at a salon. When I got home my neighbor’s jaw dropped. His wife (my close girlfriend) smacked him upside the head. It’s the one and only time in my life I’ve gotten that reaction and it gave me a teeny tiny little taste of what life might have been like if I’d been willing to spend a couple hours a day to wear a boatload of carefully applied makeup, tweeze, and do my hair: FAKE. Because the real me isn’t made of makeup or hairspray.
Using the Christmas present analogy: who cares how pretty the package is? Ultimately you’re going to trash the wrapping paper and keep the gift inside. Years later, does anyone ever remember how the gift was wrapped?
Margaret Moore wrote a medieval romance about an ugly girl who lives HEA with her knight. I remember especially liking that book. Can’t recall the forgettable title.
cecille said on...I think it was in ‘The Far Pavillions’ by M.M. Kaye, if memory doesn’t fail me, in which the heroine- and here memory fails me regarding her name- wasn’t considered beautiful in her native environment, but considered beautiful after a change of location, which struck me as an interesting concept as a teenager, and a long time before a degree in anthropology.
As in ‘wow, other places have other standards of beauty’?, which seemed a pretty nifty thought as a teenager that you could just go elsewhere and be pretty. Of course these days, I know it doesn’t work quite like that, but in those days I made up one third of the local ethnic minority, couldn’t get my hands on make-up that would actually suit my skin and did definitely not fit the local beauty standard. These days I have tons of make-up, have changed location and still don’t wear make-up, except sometimes blusher in winter to avoid looking like an animated corpse.
Since I mostly read historicals, I do sometimes get my knickers in a twist over an exceedingly beautiful heroine, whose description would make her so in this century, in certain parts of the world. Hell, most of my teenage beauty problems were solved by relocation, no make-over needed. ;-)
“I’m actually also incredibly shy. Before I went to RT, I cried because I was utterly terrified of going. But I went anyway—and I had a great time.”
I would *never* have guessed this, Jackie. I thought you had poise and a very pleasant presence. You’re coming to RT again, yes? Now you’ll come back with confidence and excitement--you know you’ll have a terrific time!
Chey
This is a really great essay, and I’m going to be pondering it while I read romances for quite a while.
I am so with you on smudgy, shadowy boyliner. As far as the progression of messages about makeup/body hair/etc. goes… seems to me that the eerily smooth skin is a relatively recent emergence, and it reminds me of the even more recent tooth-bleaching thing. I never gave “yellow” teeth a single thought when I was growing up; all those ads started when I was an adult. By contrast, my son started telling us our teeth were too yellow and suggesting that we get them whitened at the insane age of 5 or 6. (which is why he doesn’t watch commercials at MY house!)
Phyllis said on...I just read a regency by Candice Hern (either picked at random from the shelf or recommended by that librarian article that’s been making the rounds) about a 35 year old widow with teenage kids who beats out her 18 year old perfect (vain) beauty of a niece and all the other pretty young things and ends up with the not quite 30 year old most eligible bachelor. The Merry Widow series. Can’t remember the title, but have requested the others in the series from the library, because all the heroines are “old” like that, especially for the time period.
As for makeup, I’ve never worn much. Or rather, I’ve never worn it regularly. My skin breaks out without it, but just explodes if I try to wear it more than very rarely.
So I have pimples *and* wrinkles. Oh hooray!
I’m one of those who has trouble remembering to do makeup--and since I’m past the half-century mark, I kinda need it. (I have bags under and over my eyes big enough to pack for a cruise--but the glasses help hide that.) Though, honestly, for my age, I have really good skin…
Anyway, I’m one of those ambivalent folks. And I do remember seeing books with gorgeous, confident heroines--Stephanie Laurens recently had one. Edith Layton (I think) did one that was a “reverse makeover” done VERY well. The heroine fell seriously ill, all her glorious hair fell out, she lost weight, etc., and didn’t know how to act when she was ugly. And she was already married to the hero. Excellent story.
Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick heroines aren’t often drop-dead beautiful. I remember several with “cute little overbites.”
The thing is, even if the heroine isn’t drop-dead gorgeous, the hero needs to think she’s beautiful--and that informs our perception of the heroine.
Another thought--there are lots of kinds of beauty. A magnolia blossom isn’t any less beautiful because it isn’t a rose… And I think romance novels do tend to recognize that. At least, the good ones do. :)
I’d list titles if I could remember them…
Ok, I admit, I’m one of those saps who does like to imagine a young, beautiful, busty heroine. I imagine the story as it unfolds in my mind, and just as I would in a Hollywood movie, I like to have someone pretty to look at.
And I’m also a big sap for makeover stories. After all, if you’re going to imagine a happy world where heroine always gets her man, wouldn’t it also be a world where your diet actually WORKED?
In fact, forget getting the hero. I’d settle for that…
wdtcm said on...Hello all—These are musings, so I there is no succinct point presented. And I do go on....:)
The implications of makeup, how and for what it is used, and how we present our faces to the world are huge!
At base is how we choose (what self) to present ourselves to the world.
I wear makeup when I go to work - it protects my skin from pollutants and I can wash off the dust picked up after walking in the city.
I usually wear makeup when I am in public or when I invite the people to my house.
I do not wear makeup when I am at home and so “not at home” to visitors.
I think it is really interesting that, in the present day, to not wear makeup is considered being more real than wearing makeup.
Though not wearing makeup presents a naked face - and so more easily read, and increases the perception of being a more authentic person, I would like to suggest that true authenticity can show up in expression, body language, clothing choices, etc. regardless of the use of makeup.
Because, as has been mentioned above, knowing who we are is internal work that manifests itself in outside presentation.
I don’t believe that beautiful grooming and makeup application equals superficiality (though, alas, it is too easy to find people who do reinforce that association).
Neither do I believe that lack of application of makeup automatically confers upon a person honesty and authenticity.
I’ve known quite a few people in my time who are master manipulators who wear no makeup at all.
More musings:
I think that putting on makeup is a great way to prepare for the day. We usually arm or steel ourselves for our forays into society - as we have to negotiate many different kinds of personalities, expectations, and interchanges through that day.
I think that, like for the best actors, (those who are grounded and who understand who they are at their center) makeup can help us inhabit the person we need to be when we go to work or enter society.
I know very few people who can be themselves, their authentic (not rude or willful) selves at work.
I don’t think wearing makeup negates a person’s authentic self. I think that a mode of dressing, a way presenting oneself that is mandated outside (business or home or societal pressures or expectations) of oneself is what is inauthentic, because it is only one part of a person’s being - and, for women, the use of makeup is a part of the total package.
I’m stopping here.
What a fascinating post :) I have also had problems with my skin and used to wear make-up to hide the scars and the pigmentation. The latter has almost gone (I found an amazing product) and I’m working on the former, but I haven’t worn make-up since I moved back to NZ (I was living in the UK and surrounded by ‘glamour pusses’).
I think that it’s not just make-up that we use to hide behind - I wear what I suppose you would call frumpy clothes and people see the clothes and not me. I use my glasses the same way. As for makeover stories...I don’t mind them as long as the hero sees the heroine (and loves her) before her ‘transformation’. Ever better, when he thinks she is beautiful regardless of what anyone else thinks - Anne Gracie’s A Perfect Rake is a great example. The hero can’t understand why no one else thinks the heroine is beautiful. He labels her ‘diamonds of the first water’ sisters as ‘yellow-haired chits’ compared to the heroine. And honestly (*trying very hard not to get up on a soap box*) I would love authors to try and avoid the cliche heroine - you know the one....with perfect skin, perfect hair (a perfect (read skinny) body and, of course, a lovely personality! Is it just me or do even the historical (Regency) heroines sound like the models of today?
For me, romances are an escape, but I find it very hard to escape when the heroine is so perfect and I am so....not! I have to say I loved Susan Mallery’s Holly & Mistletoe because the heroine, Holly, felt real to me.
orannia
Mmmmm...guyliner…
Re: Jack Sparrow
Dunno what it is about that get up, but damn that look just makes me wanna tear him into tiny little sweaty shreds.
*sound of loose hair beads rolling across wooden ship’s deck*
sandra said on...Phyllis: The Candace Hern book is JUST ONE OF THOSE FLINGS. The other two published so far are LADY BE BAD and IN THE THRILL OF THE NIGHT. There should be at least two more books in the series.
I’m not reading through the comments, so likely I’ll miss something, but speaking as a reader who prefers romances as a sub plot to other things… this is why. I got tired of feeling this way really early in life and it kills a book for me if the heroine is perfect. I am slowly getting into romance, especially paranormal and erotica, but nothing kills my interest in a book faster than these themes.
KateyJ said on...Whatever you do, guys, don’t read Survival of the Prettiest, by Nancy Etcoff, if you want to feel good about yourselves. It sure depressed me for a while.
Or do, if you want to to know more about why gentlemen prefer blonds, child-like beauty is what the heroine always wears, why guys are such pervs for younger women.
And of course it also looks at why women love a nice, strong-jawed, dark haired man and maybe not someone who is short and pudgy.
It’s great that modern romance writers are taking heroines in romances beyond the obvious and going against type for the heroines by using plump girls, or ‘unfashionable’ girls. But now you mention it, the makeover scenes - I like them, though intellectually I deplore them. I LOVE love love Jane Eyre because there IS no makeover! It can be done!
AND, I WOULD like to see just a few more well-written romance novels with a guy who is against type (and not just ‘unfashionable’ according to whatever the period of the story is), just for kicks. I read one once that turned me off because the hero ended up manipulating events and the girl totally to get her in the end - bleah!
Gimme a love story about short Corsicans! I don’t care! And if he marries a short chubby girl, it might even rock my world.
I get a vicarious thrill when reading about a beautiful heroine who doesn’t have major body image issues. I think it’s a harmless part of the fun, just like the part where the hero is tall, handsome, and rich. No, it’s not real life, and that’s why it is escapist fiction, not realistic fiction.
I absolutely loved how the heroine in Anne McCaffrey’s Restoree turned from an ugly duckling to a swan without diet, exercise, or contact lenses and tweezing. How? Invaders from space snatched her and made her over while she was...unconscious.
And Jane Eyre does so get a makeover--but it’s all mental.
An awful lot of women date themselves horribly by wearing makeup whose style they haven’t changed since their teens. Same with hair and eyebrows that they set in one style and never alter. And these are not necessarily styles that flatter their features, as “What Not to Wear” often points out. Just styles that were fashionable at one time. Updating to current fashion will improve their look--until fashion shifts again.
Like these modern fashion victims, a heroine who is unaware of the power of appearance does need wising up. Turning a modest young thing into a sexpot is not the point. Helping her find her inner confidence is. Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester had a heroine who was always dressed in colors that washed her out. The hero had a better eye for color than she did (she only cared about horses) and was able to help her choose clothing that did her justice. She wasn’t turned into the belle of the ball, but she looked her best, which gave her self-confidence. And that after all is the major point of careful attention to appearance.
The other point, as various people have said, is armor. But full-bore makeup is not as de rigeur in our culture as it used to be, so if you or your heroine choose to skip it, the issue becomes one of whether that choice is appropriate to the circumstances. A candidate for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had better learn plenty about makeup. And wear it. People with other ambitions might be able to get away with far less.
I have a confession.
Once I was picked to go on TV and get a makeover. I wear glasses, am barely over 5’1” and wallow in my geekiness. Plus I was turning 30 and they were all excited that they could make over nerdy little o’ me.
I actually applied because one of my best friends is an actress and said that Tyra Banks was looking for girls who like video games to get a makeover. I thought, hey! Free haircut!
Turns out, they were looking for an Ugly Betty *laugh* and wanted to experiment to see if “sexiness” mattered in dealing with the world.
So after all that make up and the $200 hair cut, the producer said I looked really great and seemed to get slimmer though the day. (Um, that’s cuz I didn’t get to eat until late afternoon and only got a salad).
I told her the next day at the taping that I was so hungry the night before that I really wanted to go home and eat a pizza. She looked at me in horror and asked if I did. I admit I lied and told her I didn’t. But I did. It was awesome.
For all the push up bras, makeup and false eyelashes made me look different (um, I guess more sophisticated and older!), I knew that I could NEVER spend the time and energy that goes into all of that (though my sisters do all the time).
And I still wear the “before” outfit a lot more than the dress I got afterwards. I have no idea where I’d wear that dress to…
So I learned that make up can make you look amazing, but I’m ok being Ugly Betty. ^_^ I’m much more comfortable that way.
Elizabeth Smith said on...So, uh, this became more of a lecture than I intended it.
How we dress and make ourselves up has a very real impact on how we are treated in every aspect of life. That means that if I want to be treated a certain way, I can go the hard route and try to change everyone around me, or I can go the easy route and change myself.
You have to decide which you want to do. I try for a happy medium-- I change my outward appearance where necessary for professional reasons and serious gaffe avoidance (I didn’t wear jeans to prom), but I keep everything else exactly what I feel comfortable with. That way, the people I attract to me in relationships and friendships will be the people I feel comfortable around.
If you feel that the real you is hidden by your weight, or by acne, or dark circles around your eyes, whatever-- things that people notice first, and you feel don’t define you, then by all means change them. But when you start using it as a mask, or to look like someone else, that crosses a line for me. Still, other people have different lines, and it’s great that we have the ability to choose who we want be.
Since the lines are different for everyone, that likely makes it difficult for novels to tackle this subject well. How far is too far? How much of the change is superficial and how do you prove the romantic interest is interested in you, not your makeup? I’d find it easier to avoid it if I were an author, and just have an attractive heroine from the beginning.
I’m 25, and I’ve never had serious acne problems, except when I wear makeup more than a day or two in a row . . . because I don’t wear it often enough to make it worth buying the stuff that wouldn’t make me break out.
Regarding makeover stories, I had a friend who HATED HATED HATED “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” because she saw it as “woman gets beautiful, woman gets man.” I tried to convince her that 1.) he’d noticed her before she was beautiful, and 2.) the makeover in that movie also included going back to college and getting a job away from her family, hello. Those didn’t really make any difference, but I put them out there for the commentariat. I feel like a lot of people DID see MBFGW as a bit of a makeover movie like above, but I actually watched it as a culture-clash movie. Y’know.
I’d also like to point out that the real-life Ian is the short, balding, not-thin sidekick to John Corbett in the movie. :)
Make that “away from her family’s restaurant”.
Spamblocker: quite31. No, quite 25.
No matter how heroines or villainesses are written, their characterization is bound to irritate somebody. So fuck it. Write what you want. Read what you want. I almost herniated myself going into spasms of loathing for Anita Blake. Finally I thought, Meh. On to the next book...just not one in that series.
That’s the nice thing about books. There are lots of ‘em.
jocelynnesimone said on...I have a lot of thoughts on make-up and beauty, most of them already covered here with much more eloquence and insight than I can manage. It was a very good essay, however, and has had me thinking all day.
When I was growing up, it was my Grandmother who taught me about make-up and dressing up really. And her advice was pretty simple, and I admit, I continue to live by it. 1. The make-up and the clothes are for the women. If you’re trying to dress for men, you might as well go naked. 2. Make-up should only make you look more like yourself and not someone else.
Anyway, good advice by my standards.
The thing is make-up, and everything else that goes with “beautifying” ourselves, doesn’t bother me as long as it is a tool that we women use rather than a tool that controls us.
So in short, make-over stories and the like don’t bother me as long as the intention behind them is about a woman embracing her real self and her real strength. If the story is only about how “Wow! Lookit! The blue eye-shadow makes my eyes look more blue” and now he’ll love me, forget about it.
(I think, by the way, that my explanation accounts for the rise of anal bleaching. Visibility and acceptance of buttsex = increased need to make buttholes appear pristine and a work of abstract art.)
Obviously I have lived too long....
Then there’s the makeover of the heroine of Jane Heller’s delightful INFERNAL AFFAIRS, who gets it by selling her soul to the devil--inadvertently!
“A real estate agent in South Florida’s discreetly posh Banyan Beach, Barbara is down on her luck, up several dress sizes, drowning herself in Bloody Marys—and, worst of all, has just been dumped by her husband for a blonde TV weatherperson. Tired of living the life of a woman in a “before” ad, Barbara stumbles outside in the midst of a thunderstorm and beseeches heaven to help her—unaware that someone diabolical might be listening. Instantly, the storm vanishes and the sky fills with stars, one of which actually seems to be winking at her. Instead of a hangover the next morning, Barbara wakes up with golden hair (not her own premature gray), perfect pitch (she’s tone deaf), a strange black dog (registered to her), no double chin, a waistline ... and definite cleavage! Talk about a good night’s sleep! So what could be wrong with going to bed looking like Barbara Chessner and waking up looking like Heather Locklear? As it turns out, plenty! Suddenly, bizarre things begin to happen. Without any effort, Barbara sells the least appealing house in Banyan Beach to David Bettinger, the most appealing man she’s ever met. Without any reason, Jeremy Cook, a crude charter-boat captain who has detested her since high school, starts paying her compliments. And without any explanation on earth, everything she wishes for comes true. As David Bettinger becomes passionate, Jeremy becomes jealous, and Barbara becomes a major babe - everyone becomes suspicious. Her friends at the Home Sweet Home agency attribute the inexplicable to everything from hot flashes to dark forces. Not even Barbara knows what the devil is going on. But when she finds out, all hell is going to break loose...”
The whole “beauty = goodness” bit goes back to Plato, and even more to the Neoplatonists, especially Plotinus; I posted about this not too long ago over on Teach Me Tonight.
Make-up can kill you. Really. The white pancake makeup popular in the 18th century was basically white lead, which is toxic. And in the 19th century women (and some men) took small doses of arsenic because one side effect is to make the skin look pale and translucent.
And then there was Madame Rachel:
..... Sarah Rachel Russell ..... known as Madame Rachel she ran a famous beauty salon in which she promised everlasting youth and that wrinkles and other signs of age could be banished for ever to all who used her fabulous preparations, especially her magnetic rock water dew from the sands of the Sahara. This was eventually exposed as being made up of ordinary water and bran. Many gullible women in the 1860s found her claims quite irresistible and once they were trapped in her web she proceeded to strip them of their money and their reputations and to blackmail them with great cunning. Many dared not tell their husbands how foolish they had been. Fear of scandal was like a disease in Victorian England. Madame Rachel was born into a Jewish theatrical family and was first married to an assistant chemist in Manchester and then to Jacob Moses who was drowned when the Royal Charter sank in 1859. Her last husband was Philip Laverson. She was a clothes dealer at first and after adding procurement to her activities was jailed for a short term. In 1860 she began to sell cosmetics and toilet requisites and this new business was launched with a pamphlet entitled Beautiful for Ever. She offered customers about 60 preparations including her own special brand of face powder, naming one shade ‘Rachel’ and which is still used today usually by brunettes. She made many fantastic claims about her preparations but once again procuring, fraud and blackmail were added to her activities. She was arrested several times and finally in 1878 she was sentenced to five years imprisonment but died two years later in 1880
Count me in for a romance where the hero chooses a more mature and experienced and not at all child-like heroine.
The usual thing of the childlike innocent is a strange trope, I think - but I don’t understand why people think virgins are desirable, except for those who dread comparisons.
Oh, and Victoria Dahl describes a plot where a mechanic starts getting dressy because she’s decided she’s ready for action. Hey, it’s cool that the heroine is a non-traditional line of work, and the hero notices when she’s not dressy… but why does she have to signal availability in that way? (Btw, I’m not trying to be personally snotty, it just rang my bell)
I think I have ishoos from being nagged about wearing dresses in my teens, because I should get “dressed up” for some stupid reason. What was irritating was that I was getting dressed up, just not in the crappy frocks my mother or my girlie friends defined as being appropriate. I still don’t wear them to this day, and it still irritates me when people seem to imply that if you’re female and want to be seen to be making an effort, a frock must come into it somehow.
I like La Nora’s JD Robb books because Eve doesn’t give a shit about her (supposedly spectacular) looks. I like it that a butch woman (yeah, she’s straight, but she’s butch) can be shown as attractive in that way (even if she does wield a frock occasionally).
sherry thomas said on...In my sophomore book the hero does choose an older, more sexually experienced heroine over a younger, less experience one. Except the younger one isn’t exactly inexperienced either, since I don’t seem to know how to write a proper virgin.
So now you’ll be slavering to read it right? :-P
02.18.08 at 07:01 AM |