On Beauty

In my now long litany of unimpressive jobs I have transferred to the cosmetics department at the store where I've been working. For those who know me that is a source of amusement because until recently I rarely wore makeup. The primary reason for my lack of makeup has always been that I'd rather sleep ten minutes more in the morning and cosmetics lose out as a priority. That said, I now wear makeup daily. Apparently a large number of women do.

My actual position is selling fragrances, but I help out with the cosmetics as well, and I have plenty of opportunity to watch the other salespeople with their customers. The thing that is interesting to me about the buying behavior of the cosmetics shopper is that they often come in with a problem to solve, rather than a item they want or need. When people buy sweaters they say, "I want a blue sweater to go with these pants." When women walk up to the cosmetics counter they say, "I have these deep wrinkles on my face, do you have something that will fix that?"

I'm not the first to notice this, Eve Ensler's The Body Project is a play all about this very concept. That women somehow view our bodies as a project, a problem to solve. And as much as I know this, to see it every day is heartbreaking. Most of these women are already beautiful as they are. Just yesterday a woman bought $400 worth of wrinkle creams and as she was checking out she told me she was 60. She didn't look a day over 40. Now maybe that is a testament to the effectiveness of the products, but I can't imagine a man fighting nature to the tune of $400 on a regular basis.

Of course as I drove home wondering how women get suckered into this quest for youth and beauty I had to think of myself. I'm pretty fortunate to be in reasonably good health and good shape. Yet I focus on tiny imperfections that I see through a similarly distorted lens. If I had the money would I blow large amounts on things to fix my tiny imperfections? I hate to admit that I might. The sad truth is that the beauty we see in people seldom has anything to do with their appearance. I've known some physically gorgeous women who were so ugly as people that I never even thought of them as pretty. And I've known some odd looking people who were so spectacularly beautiful in their hearts, minds and actions that I didn't even notice their odd physical appearance anymore. I guess at the end of the day a beautiful soul is much harder to package and sell.