Would you go back?
Reading back over a few of my blog posts I realise that people might get the impression that I trapped in the past … They might be under the impression that I wear rose-tinted spectacles permanently facing back, and they may be right. I dream of a time when all women looked liked Marilyn Monroe, Betty Davis and Lauren Bacall.
When everyone did their hair and makeup the minute they slipped out of bed, who were never seen unprepared for company. First of all I would like to say I know this was never truly so, I’m blonde but I’m not stupid. Truth be told though, despite idealising such a time, if this was required of us in the here and now I would be the first to rebel, I rarely bother with make-up, and my hair is wash and go. Although I love to play dress up I also love to slob in t-shirt and jeans, and I dare my husband to complain!!
When my aunt first married she set her alarm for half an hour before her husband’s so that she could wake up make up and be back in bed and perfect in time for him open his eyes. She kept it up for years, for all the good it did her, they of course ended up divorced. The happy ending is her new husband loves her just the way she is and she finally lets someone see her without the subterfuge.
Women of our generation pride ourselves on our confidence to be ourselves, the right hard won, by previous generations of women, to be respected for who we are, not what we look like. And so what I am I doing looking back in awe at these impossibly perfect women of the past? If you asked me to act like Doris Day I’d slap you in the face, so what exactly is it that I want?
1 year ago