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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN April 24, 2005 Issue 
Fresh Lipstick, Redressing Fashion and Feminism By Linda M. Scott Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005  The Politics of Fashion Who knows exactly when and where it was decided that brains and beauty cannot coexist in a woman. English intellectual and scholarly women of the 18th and 19th centuries were called bluestockings because of the course worsted blue-colored stockings they wore to underscore the serious nature of their lives. They believed that people in general should be appreciated for their character and knowledge and not for their appearance. Silk stockings, fashion and adornment they believed, were the ploys of frivolous women to lure men. By the time the twentieth century rolled around, this unsubstantiated theory had become a doctrine supported and perpetuated by most of the early feminists and suffragists in America. Although in theory communism rejected bourgeois morality, when it came to enhancing one's looks, it practiced a morality more strict than that in the West. As schoolgirls we were required to wear the same uniforms our parents had worn and were not allowed to engage in anything remotely connected with personal beautification - no lipstick, no stockings but "bluestockings," no hair curling. One of the biggest shocks I experienced upon my arrival in America was seeing how schoolgirls were dressed. With their makeup, nylon stockings and coiffed hair, they looked so adult that I frequently mistook them for female teachers. It is unfortunate that most feminists today still consider beauty and enhanced appearance a way to enslave and oppress women. "Fresh Lipstick," an iconoclastic new book by Linda M. Scott, shatters these theories with its extensive research and documentation. The author takes us on a very interesting trip through the centuries examining social rules and attitudes of women's dress and fashion specifically in America. She illustrates with great detail how feminist attitudes towards fashion and female adornment came out of the religious Puritan tradition. Many readers would be surprised to find out, as I was, that the Puritan colonists had long lists of forbidden clothing. Unless a person (male or female) was able to prove the existence of at least 200-pound fortune, the wearers of such "wicked apparel" frequently landed in court or even in jail. Some of the forbidden items were lace, embroidery, ruffles, capes and gold and silver buttons. Scott also exposes the illogic in feminist ideology about the natural look. She points out that "basic grooming practices - bathing, brushing the teeth" are anything but natural. "Bathing with soap, washing the hair, brushing the teeth, and manicuring the nails," the author explains, "have been made practicable by the products of industrialization." She goes on to remind us that grooming is a much newer practice than is face and body painting. Contrary to feminist beliefs, all the research suggests that it is the exclusion of fashion, makeup and other appearance enhancements from a woman's life that leads to enslavement and subjugation of women. Fashion and personal appearance are forms of expression of one's personality and character. Scott argues that the ideological barriers of feminism on fashion and women's appearance only obscure the real women's issues of equality and empowerment. Although Scott is an associate professor of art and design and women's studies at the University of Illinois and the massive research of this book verges on the scholarly, in reality this is a well-written but easy-to-read, thought-provoking book for the lay reader. It seems that if brains are enhanced with knowledge and learning, then it is only natural to enhance beauty with makeup and fashion. Thus, a brainy and beautiful woman is doubly more powerful. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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