Chapter 1: Masks and Faces

    As early as the 1600s, women have been coming up with various methods to improve their outward appearance in attempts to appear more attractive to gain more opportunities in society. As women became more conscious of their complexion, the rise of cosmetics (creams, lotions, or other solutions used to protect or correct skin) and paints (white or tinted liquids that covered skin and blemishes, also known as enamels) became a controverisal subject as some women became subject to its detrimental consequences, such as lead poisoning or ingestion of arsenic. The cosmetic knowledge had different origins with Native Americans, Mexicans, European, and West African practices and spread rapidly usually orally or through "recipe" books which usually upheld beliefs of Humoralism (the four bodily fluids, blood, phelgm, yellow bile, and black bile, controlled human conditions that showed themselves through complexion) and other beliefs in the power of magic, nature, and astrology, leading to complicated and questionable concotions.

     Therefore, beautiful skin meant good health and spirit. As time went on to the the mid-nineteenth centur, beauty products had started to become commercialize though some homemade traditions still reamained popular and the cosmetics industry was still a miniscule component of American economy, only about a $335,000 of all manufactured toiletries. The distinction between cosmetics and paints became thinner and more blurred as new, peculiar ingredients became more sought after and a variety of manufacturers, especially from abroad, created lines of cosmetics while sales increased, Competetion from patent (medicines and beauty preparations sold through means of national advertising and distribution) firms and local druggists arose as they both used advertisements to discredit their opponents' goods. However, criticism of the unfair prices and damage the "medicines" actually caused upon a woman's health grew louder and warnings against cosmetics' growing market invited women to become their own household manufacturers.

   The useage of cosmetics by men gradully changed over time with the political alterations from the 18th to 19th century as lotions. paints.. etc. that were previously valued and adorned to show elitism became denounced during the American Revolution to show a severance from the aristocracy and a sense of duty to the new democracy. Men began to see cosmetics as unmasculine and a coverup from the truth but continued to utilize a few products related to hair and shaving. Later on, women were also encouraged to abstain from cosmetic products but rather apply "moral" cosmetics to maintain innocence and virtue, relflecting the physiognomic principle that inner beauty was reflected in the outwardly appearance. In addition, ettiquette books sold in this period motivated self control and sexual purity rather than concealment of the face through paints and enamels which were particuarly influenced by the middle class cutural standards. 

    However, the rising feminine ideal of untouched, pure faces did not curb the earlier perspectives of women as corrupt and decietful with the help of paints and cosmetics. Women who used them were associated with prostitutes and deemed as "Jezebels" as a bad example for women. This view mostly came from the middle class who were trying to separate themselves from the seemingly corrput higher class who were "all art and no substance" (pg 27). The fashionable ladies would attend enameller studios and expose themselves to harmful chemicals in order to retain a lovlier outwardly appearance, signifying female degradation (especially amont prostitutes). These painted women supposedly invited sexual encounters while simple and pure self-presentation indicated sexual purity and social respectability, which was prefered by the middle class taste.

    Cosmetics and paints also extablished racism and white supremacy as a white complexion was considered most beautiful and justified the inferiority of other races. Also, the rise of photography led to more demands of photoshopping the images of enhancing facial features and leaving out blemishes for those who were self conscious, but led to criticisms demouncing the untruthfulness of the business. African Americans were the total opposites of these aesthetic standards set by whites and were denied social and political participation as a result. Black women were abused by their mistresses when they attempted to beautify themselves and by white men who were more subject to sexually abuse them. The white population used this ideology of inferiority as fear of losing their pale complexion and lowering their status (the worst case scenario is tanning), and racist warnings against chemical induced cosmetics spread, depiciting the conditions of the Jim Crow laws. 

Questions:

Was the desire for an untouched complexion more significant before or after the growth in cosmetic consumerism?

How would feminists in the progressive era react to the increasingly frequent uses of cosmetics by women during this time period?