Eye of Newt, Wing of Bat

This story in the New York Times about a children's class in cosmetic chemistry sounds a lot like what they teach at Hogwarts in Potions 101. You can react with a boring and predictable "Eeew, how gross!" or with rapt fascination--seems to me from this story that cosmetics are every bit as magical as we like to think!

We're always being urged by one cranky, superior pundit or another to get back in touch with our humanity, and to eschew the "superficiality" that pervades our culture--and makeup is often cited as one of the hallmarks of the fatuous and shallow.

I beg to differ. Grinding up symbolically potent, exotic substances and adorning ourselves with them seems to me like a practice straight out of our visceral, shamanistic heritage, an act of animistic faith in the power of our objects and rituals to elevate us to a higher plane. The pursuit of beauty is indeed a spiritual practice.

No further proof of the power of beauty in our lives is needed than a quick visit to photographer Eric Lafforgue's portfolio site.

Comments

[Alice Bachini-Smith]

Yay! Totally agree.

I've found that a lot of "fatuous and shallow" claimants are either 1. men suspicious of women and their confusing tricks and wiles (fear of a lady's wig falling off in bed, sort of thing), or 2. women either too insecure in their femaleness or just too lazy to learn how to use makeup.

Of COURSE I don't mean that everyone must/ layer on ten inches of slap every morning. Just ranting against the old "intellectual" anti-makeup prejudice ("God gives you one face and you paint yourself another" etc) (Hamlet, I think.)