Today I started something new with the blog, I posted my book for the day on my Twitter page this morning. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, at least today, because I discovered about an hour after I posted the name of the book that I've already read a similar book earlier this year. But at that point I figured there was nothing I could do about it so I just decided to go ahead and read it anyway. Lesson learned, I'm not going to pick out the book I'm reading the morning I'm reading it. I'm going to have to start planning ahead better.
Today's book, "In this lively social history of America's beauty culture, freelance writer Peiss traces the background and growth of the billion-dollar U.S. cosmetics industry over the past century."
I would have liked to have been able to sit back and be really smug while reading today's book while thinking How could people be so gullible about beauty products. But I'm afraid that I can't do that dear readers, because I once bought the Victoria Jackson Difference make-up off of an infomercial. So clearly my record is a bit tarnished in this area. Buying someone off an infomercial and believing that it would really work would have been just adorable if I was 11, but I was sadly quite a few years past that age. I'd like to believe that it was just my minds ways of trying to tell me that I needed to watch Dallas.
Fun Facts:
- In1770 the English Parliament passed and act that annulled marriages of those who ensnared their husbands through the use of "scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes and bolstered hips." - I think we need a sort of reversed version of this - but it needs to apply to both genders - any post-marital use of any of the following will be automatic grounds for annulment: Crocs, plaid shorts, fanny packs, visors, and perms.
- In 1915, in Kansas, a law was proposed that would make it a misdemeanor for women under the age of forty-four to wear cosmetics "for the purpose of creating a false impression." - Oh how scandalous. Let's not worry about solving real problems like crime, poverty, and war, let's throw all of our effort into solving the global crisis of women using cosmetics to give off the wrong impression.
