Feb 05 2003

Pretty good

Published by at 6:12 am under Uncategorized

“It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull, or the jackonet. Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone.”

— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

I gotta disagree with the divine Jane on this one. I think I’m fine for the public good. When left to my own devices and when I know those unknown to me are not going to see me, I don’t dress up. I don’t wear make-up. I don’t accessorize. It’s interesting that we are so much more considerate of total strangers than we are of our loved ones, and that those who are nearest and dearest to us often have to brave our least attractive selves, both in appearance and behavior.

Now that John and I are on different schedules, he rarely, if ever, sees me looking good. I leave for work before he gets up in the morning, and by the time he gets home from work, I have already scrubbed away the sweat from the gym along with the day’s make-up. Pretty much the first thing I do when I get home is to remove all traces of prettiness that I so carefully applied before leaving the house, so John mostly sees a make-up-less Me wearing bunny pajamas and glasses.

Yet I persist in getting dressed up, made up, and accessorized, including hair, before going to work, making my life something like Barbie’s, without the Malibu Dream House and with normal female proportions: endlessly getting dressed and undressed.

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One response so far

One Response to “Pretty good”

  1. Candion 06 Feb 2003 at 6:58 am

    I bet you’re prettier without it anyway. I can’t quit give up the lipstick, but I do gather the most compliments from Brian when I’m not wearing any makeup and my hair is all curly and unruly. Haha.