1920s advertisement for Three Pagodas Brand Cosmetics Company
Suppression, of course, only breeds rebellion. My mother and father never repeated the platitude that "appearances do not matter." Instead, the message they imparted to me, their only child, was that - as a woman and a Chinese woman at that - I would inevitably be judged by how I looked. The least I could do was take control and use it to my own advantage. Mercenary and cynical, perhaps, but pragmatic above all else. Want to dress to impress or instill confidence, to appear younger or more mature, to tell the world that you're a free radical - there are ways and means.
To bloggers for whom beauty is a passion and an art, it might seem tasteless to give voice to the underlying notion that beauty is also functional, particularly in cases of societies that are highly stratified. Yet what magazine copy and fashion advertisements tip-toe around is this very concept - better to be clear-eyed than blindly steered.
The way I conceive of make-up is as an element of style, not to be scrutinised or evaluated in isolation from general grooming, dress, and deportment. Because I take joy in what is aesthetically pleasing, it is all as much for my own benefit as to ease the myriad social interactions that most of us necessarily engage in on a day to day basis. Though the precise semiotics of taste are complex and ever-evolving, it is impossible to deny that image is power. At the same time, it is worth remembering not to take it all too seriously - as Dain says, "It's only make-up", after all.
How to use the power of the image, to enjoy it as a medium of self-expression, without becoming a victim of it, is every individual's balancing act.
A large part of what I love about perfume is that there is something very personal, and a little selfish and defiant about scent. The codes are less normalised than with make-up, more esoteric. You don't have to look at yourself for every minute of the day, but your own scent is something that stays with you, and if other people don't like it - if, for example, they take askance to you wearing Bandit loudly and proudly in their close vicinity - well, then they can stand a little further away.
Image credit: Old Orient Museum
Extremely interesting, and in my opinion very true. Creating your own kind of beauty is an art but it's also a very personal statement that tells the world who you are.
ReplyDelete...or who you want to be. The aspirational or inventive aspect is very interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteSo true! I could have written this post myself - so much of style is aspirational and can be used to one's advantage. I used to work in a place where women would dress in masculine-style clothes in order to be taken seriously by their male colleagues. It was then that I decided that I would never compromise my inherently feminine style. You can dress in frocks and heels and still have an assertive voice in meetings.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a very healthy attitude you have, if you know what you are comfortable in, and what you are not.
ReplyDeleteWhat's also true is that we are asked to be different people in different circumstances - to our children, to teachers, our bosses, our rivals, etc. - and what we wear is accessory to that compartmentalisation. Some people are just more deliberate and self-conscious about it than others.