thoughts on make-up

I have been having a bit of trouble this week with the syllabus line that says “Hope in a Jar (to be read quickly)”. My problem here is that I am not reading it very quickly, because I am overly fixated with all this new (and perplexing) information. It is quite possible that I am the only person that didn’t know that women died of lead poisoning from their make-up, but I have found myself reading through this book with morbid fascination (Paint? Lead?) as I simultaneously eye the “Sephora Holiday Guide” across my coffee table.

Kathy Peiss’s recuperative argument that is laid out in the beginning of the book - that beauty interests don’t work solely against the needs of women because they allowed for social groupings and job opportunities (am I sensing resonances of Iris Marion Young’s “Women Recovering Our Clothes” here…) is not being waged by eclipsing race, but I’m not sure if this argument opens up an entirely productive space of possibility for female consumers. Berry’s point that the creation of make-up and individualized colors sidestepped race by creating “complexion types” seems to highlight the rational for some of (what I perceive to be) limits offered by make-up. Taken in conjunction with “Eating the Other” this seems to be what bellhooks describes as “consumer cannibalism,” as racial difference is reduced to personal difference.

Lastly, I would like to bring up Patty’s past posting on recession proof facial products (my face is the new Bottega Veneta bag?). Given the way in which beauty and fashion is often couched in terms of “timeless” or “ageless” pieces (despite the fact that clothing deteriorates and our bodies often change shape in ways that prevent clothing from being “timeless”), this compulsion to buy $1,000 facial cream seems in line with the contemporary language of fashion and consumer logic of spending (somehow this is good value?). I also suspect that some women are more inclined to spend a great deal of money on facial creams and products that promote natural beauty instead of spending money on make-up - it seems like ‘the body is the mirror of the soul’ concept has expanded to encompass both complexion and the entire body (through discourses of workout and discipline). Lastly, I would like to bring up in relation to this is the increasing prominence of ads and articles on organic beauty products, while this is seems to match-up with the current interest in “going green,” it also seems to resonate with the home recipes discussed by Peiss (which have not entirely gone away, see: makeyourowncosmetics.com)

Apologies for my postings being all over the place – these readings seemed to spiral in many different directions for me!