Beneath the Skin
I bought new makeup yesterday. It’s a new kind from Almay called ‘Nearly Naked,’ which is supposed to hide the wearer’s imperfections but still let her skin show through. Obviously the idea is to make it seem like there is no makeup and that yes, this is how I look when I roll out of bed. Isn’t that what it’s about, though? Hiding one’s imperfections from the world while trying to convince the world that it’s the “real you”? So here I sit, face freshly washed and devoid of makeup, ready for examination to see what can be discovered about my life from my facial features.
Let’s start at the top: the forehead. Not too big, not too small (though I’m sure if I stare at it long enough that sentiment will change). Two little indents serve as a reminder to when I had the chicken pox, age eleven. During the sixth grade, all the kids in my class got chicken pox, and I was one of the last to get it. At the time we were living in England, and my mother’s friend was visiting from the U.S. I didn’t want her to see me with all these terrible little marks on my skin. I wanted to hide in my bed for two weeks. There were pictures of me during that time—I’m holding my hamster and not looking at the camera—but I cut out the little part of the photos with my hamster in them and threw the rest of the photos out. I wanted no reminder of how sick I looked during that time. So now, years later, small bumps and irregularities are scattered across the once smooth surface.
My shaggy eyebrows should be plucked in order to banish those tiny strays under the brow, but I can’t be bothered. I used to have very high-maintenance eyebrows back in high school. They were arched and tapered to a beautiful finish at just the right spot a little further out than where my eye ends. But I was a different person then—someone I’m not now. While those eyebrows were fun they represent someone else—perhaps someone who was not as comfortable with herself as she is now. Someone who was just coming into her own and feeling slightly awkward, and decided to make her eyebrows as pretty as possible, to give the illusion of maturity.
The above advertisement for Olay Total Effects Pore Minimizing CC cream demonstrates modern day fixation on celebrity culture and photographic subterfuge to avoid truth. The model represented is a conventionally attractive woman whom, because of how healthy she appears, looks prosperous. The quote beside her “I’m not an airbrushed kinda girl, I just want to look it” conflicts with her appearance. From this we learn that she is an average woman infatuated so much with the celebrity look that she too wants to display herself as one. “air brushed kinda girl” implies that those who constantly look airbrushed (celebrities) possess negative personality traits ergo, one would not like to act like them. The assumption that celebrities are
Hester La Negrita, a homeless, black single mother to five fatherless children. At its core, the play is a powerful allegorical treatise, social commentary and criticism of America’s welfare system and its treatment of the poor. It exposes the double standards, brutality, prejudice, and sexual persecution of those whom are branded morally bereft and, therefore, most vulnerable to victimization and subjugation.
While there are multiple facets of the industry that I am attracted to, I am most passionate about facials and skin care treatments. I enjoy having the ability to help someone improve the appearance and health of their skin, while also educating my clients on what their skin needs and how they can further improve it at home. Along with facials and skin care, I am very interested in microblading and other permanent and semi-permanent makeup techniques, including scalp micropigmentation and areola pigmentation. When done properly, microblading can camouflage missing or sparse eyebrow hairs with hair-like strokes using small deposits of cosmetic tattoo pigments. Scalp micropigmentation is similar to microblading, because it mimics the look of natural hair by applying cosmetic tattoo pigments to the epidermis on the scalp. Areola pigmentation aims to restore the look of the areola and nipple area on the breast. It is typically performed on breast cancer survivors after a mastectomy, but it is also common for women with fading or irregular areolas to receive this procedure. The common denominator in these cosmetic tattooing procedures is that they all work to rebuild the individual’s confidence. Having the knowledge and training to provide a client with something that can help them love themselves a little more is what I find most fulfilling in this
A Shakespearean play always includes a typical villain character. He is boisterous, egotistical, sometimes witty, and all too eager to seek revenge. In William Shakespeare Othello, Iago is the well-liked, trusted, and brave ensign of the great Venetian general Othello, or so it appears. Iago actually possesses all of the typical villainous qualities, however Iago conducts himself with great composure, and by manipulating his counterparts, he makes people believe he is on their side. I find this characteristic to be a very intriguing one that is not easy to perform. It is perhaps Iago's villainous actions throughout this play that lead me to believe that he is the hero rather than the typical villain.
Individuality is becoming a rising tide and it is changing everything about life as we know it. People are starting to care less about conformity and the rules of society. They are starting to focus more on what it means to be free and also what it means to be an individual. Standing out and being different is a major part of individualism. Some people chose to stand out by being creative and doing creative things such as getting facial piercings, which are also known as body modifications.
From the very beginning of Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is held in very high regard within the community in Venice. He is often called “honest Iago” by many people, including his superior, Othello. There is a large juxtaposition between Iago’s character in the beginning of the play, and the general perception at the end of the play, due to Iago’s many character flaws that cause him to create devious plans and a web of deception and lies, spun by his intense anger and hatred. The exposition of Othello holds many indications of the negative traits Iago possesses, and they escalate quickly as the play progresses. There are many points within the play that present Iago falling prey to his issues and therefore lets them control him. Iago’s anger and hatred kept him from dealing with these character flaws and lead to his descent into moral
As early as the first scene of the play Iago shows us strong motives for his actions. In this first scene we see Othello, a general of Venice, has made Cassio his new lieutant. Iago feels he truly deserves his promotion as he says "I know my price, I am worth more no worse a place."(l.i.12) Iago over here is confused why Othello has made such a stupid decision. Iago is a man with a tremendous ego who knows, sometimes overestimates, his worth. Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman, understands Iago when Iago said that he is "affined to love the Moor."(l.i.41-42) What Iago really means is "I follow him to serve my term upon him."(l.i.45) Iago wants to use Othello for his personal goals. We also must put ourselves into Iago's shoes. He is a man whose self-esteem and professional carrier have just been torn apart. Iago makes his actions of revenge toward Othello almost immediately by informing Brabantio, a Venetian senator and father of Desdemona, that "an old black ram (Othello) is tupping (his) white ewe (Desdemona)."(l.i.97)
Fred West addresses the fact of Iago misrepresentation, “It is not sufficient to simply drape Iago in allegorical trappings and proclaim him Mister Evil or a Machiavel or a Vice. Such a limited view of Iago is an injustice to the complexity of his character, since Shakespeare’s studies in personality are acclaimed by psychologists for their accuracy and profundity” (27). West seems to be reminding us that just seeing Iago as the representation of evil within the play of “Othello” is the wrong way to paint him. Iago is a man wronged by Othello in the fact that he was not chosen to be Othello’s lieutenant, which is what put the dastardly idea into Iago’s head to trick them all and bring them to their knees. As Iago tells Roderigo within the first act and scene of “Othello”,
In this piece, Grealy describes the influence of her experiences of cancer, its treatments, and the resulting deformity of her face on her development as a person. She explores how physical appearance influences one's sexual identity and over all self worth. She also explores how one's own interpretation of one's appearance can be self fulfilling. Only after a year of not looking at herself in the mirror, ironically at a time when she appears more "normal" than ever before, does Grealy learn to embrace her inner self and to see herself as more than one’s looks or physical appearance.
In the short story, “ Birthamrk”, the main characters defining aspect of her identify is a port wine stained birthmark on her face. She has always struggled with the mark on her face, which made her feel uncomfortable; she believed that she would be prettier if she did not have the mark on her face. The character had the birthmark removed when she was twenty-three but, “she has waited patiently from the time she was fourteen” to have it removed. After it was removed she still felt self-conscious. The character believed that people who met her after her aesthetic surgery would feel differently about her. Moreover, she did not choose this identity for herself, because she...
1. Our society tends to be obsessed with the idea of physical perfection. How does our society manifest that obsession? How is the 'Birthmark'; an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection?
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is the antagonist and villain who causes all the trouble and disorder. Othello is the protagonist, and is the main person Iago’s destruction and revenge is aimed towards. Othello is naïve and gives everybody his trust even though he may not know them or they haven’t earned his trust yet. He often refers to Iago has “Honest” Iago, which is a direct showing of irony because Iago is not honest at all (Shakespeare, I, iii. 289). Iago is so angry that Othello didn’t give him the promotion that was given to Cassio that he plans to seek revenge against Othello. He seeks his revenge against Othello by manipulating and lying to all of the people around him including his closest friend Roderigo, Cassio, Othello’s wife Desdemona and even his own wife Emilia. In the end, Iago’s lies and manipulation led to the deaths of Roderigo, Emilia, Othello and Desdemona. This isn’t the first time many of these individual characteristics have shown up in one of Shakespeare’s plays.
forehead made by many years of hard work and endless worrying. You watch her as
First, women spend huge amounts of money to improve their looks. So here we are unable to escape the reality that we can never be flawless or blemish free; moreover, as long as women have the belief that all greatness de...
Each photo represents how much I have stayed the same, internally, and how much I have changed, externally. I have always felt comfortable around my friends and family, but what doesn't show in the pictures is how I have changed as others perceive me. I used to be very outgoing and I was pretty comfortable in doing whatever. Now I'm always uncomfortable when I am alone in a public situation, be it literally or figuratively, I don't like physically being in public alone, I don't like presenting my personal work for others to judge, and I don't being asked something where I don't know the answer. I can't think on the spot, I need time to think about it or my body breaks down as I feel the judgement pour off of the people around me. What has stayed the same, as you can see through the pictures, is my ability to make someone smile. If I can make someone smile through bad puns, overrated memes, spongebob quotes, and other various references then that's good enough for