Beauty and the mess
There’s a picture that lives in my mum’s house. It’s tucked away in a bottom drawer, and perpetually eked out by my youngest sister to embarrass me in good company, or to bring me down a peg when my self-esteem is isn’t totally flat-lining. In this 4” x 6” oblong of evil, there’s a fossilised childhood moment that epitomises my relationship with stereotypical femininity. It’s the early 90s, my little sister’s confirmation, and I’m the angry, squareish blob in the orange plaid tent. There’s a mock-wicker headband awkwardly rammed onto my bad bowl cut. Everyone else is beaming – mother channelling her best Demi Moore, holding a cherubim baby and my sister looking like a quaint-but-slightly-icky miniature bride. Nothing much has changed apart from a.) I’m too big to be forced into a dress and b.) I pay good money to keep said bowl cut in check.
I remember this particular picture so well, because it sums up a sentiment that’s stuck with me for most of my life. I’ve never really felt comfortable being a girl, with all the gendered trappings that come with it. My earliest memory of feminine incongruity was being briefly left alone in the bath, and attempting to shave my legs with a nearby razor. With the typical dexterity of a two-year-old, I remember the shock as that little Bic biting into my skin, and watching that pruney little piggy pump crimson into the dissipating foam. In the twenty-six years since, I’ve not gotten much better at it.
Around other perfectly presented people, I’m a walking omnishambles just about scraping together a façade of decorum. My Barbies looked like Tank Girl, sporting fibre-tip and scabs, and the bruises I flashed for street cred were the constant subject of parental lamentation. As soon as I was too big to argue with, the waist-skimming waves were lopped off and the ribbons banished. As I’ve grown, my staunch objection to ‘girly’ has softened, and I’ve dipped my toes into the world of beauty – but the whole time, I’ve felt like a squatter, with eviction imminent. As I write this, my bleach is curing under a Tesco bag turban, as I drink a pint of beer. Case in point.
As a woman nudging thirty, I made a promise to start operation ‘get classy’. This resulted in a number of ill-conceived attempts to embrace my inner bombshell. I’ve yet to find her – but I’ve been assured by more than one Buzzfeed quiz that deep underneath the superhero t-shirts and hairy armpits, Jackie-O is hiding. I could really do with her making an appearance soon, as the only clothes left in my cupboard belong to her. A rather cull of my moth-eaten art school garb has left me with only three safe outfits and a smattering of classy combos I have neither the brio nor moxie to wear. But when a wedding looms, as it so often does these days, I try to up my game. Last weekend was one such time. Perversely, a day for celebrating others’ happiness inevitably induces a panic that burns with the fury of a thousand suns.
As the wedding approached, I applied my usual new subject methodology, and crammed hard. There were endless YouTube tutorials on eyelashes, and contouring (which, by my hand, was more cubist than Kardashian) and I pored over many Pinterest boards curated by people with better wardrobes and higher cheekbones. I read the Sali Hughes book. I enlisted the help of stylish pals, borrowed clothes and acquired a stunning hat big enough to merit an exclusion zone. I bought boots that on the shelf were the stuff of dreams, but on my feet bestowed me with all the grace of a stoned stork. That and they boosted my already sizeable self to 6’3” – only a few inches shorter than my date. This didn’t go unnoticed, as the several ‘Amazon woman’ comments inevitably headed my way. If Tim Curry can look fabulous and dance the Time Warp in the bloody things, why do heels transform me into a giraffe on skates?
To me, everyone looked wonderful and I watched with awe. I’ve always felt like a bit like Bill Oddie around beautiful women – admiring those perfect embodiments of style, with fancy bags and matching shoes, perfectly curled hair and nails that have been kissed by angels. To me they are things of impossible perfection, who actually brush their hair and whose skincare regime doesn’t consist of a hasty scrub with a baby wipe. How do they do it? What’s the secret? Did I miss the class that taught us how to ourselves well and not punctuate with lazy expletives?
Fashion and grace are not worlds that I’m privy too. It’s not for want of trying – I have a secret addiction to obscure Swedish fashion blogs and my magpie approach to buying any makeup has left my bathroom cabinet overflowing with pots of iridescent gloop that will never actually touch my face. I try to accessorize, and succumb to the Coco Chanel rule of “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off” – then I see a Christmas tree, freak out, and peel the lot off. I could barely wear a wedding ring before fate intervened and I trebucheted it into the Seine in a Paris-induced romantic flounce.
I’m not sure what I expected would happen – perhaps that consumption of the literature, and the visuals and well-meaning advice would allow me to strut into my next decade with confidence and sass. Though as my birthday looms, a year into my experiment with another to go, I’m abandoning it in the face of unshakeable empirical evidence. I will always be the girl more comfortable in flats. I will always feel like a twat in a dress. And you could forget about coming anywhere near my nethers with hot wax. It’s frankly, just not worth the effort.
Thanks Vonny. i know how you feel.
My wife still feels like you , but now mid forties , but as a teenager did go out her way to be a rock goth and all its trappings , for her it worked , a barbie she never could be , unless they have made a s and m school marm version since.
Being like you of an uncomfortable size but also shape , not uncomfortable to all , just to her self , she went out her way to be girly … finding fashion and style that fits her , not the gay man concept of what a woman should look and dress like. ie 6ft and less tits than a boy.
To this day she still shuns heels , doesnt even understand the use of them , the desire of them , preferring instead boots with 1 inch heels….even in the peak of 40 degrees. Of the two times I have memories of her wearing heels , but not 6 inch stilletos , both have meant a bandage for a week and a near murder charge for dancing on the tables drunk , falling and flattening a bench load of freinds.
Her fashion now is by catalog , marisota , curves and all the “normalized” sizes of comfortable fashion , ones that most importantly makes her feel good while comfortable , not instead good for a season to keep up with the buying zombies , and NEVER for displaying her ” ham hock bingo wings”….her words not mine.
After size 6 and age 21 , fashion fails women , it just feeds the marketing machine.
To get it to fit you dont eat , wont exerscise , then begin the womens cycle of self loathing or hating skinny bitches that are your friends that ask if they are fat…. while wanting to eat them for asking because your ravenous.
Today she has given up on her grey , unless its Christian , shaves to mid calf , but never avoids armpits , dropped standards but still standards , and of course that bit on the chin that we are not allowed to mention.
Your not alone Vonny , nor will it end , you just have to look at the mutton dressed as lamb pensioners , with their tinned black hair and teenage fashions , at least the Scots man has the decency to give up or die off before pension age.
This doesnt mean give up on achieving looking like a girly women , that is if you want it and are not accepting a societal peer pressure like a teen rock goth trying to fit in. Nor does it mean Dungy’s and Docs. It may mean joggers at home and tailored outfits and removing the electricians tape eyebrows and spray tan from sunny d.
One only has to look at Nicola Sturgeon , even when there is an improvement using the top fashion advisor on shape and coiffure , you will still be labeled.
But at least you dont have a media that calls you a “Krankie” in a skirt or a School Marm on the prowl….
But then again all women do every time they look in a magazine – accepting the abnormal women is both the goal and the norm , and that they have too , like in your dreaded picture , have to have their own confirmation , in confirming not to a church , but to the cult of how a woman should look , dress and act like.
Shows ya… many of the trappings of “femininity” are pure bullshit, out there to torment us. I tossed make up when I graduated from high school, don’t do high heels except at weddings, and pay no attention to fashion. I go for comfort. No bras either, with a few exceptions.
I did shave my legs a few times, and then, since I hated the stubbly feel, tried waxing. OUCH! How can anyone do that regularly to themselves? Nasty nonsense. End of leg shaving.
This is long ago, and I would do it again, no question. I did go through my sexy period, but that’s not about fashion at all… it’s about letting one’s libido show. 🙂
I like it down to earth, Hairy armpits on a woman , mmmmmmm! unfortunately I am only 5′ 61/2
Stay cool and yersel.
Oh, honestly. Behave yourself, Kenneth! 😀
While I’m here, I’m pretty sure that to “eke out” means to make something last longer by consuming it frugally; it doesn’t mean to bring something out from a drawer, from a cupboard, wherever. Just to be pedantic, like.
Hi JBS,
I enjoy Vonny’s writing tremendously so am going to make a short defence of the use of “eking out” in this context. Surely, Vonny’s mother is “eking out” the deflation of ego and self esteem by making it “last longer by consuming it frugally” i.e. sparingly bringing out the photo only at times of maximum embarrassment?
Hi Jim, sorry I haven’t replied sooner. You may very well be right, and so, since I also enjoy Vonny’s writing, I shall concede.
I’ve only just caught up with your article now Vonny and – honestly – I can’t be alone in reckoning that you have the most wonderful dress sense and looks. As a style maker you rock!