This is a great post, Mona. I love the ancient eyeliner. Do you define 'Deliberate Beauty' as being different to the beauty labour women do to appease the male gaze? And what of fillers, botox, etc?
Thank you, Belinda--for your kind words and for supporting my work. Deliberate Beauty is absolutely different to the beauty labour women do to appease the male gaze. It exists to answer a need in me for beauty that became, as I say in my post, especially pertinent during a traumatic time. When I was younger, it was difficult for me to separate the two--my need for beauty and the performance of beauty for the male gaze. It's been a worthwhile fight to separate the two. And ultimately it is undergirded by a growing sense of autonomy and power that I enjoy as I age. And because it is undergirded by autonomy, and although I have no plans for filters, botox, etc, they are individual choices that I leave to each person.
Love the call to live intensely asa right inherited because “ fascism aims to strip us of our hope and joy in living”.
Thank you! These are ugly times.
This is a great post, Mona. I love the ancient eyeliner. Do you define 'Deliberate Beauty' as being different to the beauty labour women do to appease the male gaze? And what of fillers, botox, etc?
Thank you, Belinda--for your kind words and for supporting my work. Deliberate Beauty is absolutely different to the beauty labour women do to appease the male gaze. It exists to answer a need in me for beauty that became, as I say in my post, especially pertinent during a traumatic time. When I was younger, it was difficult for me to separate the two--my need for beauty and the performance of beauty for the male gaze. It's been a worthwhile fight to separate the two. And ultimately it is undergirded by a growing sense of autonomy and power that I enjoy as I age. And because it is undergirded by autonomy, and although I have no plans for filters, botox, etc, they are individual choices that I leave to each person.
Thank you for your response, Mona. It makes a lot of sense. Also, I’ve not long finished your book ‘Seven Sins’. It’s wonderful.
That means a lot to me thank you 💜✊🏽❤️