31 Dec 2012

And there is only /one/ pencil that does the trick - Maybelline Expert Eyes in Velvet Black. My entire identity depends on this magic little wand of sleaze. It has to be sharpened /every/ time it’s applied, too - which in my case is twice a day or so. More if you’ve been making out. Believe me, I’ve tried expensive, smearproof eyebrow pencils, but they’re too thick, too penetrating, too indelible. There’s only one eyebrow pencil for me - and that’s Maybelline!

I always carry one in my pocket, keep another in my car, and have backups in each of my homes. Once I was in the hospital after being mugged and I guess because of my concussion I had forgotten to bring my Maybelline. I was so panicked that I would limp over to the mirror and try to gouge it on with a regular number two lead pencil used for writing. It didn’t work. […]

I’ve forgotten to put on my moustache some days and I have to lurk around like Clark Kent looking for a phone booth until I find a car mirror on an uncrowded street (not easy in Manhattan!) or a public restroom where I can, unobserved, repair the damage to my image.

— John Waters on makeup, identity, and self-presentation. From his book Role Models in the chapter paying homage to Rei Kawakubo. 
8 notes
19 Dec 2012

from a series of self-portraits I took this past june for arabelle’s fashion/feminism/queerness zine. I never sent them because the lighting was crap and my makeup looks didn’t show up very well on camera, but basically I went from makeup-less to heavily made-up to the mess of removal. many, many lovely layers of gunk were involved. these two were my favorite.

if inspiration strikes, you should make a little something for this zine right away, because a) it’s exciting, duh and b) the deadline is tomorrow.

4 notes
1 Dec 2012

Truest Sentence.: Cutting off all my hair meant my ears were exposed to the cold and...

therealstephanien:

Cutting off all my hair meant my ears were exposed to the cold and bitter winds and snows and the strange new sounds of an unfamiliar place; a strange sort of buzzing surrounds certain memories. Cutting off all my hair meant I didn’t care if I was mistaken as a lesbian or not, cutting off all my…

we need to spend more time together because damn, feelings 

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13 notes
22 Nov 2012

if teachers and authority figures in my life are gonna keep suggesting that I’m in some way deficient or problematic for existing consciously in my body through self-presentation/style choices they also need to never ever tell me to believe in myself or be brave or stop comparing myself to others or be more confident.

I do not have to be “natural” to be whole/I do not have to be “normal” to be versatile/I am not trying to be different I’m just doing me and me changes a lot and is subject to my politics  and ideas re: power dynamics and bodies and mythologies and self-creation, so. 

9 notes
14 Nov 2012
threelisabeth: teenvogue: From Taylor Swift to the Jonas Brothers, check out who wore what at last night’s MTV Europe Music Awards show. Check out more party-hopping action here » Cutouts because All Grown Up* / white because She’s Still The Same TSwift / bangs, of course, are always about Life Change. (Bangs because breakups? Bangs because curls are The Old Her? What are the implications of a Taylor Swift with soft, touchable waves?) *cutouts because tswift was on the cover of Cosmo / being on the cover of Cosmo is obviously a ritualistic teen-celebrity rite of passage my best friend is really smart and thinks about all the most interesting things (I care not at all about tswift but your analysis is everything)

threelisabeth:

teenvogue:

From Taylor Swift to the Jonas Brothers, check out who wore what at last night’s MTV Europe Music Awards show. Check out more party-hopping action here »

Cutouts because All Grown Up* / white because She’s Still The Same TSwift / bangs, of course, are always about Life Change. (Bangs because breakups? Bangs because curls are The Old Her? What are the implications of a Taylor Swift with soft, touchable waves?)

*cutouts because tswift was on the cover of Cosmo / being on the cover of Cosmo is obviously a ritualistic teen-celebrity rite of passage

my best friend is really smart and thinks about all the most interesting things

(I care not at all about tswift but your analysis is everything)

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398 notes
12 Nov 2012
12 Nov 2012
11 Nov 2012
5 Nov 2012

so fucking tired of being full of theories on gender and bodies and self-presentation and wanting to talk about them in the context of the way I and my peers am treated by male authority figures and strangers but knowing that no matter how well-developed my thoughts are I’ll be understood as “difficult” and “hard to work with”.

like, I understand that I exist within certain industry parameters but that shit isn’t my whole world.

our culture’s obsession with rugged individualism means that no matter how gentle or diplomatic you are, people get incredibly indignant when you point out that they exist within certain systems and that they are largely driven by those systems. folks believe that if they are enough themself they’ll somehow be immune to our institutions. 

2 notes
5 Nov 2012