I found a book called "Finishing Touches" in the UC library while searching for resource material for my self-image talk with the teen girls this next weekend. I thought it was amusing so I checked it out even though I will NOT be using it in my talk. Amid the "art of hand gestures" and the "most appealing way to sit", I found a chapter written by a man and had to share his honest and often harsh takes on women of the 60's.
"Unless you are constructed like Audrey Hepburn, I do not like you in pants. And I might as well say a word or two about girdles, since we're tete a tete. Most men, myself included, don't like them. For the simple reason that a girdle destroys the soft line of a woman's derrière, which it always is a man's pleasure to eye with a smile. Mind you, I do not want you to spill in all directions; I do not want you to jiggle and bounce a la Mansfield. I guess what I want you to do is slim yourself down so you don't jiggle--and then I want you to stay out of girdles. Besides, they give you blood clots. I read that somewhere and I'll go along with it, if it will help you get out of your corset."
"I don't know; maybe if we never had seen a woman in full war paint and battle dress, we would be willing to write of her in the calls of the morning birds. But I doubt it. All I know is that you need it. I don't want you done to the nines in a half pound of pancake, but on the other hand I don't want to see your bare naked face--unless you've been out in the sun for six months or your name is Ingrid Bergman."
"Perfume? Most men say yes, a scattered few say no, and to be coldly honest, I don't give a rap. It's pleasant but it also makes me laugh a little when I sniff it. I suppose this is because I've spent considerable time in Paris, where a scent is considered an acceptable substitute for a bath, and a good portion of the women, even the respectable ones, wander around wreathed in an aura of attar of something. I guess I have a warped mind, but I can just see the woman sitting down at her vanity, lifting the stopper from the bottle malevolently and thinking , This will get him."
5 comments:
Nice! I agree, girdles suck, even the modern ones. By the way, excited to hear how the life 101 thing goes, I like your angle.
Oh ya and i like the new pictures of you and the flowers.
This is pretty much hilarious. That guy is freaking RUDE!
Wow, what a pig! But also highly entertaining. Is the whole book that way? You could just read from that at a comedy club and be a hit. But still, that man sounds annoyingly cocky.
Look at you with your pop up comments section! Oh and I like the new look of your blog :)
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