From Curlers to Chainsaws Quotes

“I was greenly jealous of my peers’ moms with their bleach-blonde hair,
tanning-bed arms, toothpick waists, and closets full of brand-new clothes:
blouses and skirts and pants and designer jeans that some of the mothers let
their daughters borrow. I didn’t know whether Mom’s lack of interest in all
things fashionable came from being an immigrant from Scotland—where
the media-saturated and commodity-rich beauty industry didn’t take over
until the end of the twentieth century—or because she was a reader, a
writer, and a teacher: mind over matter. All I knew was that, while she would
buy me any book I asked for or take me to any play I might want to see, she
couldn’t explain how to contour eye shadow or tell me whether my sweater
complemented my complexion. She didn’t diet, she didn’t read women’s
magazines, and she refused to buy me the enormous gold earrings or the
pair of spiky red shoes I coveted, stilettos sharp enough to skewer fi sh. And
even though her disinterest meant I didn’t have to participate in a daily
beauty competition—one with a trophy mom sacrifi cing her body on the
altar of loveliness—I also didn’t have a beauty mentor that I could trust.
So I was left to try to copy the popular girls at school, tv and movie
icons, or the breathtaking stars in magazines. Even the curling iron was
a purchase I had to negotiate on my own.”
― Jennifer Cognard-Black, From Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines