WHEN I was eight years old, I was given that most coveted gift for girls -- a Barbie doll! It was a blonde and blue-eyed Barbie in a swim-suit.
I loved that Barbie from the very first moment I saw her. She is now in a box with old toys somewhere, but I plan to rescue her soon. For me, that Barbie doll was the epitome of beauty and elegance.
Before you ask, NO, having an arctic blonde Barbie doll as my paradigm of beauty did not create in me any inferiority complex whatsoever, and absolutely no dissatisfaction with my own appearance.
This is not because I was the most beautiful girl in school, though I was certainly pretty. I wasn't a blonde either. I love blonde hair, but the Barbie did not create any form of obsession in me.
On the contrary, I felt inspired by Barbie! I felt proud that a woman could look as lovely as Barbie. I always knew that Barbie was unreal. She was an inspiration, a good story in the form of a doll -- a fairy-princess come alive.
I am still a huge Barbie fan and, if I ever have a daughter, I will certainly buy her Barbies! There is nothing wrong with admiring beauty, so long as you know that beauty is multiple and that we all have a beauty of our own.
Besides, as feminist studies of Barbie have shown, Barbie can tell girls that they can embark on any career they like: Barbie can be a police officer, a fire-fighter, even an astronaut. Feminists argue, successfully, that Barbie's great success is in feminizing all those roles: even as an astronaut, Barbie is feminine, pretty and sexy.
When I was eight years old, I wrote a story where my Barbie came alive and took me to see her home in Doll land. We supposedly flew together and had a wonderful time in Barbie's home country.
Nothing can stop Barbie, I think! She can be anything she wants to be, and she is a great inspiration. She can be blonde, dark, red-haired, in trousers on in costume, but she is always a friend. Beauty is always a friend, because beauty is to love yourself and live comfortable in your own skin. This may sound cliche, but it is an absolute truth.
Have a good night and be well! xxx
Feeling creative in my book journal tonight! This is the journal I keep for the written word: plot lines and notes for my own novels (e.g. character names and info), I write my book reviews, and my notes on anything which has to do with books! Yes, you guessed it: heaven (if I believed in it) would be, for me, a huge bookshop plus reading room!!! With a good coffee chain for a heavenly break... heart emoticon
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia!
This is a two-volume encyclopedia about contemporary culture, edited by Claudia A. Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh.
Girl Culture is a favorite in my collection, as my research involves girl culture and related themes. It is written for a broad audience as well as for scholars, and is organized in a section containing essays and a section with alphabetized entries.
The essays cover everything from dolls to style to how to study girl culture. The alphabetized entries are also comprehensive and rich, from Christina Aguilera to stereotypes of hair, from lipstick to bedrooms, from compulsory heterosexuality to zines to Lara Croft and Nancy Drew. There are also great introductory chapters on girl culture and femininity!
The two editors are both renowned academics from Canada. However, it is true that the encyclopedia aims at a wider audience and it is a good reference guide for anyone interested in girl culture as well as for girlhood studies scholars.
I love this encyclopedia and I would totally recommend!
Have a good evening, always with beauty and a book! xxx
THIS is a very exciting time at The Lipstick Papers, because the Fifty Shades movie is coming up! Life can be good!
I loved the whole Fifty Shades trilogy, but I loved the first part most of all. The first book has a magic all of its own, and I think that this is mostly due to the alluring and enigmatic character of Christian Grey!
I have read hundreds of novels, and I will usually discard a novel for three main reasons:
unsuccessful or unoriginal characters;
uninteresting plot; bad treatment of women/gender/gay rights issues. It is too often that I find that characters are just facades, or a bunch of stereotypes, or are similar to characters from other novels or films.
Yet Christian Grey was, for me, completely original. I have not found another character like him. Though I do think he is parallelized purposefully with Dorian Grey, I also think that he is authentic, marvelous and true! I mean, who else would be so eccentric as to answer (to the question, "don't you have any friends, to go out and talk"?), "I have no friends, Anastasia. My one friend is Mrs Lincoln - Mrs Robinson to you".
There are faults in Fifty Shades, as there are in most novels. The one novel without fault is probably Great Expectations, or maybe Pride and Prejudice. I am not sure Fifty Shades is a feminist novel, but I don't think it is anti-feminist either. I believe that, the surest thing to say is that it is a novel with feminist elements. Generally, author E.L. James treats women with respect, and there are many positive messages in the novel for women and girls: the friendship between Ana and Kate is celebrated, Ana refuses to give up her job for marriage, Christian is not daunted that Ana is a bookish person, &c.
Right now, I am counting the days to the film! Can't wait! xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have the biography Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel by Lucinda Hawksley!
This is a lovely book which I used during my PhD study, and have continued to use since for my courses and research. It is about the tragic life of the beautiful Lizzie Siddal, wife of Dante Gabriele Rossetti and famous model in her own right.
The Pre-Raphaelite was a movement in Victorian art which, though often condemned by critics, is currently considered revolutionary, vibrant and meaningful. The founder of the movement was Dante Gabriel Rossetti himself. The Pre-Raphaelite circle included many artists, men and women, among them Christina Rossetti (Dante's sister), Jane Morris, John Everett Millais, Federic Leighton, William Holman Hunt, Ford Maddox Brown, Annie Miller and many others!
The Pre-Raphaelites adopted a distinctive, powerful style, with specific themes, and presented lively, often sexualized and disturbing renditions of mythological, literary and fairy tale themes.
In the first picture here we see Lizzie posing as Ophelia for the famous painting by John Everett Millais. Lizzie was not only a dedicated model, she was also a poet and artist in her own right.
Lucinda Hawksley's book is very well researched and written, and is accessible to academic and non-academic readers alike. It contains excerpts from Lizzie's poems and pictures of her sketches and other artistic work.
(Lucinda Hawksley is a biographer and a direct descendant of Charles Dickens; Dickens is her great great great grandfather. She has written books on Charles Dickens, Dickens's daughter Katey, and another book on Lizzie Siddal).
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested or is studying the Victorians, Lizzie Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite art or the history of women. Also, it is good reading for anyone who likes biography!
I wish you all a good night, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
AMONG those cosmetics which will remain unforgettable are, for me, the Rose Water and Bamboo body cream/ lotion by Marks and Spencer! They were absolutely divine!
I truly think that I have not come across a better cream for the body. Texture, smell, effect, feel, were all absolutely perfect!
The series did not remain in circulation for long. For some reason, Marks and Spencer stopped making it (I think now they have stopped making their wonderful Royal Honey cosmetics series).
I loved the Bamboo and Rose Water lines so much that I have kept the empty bottles, and have them on display on my book shelves. As you can see, they are absolutely beautiful!
Objects possess cultural energy, as Stephen Greenblatt has said. An object's aesthetic, make, use and function speak about social habits and practices, as well as about cultural notions and ideas. Objects and the self are connected; we impart ourselves on the objects we possess or make, and objects we have close to our heart become part of who we are. Examples for me are lipstick, my reading glasses and my books!
If you are interested in the cultural examination of objects, you can buy Neill McGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects. This is an amazing book, based on Neil McGregor's BBC Radio 4 series with the same name.
If you work in the Marks and Spencer's executive team and you are reading this, then PLEASE, 1) STOP withdrawing popular cosmetics lines, and, 2) BRING BACK the Bamboo and Rose Water line!!!!!!!!
Have a good Thursday night and be well! xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! This week we have The Lost Arts of Hearth and Home by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger Henderson!
I bought this book last year with great enthusiasm. I collect books on beauty, the home, crafts and femininity, and this book is obviously a good addition to my collection.
As for content, though, I am not sure I liked it so much. It's very interesting, and has all the ways to make your own flour, cheese, your own soap, and excellent instructions on sewing.
However, all this advice is not too practical nowadays. I don't know, for some reason I couldn't finish The Lost Arts -- it seems to me that it addresses itself only to people with plenty of extra time in their hands. In other words, the intended audience of the book is quite limited.
Plus (though this may just be my impression) it seems to imply that taking care of the home is a woman's job. My view, as a woman, a feminist and a human being, is that all humans, men and women, ought to care for their home and their offspring. Gendered divisions of labor are unacceptable.
On the positive side, the information is rich, the edition is nice, with good quality paper and nice fonts. The book probably succeeds in its purpose to save lost domestic arts for posterity.
I wish you all a lovely Sunday evening, with beauty always with you! xxx
A FEW days ago, in a post about Little Women, I promised to talk more about my personal favorite little woman, which is, of course, Amy March!
If you have been reading this blog for some time you will know precisely why. Amy is pretty, fashionable, coquettish and an artist!
Though I was small when I read Good Wives (I read Little Women much later) I identified with Amy. Though I wasn't a pretty blonde (I was a pretty brunette ;-) I too was artistic and loved everything that had to do with art and girly stuff like clothes and class friendships.
I never liked Jo March, who never missed an opportunity to ridicule Amy and her artistic endeavors. Jo could simply not put up with the idea that a pretty little girl could have aspirations and dream of something better (generally, an overall theme of both books is that women must be happy with their lot in life). I really disliked Jo, and I think I managed to stomach her much later in the book, when she went to New York. I liked her journal-writing. But now I think my disapproval has returned. I don't have too much sympathy for Jo March. Amy is the best, with Beth second.
I think that in the overall scheme of the book, Amy is a much more reactionary character than Jo. Despite her big mouth and grandiose words about independence, Jo is only too happy to marry an older and quiet man, and have his sons.
Amy, on the other hand, remains fashionable and artistic to the end. The book quiets Jo's aspirations; for all we know, Amy kept her love for fashion and art even after marriage to Laurie. Amy has daughters only; I truly think she operates as the feminine principle in the novel.
Plus, she gets to keep the pretty, rich (half) Italian young man she has always been in love with. If this is not success in love, then I want to know what is???????
I LOVE this painting, though I'm afraid I don't know the artist, or even the title. I think it's pretty and mysterious; also, it has a lot to say about women and their history!
I guess there are many ways to interpret the painting. On a literal level, it shows a dressmaker and her client in the studio, or atelier. It's about the classic (and misogynistic) division between woman the beautiful and woman the useful. Yet both these women are beautiful, so it's a twist in a traditional idea!
On a psychological level, of course, the two women are one and the same; perhaps the dressmaker dreams of being richer (and afford to go to dressmakers herself). Perhaps it is the two sides of woman; women can be both beautiful objects and hard-working subjects. The mirror adds to the mystery. Who is looking at whom? Where is the artist in all of this?
Gender and feminist studies nowadays investigate sewing and dressmaking as an important part of women's history, and as significant female knowledge and skill. Seamstressing was a profession always available to women. Sewing knowledge and skills straddled class categories, as women from all classes learnt to sew.
As in this painting, sewing and dressmaking made woman both an object and subject. With her actions (making a dress) a woman could turn herself into an object of beauty.
Moreover, women were always active in the dressmaking, fashion and beauty business -- not only as employees, but most importantly as entrepreneurs. This is another area of research for gender and feminist studies.
I wish you all a beautiful night! More posts on women, sewing and fashion in the future xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have Dangerous Women: The Guide to Modern Life, by three women, Clare Conville, Liz Hoggard and Sarah-Jane Lovett!
The three writers are a literary agent, a columnist and a journalist/diarist respectively!
I bought this book two years ago, on my last trip to the UK for a conference. I bought it from Meadowhall, the huge shopping mall outside Sheffield in Yorkshire.
Yorkshire is Bronte country; I lived there for three years. The landscape is truly gothic, attractive, austere and dark. There is no place in the world that could have produced Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights except Yorkshire, I think!
Dangerous Women is constructed like a dictionary, with entries arranged alphabetically. I found it a truly lovely book, with amazingly interesting stuff. The entries cover everything from "Eat your greens", to "expensive", from "politics" to "tummy tuck" and "two cures for love" (= 1. don't see him. Don't phone or write a letter. 2. The easy way: get to know him better ;-)
Most importantly, this is a woman friendly book. Some beauty and conduct guides (I know coz I collect them) are lovely, and have excellent information, but they are not too woman-friendly. Many times, they undermine female independence and well-being by subtly but surely telling women that, without a boyfriend, their lives are nothing; or that controlling their weight is everything; other such books are plainly homophobic.
Still, there are great books for women out there, and I think that Dangerous Women is one of them. It explains the difficulties of a woman's life, it does not centre everything on marriage or on the boyfriend, and recognizes that friendship among women is an excellent and essential thing.
I highly recommend this book!
Also, I wish you all a Happy New Year, with many new books, and with beauty always with you!
I HAVE often talked of Ginevra Fanshawe, my favorite character from Charlotte Bronte's Villette: Ginevra is coquettish, exuberant and sexy. She wasn't a favorite with the protagonist, Lucy, but she is a favorite with modern female audiences!
In Jane Eyre, the beautiful and blonde coquette is Jane's cousin Georgiana Read. This is another figure, not liked by Jane, and (unlike Ginevra) neglected by critics.
Georgiana's story is interesting in the novel: she nearly finds happiness with some young and handsome aristocrat, but her elopement with him is stopped by her sister Eliza. Not having too much money after their mother's death, Georgiana marries a rich, older man -- not old, simply older. However, her chances of happiness are not great.
Georgiana exemplifies the few opportunities afforded young and pretty women of the upper class if they happened to lose their money. Forced by poverty, Jane herself had to learn to work from an early age. This does not happen to Georgiana. When she does lose her money, her artistic and fashion talents have gone completely wasted and her only chance to survive is through marriage.
The Georgiana sub-plot is minor in Jane Eyre. However, Jane does not dislike Georgiana, and Eliza, who dislikes them both, is a bad and unsympathetic character. Between the two sisters, Georgiana (kind and pretty, but useless) and Eliza (unkind, cold but hard-working) we are meant to prefer the former.
Victorian literature is full of young women with beauty and artistic talents, who simply had no place in the Victorian world, and they either had to marry or fade into obscurity.
The pretty Victorian coquettes were the subject of my PhD; coquetry and beauty is the subject of my research since. More amazing posts on beauty coming soon!
Have a great day and be well! :-)
P.S. Thanks to the reader who gave me the idea to write this post. I cannot find a way to reply to comments (I am still not that good with the blog format. I have The Lipstick Papers as a FB page though, and I can answer comments there).
AMONG the most memorable Christmases in literature must be the Christmas eve at the opening of Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.
This is when Pip becomes acquainted with the convict Magwitch, and helps the unfortunate man, keeping his secret. This meeting, and pity for the convict, will have great consequences for the whole of the young boy's life.
Another memorable Christmas is the Christmas ball in Jane Austen's Emma, where Emma receives an unwelcome marriage proposal! Despite Emma's annoyance during the ball, Jane Austen notes that it was all very Christmassy, with snow, pudding and mistletoe.
Of course, the number one Christmas in literature goes to Charles Dickens, for A Christmas Carol. This Christmas short story has been in print since 1843, when it was first published. Editors predict that it will stay in print forever, and publishers agree in one thing: only the actual story of Christ's birth is a more popular Christmas story than A Christmas Carol.
Though I am not a religious expert, I do know that the Ancient Greek (Olympian) religion celebrated the end of December, with decorations, feasts and gifts to honor the Gods. December marks the slow awakening of nature; the Christmas tree is a survivor of older religions, and signifies the hope for spring and abundance.
Charles Dickens and Christmas were conflated in the Victorian imagination. The first Christmas without Dickens (i.e. the Christmas of 1870, the first Christmas after Dickens's death) were tough for the British.
Great Expectations is a stellar novel, and not because it begins at Christmas. It is a novel all about the power of love; how love can be both a blessing and a curse. The novel is excellent, in that it shows a young man who is not afraid to love and suffer for love, a young man who loves the woman for what she is, the good and the bad, without ever wanting to change her.
I find it amazing how novels speak to us, and change our lives, hundreds, sometimes thousands of years after an author's death.
As the English patient says, in Michael Ondaatje's novel with the same name; "Words, Caravaggio. They have a power".
Have a lovely first day for the year! xxx
