What is Beauty.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17569, 20 June 1925, Page 17 (Supplement)

What is Beauty.

The Hobby of the Modern Girl.

( Written for the “ Star ” by

B. M. H )

WII A T is beauty in a woman? Is it as one so often hears, purely a matter of opinion? Some people have remarked that marriage makes a woman more beautiful. Undoubtedly, if the union is a happy one, it may help, but the present-day girl who remains single can also be beautiful if she chooses. It is well to remember that not merely the need for a hobby and work and careful dieting for women who want to attain, or retain, beauty is necessary, but the fact to be emphasised is that many women sleep too long. Seven hours sleep is enough for anybody, anil the woman who wishes to preserve her youthful figure should severely limit her hours of sleep, for fat slowly but surely creeps upon the slug.-, giud and the lie-abed. Health and beauty go hand in hand. The girl with ilie brilliant complexion, the (naturally) red mouth, the gleaming white teeth, the. slim figure, the sparkling eyes, tho glossy hair, the springy step, the upright carriage—with ail, m fact that constitutes beauty of the face and body i simply the girl who studies her health. She cats and drinks moderately, and of the right things, she takes proper exercise, and attends scrupu lcusly to her body. One can always argue that no arc not all built tho same way and must use cosmetics to look healthy even if we’re not. Happily there is little danger in the beautitiers. The average face-cream is very harmless, and certainly refreshes and gives a feeling of cleanliness. It also does the office—a useful one—of protecting the- skin from the effects of atmospheric asperities. All sorts of pessimistic views have been expressed in regard to the modern girl. According to many people (dull oners no doubt) she is thoughtless, sellisli and only interested in herself and pleasure. The censoring of the modern girl should really be directed at one typo of girl, and one only ; she is the idle daughter of the idle-rich, or even tho comparatively well-to-do, who is brought up in luxury and presented to the world without a sense of responsibility or the means to earn her own living, and so be an independent unit in tlie community. It is this girl who is responsible for so much of the adverse criticism which is'levelled at our girls in gen eral. She, no doubt, is all that her critics declare. Her mother seems to think of nothing else but preparing her for the marriage market, and thought lesslv allows her to go her own way with the trying result that she becomes artificial and thinks of nothing but adding a little more cream and powder to an already'- over-powdered complexion . Numerous lamentations have- recent-

5y appeared in print at the habit, adopted by so many women to-day, of shearing those abundant tresses, which used to bo described as tho crowning glory of womanhood, into a short sleek mop. It is said that the wicked suffrn. gettes stamping their feet in their bedrooms with rage over their prettiiress ’’ are accused by one male critic of having invented this diabolical (but whisper it) convenient fashion. Thus insensibly tho habit was formed and nothing but some drastic change will break it. On the contrary, the bobbed glory in their shame to the cxent of a closer clip. And to-day, out of twenty women anywhere, some fifteen—daughters, mothers and grandmothers alike—are shingled. Horrible sight! “You shall not mate with a pretty girl, my unborn grandchild,” sobs revolted man, "because the sweet and pretty girl will have passed.” Will she? I think not. Nature which derided the corset, may also be trusted to deride the shears. To every woman born she will always give the choice of long or short hair. Some day, the shingle may pass away, as the bun and the fringe have, passed. But beauty, though perishable in the individual, is eternal in the race. What is most interesting to me is the assumption which underlies all these reproaches that are made daily, that men have a sort of vested right to dictate to women how they should wear their hair, their complexions and their clothes. Why in the name of reason may we not curtail our skirts and our tresses if it pleases us to do so without attracting an avalanche of curses upon our cropped heads? Women do not cry “Stop thief!” when the men shave off their moustaches. Yet the legend survives that women arc deficient in a sense of humour. The truth is that since the world began every change in fashion has called forth the same torrent of denunciation, for man is, after all, a conservative animal. lie acknowledges that woman's most potent charm lies in her infinite variety; he resents the advent of every variation. The present fashions are undoubtedly significant—though cjuite unconsciously significant—of the spirit of independence and the development of common sense in woman. Glancing through a volume of old-fashioned plates, one is amazed at the amount of discomfort and actual suffering they must have inflicted on the docile female of the past. Yet the fathers oL the men who are now pouring anathemas on the shingle mourned the death of the eighteen-inch waist just as keenly. Just as surely they discovered in each new vagary “conclusive proof that women do. not gear themselves for the delight of the opposite sex.” The only difference is that the imaginary discovery of yesterday is the truth of to-day.