Becoming Feminine
Jan. 21st, 2010 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaI had to get up obscenely early this morning, because I had a class at 8:30 (yay! no more waking up at 6 am in order to catch the train!).
Opposite me in the booth, a really pretty girl (as in young woman, my age-ish, probably a little younger) began to put on her face.
When I say "face", I mean it.
The art of putting on make up is one I'd never really mastered, I'm lucky if I remember to pluck and tidy up my curly eye brows. But watching her, I was so impressed by the whole process of it.
She started with blush. Compared to me, she had a dark completion, and from a pretty cocoa it suddenly became bronze. I had my sunglasses on, so she couldn't see me watch her, but I couldn't stop looking.
It was simply a gorgeous process to behold.
After she finished with the blush, she took out silvery-white eye-shadow, her big brown eyes suddenly looked huge and watery. As though they were shining from the inside. She took out her mascara and her lashes framed her eye, her eye lids looked like a flower petals.
She finished off by adding just a touch of red, cherry chap-stick, to her lips, creating a dark contra to the sparkle of her eyes.
She fluffed her hair and was about to pick up the news paper when I removed my glasses and looked straight at her;
"Before you start reading, I just wanted to say that you're really beautiful and the whole process you did was gorgeous as well. I know this sounds weird, but I just had to tell you" I said.
She looked shocked for a moment (well, strangers on a train aren't supposed to talk about your make-up!), but then she grinned at me, her mouth stretching, her eyes crinkled and she said though her huge smile: "Thank you so much".
Two people had a good start to the day.
I just thought I'd share and tell this, because it's so rare that we acknowledge all the hard work we put into being in public, showing a face to the world. Make-up or not, it's worth noting and talking about.
Opposite me in the booth, a really pretty girl (as in young woman, my age-ish, probably a little younger) began to put on her face.
When I say "face", I mean it.
The art of putting on make up is one I'd never really mastered, I'm lucky if I remember to pluck and tidy up my curly eye brows. But watching her, I was so impressed by the whole process of it.
She started with blush. Compared to me, she had a dark completion, and from a pretty cocoa it suddenly became bronze. I had my sunglasses on, so she couldn't see me watch her, but I couldn't stop looking.
It was simply a gorgeous process to behold.
After she finished with the blush, she took out silvery-white eye-shadow, her big brown eyes suddenly looked huge and watery. As though they were shining from the inside. She took out her mascara and her lashes framed her eye, her eye lids looked like a flower petals.
She finished off by adding just a touch of red, cherry chap-stick, to her lips, creating a dark contra to the sparkle of her eyes.
She fluffed her hair and was about to pick up the news paper when I removed my glasses and looked straight at her;
"Before you start reading, I just wanted to say that you're really beautiful and the whole process you did was gorgeous as well. I know this sounds weird, but I just had to tell you" I said.
She looked shocked for a moment (well, strangers on a train aren't supposed to talk about your make-up!), but then she grinned at me, her mouth stretching, her eyes crinkled and she said though her huge smile: "Thank you so much".
Two people had a good start to the day.
I just thought I'd share and tell this, because it's so rare that we acknowledge all the hard work we put into being in public, showing a face to the world. Make-up or not, it's worth noting and talking about.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 09:30 am (UTC)הייתי בסופר לפני כמה ימים והקופאי אמר שיש לי שם מאוד יפה (ראה את זה בכרטיס מועדון( ואחרי זה אמר לי שיהיה לי ערב נפלא. ואני שאלתי אותו לשמו ואמרתי לו שיהיה לו ערב נפלא גם. שנינו חייכנו וזה היה ממש כיף.
שיהיה לך יום נפלא!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 10:57 am (UTC)I sometimes comment on people looking good - like that woman who had a shade of nail polish exactly the same as her gold jewellry, of some smart dress...
During my feminine periods, I put on make-up, and wear stockings and heels (and sometimes corsets) and skirts and other feminine stuff. I always prefer to take away some time for dressing up and putting make-up, to concentrate on what I am doing and why. And I'm always a bit sad if I have to do it in a hurry, because it seems like wasted effort - I didn't get a chance to get all MY pleasure from the process.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 12:29 pm (UTC)אני חושבת שאנחנו פשוט מנוכרים מדי, יושבים זה מול זה כאילו השני אינו קיים. קצת קשר, גם הכי שטחי, ככה, עושה רק טוב.
אני חושבת שאני אתחיל לעשות דברים כאלה יותר.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 12:31 pm (UTC)Just really awesome.
These things deserve to be acknowledged and just some interaction shouldn't be so awkward.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 12:32 pm (UTC)I seriously salute anyone who managed to go all the way in that manner.
I'm lazy :P
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 03:45 pm (UTC)Oh, the skillz!
I got two seperate compliments on my hats on public transport, I always say thank you when complimented - takes some gumption to speak to strangers.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 03:50 pm (UTC)But she was just so pretty, and they she put on a new face and was also pretty, in a completely different way!
The skillz indeed!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 06:35 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 09:03 am (UTC)Especially early in the morning where generally speaking you're probably feeling blah.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 11:40 am (UTC)I'm lazy, too, a lot of time. :) I can easily go for months wearing jeans and t-shirts and no makeup ever. (And as I am lucky to have very good hair, I can even forget to brush them, they still look kinda okay. My friends with problematic hair hate me for it :))
For me, dressing-up and doing make-up is a ritual of connection with my own female power. As dressing up in male clothing (which I do periodically, suits and ties and all the jazz) is a ritual of connecting to my inner male power. I never do it if I'm not in the mood to be gender-special, or to care about what gender I am today.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 11:47 am (UTC)I don't have any gender special clothes really, I mean they're all women's clothings and cut, but I'm not very femme-y.
When I have more money I'm planning on getting myself a pin-stripe suit :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-24 04:56 pm (UTC)They are lovely.
(I totally understand Jack in 'looks good in suits' quote :))
I don't wear pin-stripe much, mostly because at the time when I was wearing male clothing, I was into period clothing, so I was wearing suits with a bit victorian cut, and silky shirts with lace, and neckties - the 'victorian lord' look. It didn't look too masculine in modern concept of masculinity, and it didn't look feminin, either - it just looked weird :) But it felt male to me.
If I would choose male look today, I would choose something along the line of Jack's outfit, both from Torchwood and from Empty Child/Doctor Dances: outdated uniform with neckties and chic of 40th. Reworked, of course.
(Oh, I can talk about clothes for ages. Stop me :))