M.A.C. Cosmetics and DC Comics are collaborating on a fascinating consumer product. Wonder Woman Cosmetics.
On the left, you will see the only consumer product for Wonder Woman I have a memory of as a child, and lordy did I look. I had a paper crown and a piece of rope and thank goodness her plane was invisible. I also have fond memories of my mother driving me to Burger King not once but twice in a week, an fairly unheard of event because neither of us cared for Burger King's food, and purchasing not just one or two, but three of these figures. One went to Mom, and two to me. I painted one up and the other was a staple figure in my doll collection who endures to this day in storage.
One step above a hoop and stick toy, clearly.
Today you can find plenty of Wonder Woman toys online, a little girl who wants to play with Wonder Woman has a lot more options that I did. So, how do I feel about a make-up line aimed at adult women? The answer is a restrained, grown up, totally internal 4-year-old's squeal of glee.
The World Would be a better place if everyone's job made them feel like this.
Comic-book characters and beauty companies don't often cross paths (though a line of Superman hair gels and shine sprays could have really taken off, we say). Now M.A.C. is bringing the two together with its limited-edition Wonder Woman makeup line. Along with bold lipsticks and shadow quads, colored mascaras, and jumbo-size—Ms. WW is, after all, an Amazon—lip glosses, bronzers, and liners, the collection also contains quirky metallic accessories: No lasso of truth hangs from the gold utility belt, unfortunately, but it is equipped with small makeup pouches on each side. And the "Invincible" hand mirror (which you can see me modeling above in my best attempt at a Wonder Woman pose) is, well, pretty awesome.
This consumer product seems well thought out. Not only is it capitalizing on the fangirl market, but the woman who is putting on her strongest, most powerful face when she puts on makeup. For many women, makeup is more than an attempt to look prettier. For many, makeup is considered a quotidian and essential part of work attire, something that will go unnoticed unless it isn't there and often, becomes a ritualistic part of preparing oneself to face the world for the day.
Eyeliner
Lipstick
The aesthetic component of the materials a woman uses for that ritual is an important factor in how she feels about her day and about herself. Not to mention an essential component of distinguishing products from one another in a glutted market.
Pictured: 10,000 names for "pink"
Contrary to many opinions, makeup is as much for the person putting it on as it is for the person they encounter. From this abstract, that is representative of tones I've seen in many papers on masking:
There are four broad ways of approaching the definition: masks as theatrical, figural, spiritual and/or utilitarian. Even within these categories, however, there two further types to be investigated: the hard mask and the soft mask. As far as differences go, the hard mask and the soft mask produces varying levels of intensity and psychological effects, which I've shown through the example of pantomime and Bamboozled. Furthermore, masks have frightening power over the human psychology by which they can effectively create a new identity. Masks are distinguishable from the face in that they are not the truth as Aristotle and Plato claim that the face is, but instead create a new image, material or immaterial. An example of an immaterial mask would be stereotypes. Though masks act as an extension of the body in that they add layers to the skin, they are complexes of reduction in that they amputate a person's soul. Masks become both a medium of understanding and misunderstanding.
And much hay is made about how people act in masks soft and hard alike, in phenomenological theory as well as sociology and philosophy. Cosmetics are essentially selling a mask, and the person using those materials are applying one that they are determining based primarily on its aesthetic packaging presentation. MAC has made its brand on having bold pigments and carrying a wide range of colors not carried by other product lines. This makes it a perfect fit for a comic book license.
Beyond that, selling a cosmetic line that will create associations of strength, beauty, amazonian power and play to childhood affections is a smart move. Playing to the growing subculture of woman who enjoy cosplay, the integration of functional costume elements, the Utility Belt, is insightful and will pay off massively. The lack of power bracelets makes me hope that they will do a follow up to this special edition line.
This sort of association between a consumer product and the narrative of Wonder Woman, is a perfect example of how to consider the fantasy fulfillment and sensory experience that translates from narrative to object. Whether you love Linda Carter or Justice League, or if you're an old school comic book fan, or if you primarily played with a cup holder for your youth you can experience some of the feelings that Wonder Woman invokes when you use this makeup.
Great Hera! won't someone tell me where I can actually buy this?
LADY GAGA!!! is there anything you can't do? no. no there isn't. For all my hating and fears, invoking Gaga (current avatar of creativity on the world celebrity stage) seriously sent some chills up my spine last night. Thanks to you, who I've written about before, the often fractured narrative of Glee managed to tell story that included something about everyone in the Glee club, and turn in some fantastically fun and poignant musical numbers.
ENSEMBLE CAST POWERS ACTIVATE!!!!!
Twilight Fever causes all sorts of kerfuffle this week as Tina is banned from wearing Goth clothes. Finn's Mom gets her longest set of lines yet as she and Kurt and Kurt's Dad all surprise Finn and move in together. And Quinn continues to point out to Puck that as long as he acts like the cock of the walk and makes a joke of their unborn child, she's not interested in his participation in the process... THEATRICALITY rears its head on Glee this week.
"My mom says she thinks Kristen Stewart looks like a bitch," and therefore Tina can't watch Twilight.
This, much like other things you might not expect from the whole endeavor is the name of the game with theatricality. Adornment, Spectacle and Theatricality are all fantastic tools in the arsenal of artistic expression, both describing, masking and clarifying visually everything that is hidden beneath.
"And Ladies, I don't want to hear about chafing just because you're wearing metal underwear, not my problem"
"You see the world with the same fierce theatricality that I do, even the way we're sitting right now is so dramatic that I'm almost uncomfortable with it"
Ok Rachel, you win. I felt concerned that your story might be clumped into 2 episodes and I would feel cheated and you would be less a character for it. I was wrong, you are lumped into 2 episodes with your mother, but you two WORKED. Listen to the song readers, onscreen it was magic. They put so much into this interaction with one another it was beautiful.
What this episode really drove home is that it would be SO WEIRD to meet your mother/daughter at 16. It wouldn't necessarily be a loving huge joyous moment, it might feel wrong, and weird, and truly, unflinchingly real. Neither woman got what they expected, but they can appreciate one another from afar, and bring it.
"We're supposed to have some sort of slow motion run into one another's arms,
this is all wrong."
On another front:
"I always feel like we're always doing whatever the girls want to do."
Really Finn, Really? I recognize that you're always doing what Kurt wants this week and that's caused a lot of friction, but let's table the "we're always doing what the girls want to do" discussion for another week. It's there next to the disappearing Mrs. Schuster who you may be banging next week.
"What is your problem, Finn? It's just a moist towelette!!!?!"
"We're not Gaga for Gaga"
"It's the same thing you do when you go to school in
your football uniform, you're expressing yourself"
Maybe I love this episode because it speaks my language, got my degree in production design (costume specialty):
“I have great respect for Lady Gaga,” (Costumer, Lou Eyrich) told (InStyle). “This episode is a tribute to her genius. The costumes are not replicas; we wanted it look like the kids made them.‘”
So that’s exactly what they did: “Rachel (Lea Michele) wears two outfits. The first inspired by Gaga’s Kermit the Frog dress: She goes through her stuffed animals at home and staples all of them to her dress. The second is like the dress Gaga wore with the big silver mirrored triangle.” Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) was hand-picked by creator Ryan Murphy to wear the famous bubble dress. “It was really heavy,” Eyrich reported, “and it made a lot of noise. We turned it into a vest so that it would be easier to take on and off, because there was no sitting down in it.”from InStyle
For me, seeing all these lovingly crafted details onscreen really made the whole of these characters stories pop out tonight. The same way, the explosive fights and big situations really served the emotional subtleties that were more grounded than they have been in earlier episodes.
Also, Check out Mike Chang, the mysteriously dialogue-less “Other Asian” on Glee, dialogless no more!
The actor Harry Shum Jr is interviewed over on Vulture and is adorable in the best possible way.
... Harry, we are beside ourselves with joy that you have a line this week!
Aw, thank you. And yeah, it’s happenin’! Usually we get the script like a week before and you just take a look at it, but then you look at it and say, “Hey, I get to talk today! Or … this week!” It’s happening slowly and surely a little more for me, so it’s very exciting to be a little more involved.
So why is this week the special week?
Um, I think it just felt right for the writers to involve me and Dijon [Talton].
Whoa, so he talks too?!
Yeah, I’m givin’ away stuff! It’ll be sort of boys versus girls as far as costuming and music go, this week. We’ll be in Kiss getups: the crazy costumes, the makeup, and the really, really, almost-too-tight pants. But it looked okay on us, so it’s cool. And the boots are nuts! They’re so heavy, I don’t know how they wore them all those years. We did a lot more dancing than Kiss would have.
It's that time of year again, Halloween. As we have traveled through time closer and closer to the 31st of October news has focused again and again on that shocking, startling and never before exposed scandal... inappropriate costumes for little girls.
Now, as this clip from Mean Girls so artfully presents, there's a certain cultural fetishization of Halloween, the anonymity of donning a costume allows people to explore certain aspects of their character they don't feel they might in their normal clothes. Therefore, many women make the choice to wear sexy costumes and let it all hang out for that one night when they are culturally allowed to put on a mask and go out and celebrate. Like Mardi Gras, Carnival or Masquerade Balls, Halloween is a shared liminal space where people can play a part and part of that is expressing sexuality that is otherwise hidden, but the question at hand is... are nine year old girls expressing themselves or simply buying in to what is presented to them? I've always been the sort that would adjust and amend any costume I got pre-made from the store. One my my very favorite Halloween costumes was the result of going with my best friend to the thrift store where we both picked out fantastic and utterly cheap clothes that we turned into rather fantastic Victorian style ghost costumes, with lace and greasepaint galore. We were 11 or 12 and while it didn't get me any dates at the middle-school dance, I absolutely loved the entire process of getting the costume together. There's a lot of fun and a lot of self-expression that goes into picking out a Halloween costume for child or an adult. The scandal of "Slut-o-ween", is that Halloween is a 4.3 Billion Dollar holiday where pre-made costumes are more common than others, and quite reasonably for the millions of people without the time or inclination to make their own costume. But the choices for women are often overwhelmingly "Sexy _____" the blank representing any noun in the encyclopedia. Over the years the same principle of "Sexy _____" has trickled down throughout the costume market to little girls, who want to emulate older women and older girls, who are also their, mothers, sisters, and aspirational role models of all stripes.
The pressures are only compounded when you look at the costumes of celebrities, and even child stars like Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus's little sister, who at 9 has been splashed all over the news because of her "inappropriate" witch/vampire costume.Did her parents let her out of the house like this? Obviously they did and have before, can we talk until we are blue in the face about this one girl's possible exploitation for publicity? Sure, but let's not. Let's instead take a look at what drives the production of sexy costumes for little girls?
1) Girls want them, and they are easily available.
Why might this be? Might it be that they are considered scandalous and seem cool? They make it to the newsstands and news reports EVERY Halloween as though this is the first time something questionable has ever been marketed to the under-10 set? (A Scary NEW Trend, NY Daily News... really?) The free publicity that these costumes get from the news of the scandal rocking the good name of Halloween only add to their bad-girl mystique, and while turning a blind eye to them is silly, this yearly outrage obviously drives sales.
2) Parents purchase them for their daughters and allow them to wear them out in public.
I don't think there's an easy answer to the "my daughter wants to wear this risque outfit" issue. On one hand, as a parents you're totally aghast that your little moppet wants to wear something that might make a stripper blush out to Trick-or-Treat with her friends. But it's not as simple as "that's inappropriate and I'm not going to let you wear it out," for many parents. One wants to allow their child self-expression and as girls get older they want to emulate older girls and women, and you might consider "if I let her wear this now, maybe she won't be as fascinated by it when she's older, it'll become something she did when she was a little kid."
On one hand, its obvious that for most kids and parents, this is a discussion that can be done reasonably, the child isn't accustomed to getting everything they want all the time and some sort of compromise can be reached that satisfies both the child's desire for a particular look and the parent's particular standards of aesthetics and propriety. From everything I've seen, read and experienced, it helps to go costume shopping prepared so that both parent and child know what the ground rules are when picking out a costume.
Here's my list of requirements for any costume I buy or make for myself or my kids, it's based on my years as a costume designer, event planner and wearer/buyer of Halloween costumes:
Can one move in it?
Will it be appropriate for the weather?
Is the fabric comfortable enough that I won't claw off my skin?
Will I be visible in the dark? (Especially important for Trick or Treating)
Am I going to be comfortable with what this outfit covers or uncovers? (also think about how it's going to act when you move? will the hemline rise if you walk?)
Is this something I'd want to wear more than once?
The answers to these questions are different for each person and each situation, but if you go in having some sense of what you need from a costume and what you want from a costume you'll end up with one more appropriate for you or for your child than you might if you go in without any ideas. Not every costume is one that you end up wanting to remember forever, and there are still options out there for people who don't want to wear something raunchy for All Hallow's Eve, but make sure that you're not settling for something you don't like just because it's available, and if you do want to dress up in a sexy manner... at least put some thought into it.
I have some serious affection Disney's Tinker Bell movie, and Disney Fairies in general. I think it's a cut above a lot of girls franchises out there, based on several points: 1) male and female characters all working together and being friends without weird undertones, 2) personal pride in talents and celebrating one's interests and actions as what makes someone special. Story was taken seriously in development, as can be seen in their decision to retool the story completely, pushing back the DVD's release for nearly a year, predated by a fantastic set of books and consumer products releases.
I could go on and on, which I will at some point, but right now, I'm going to talk about my favorite scene in Tinker Bell and why it makes me really excited about the "new look" that Tinker Bell has in the upcoming release . Tinker Bell has looked many different ways over the years, and that slide show I've link barely scratches the surface. If you think about mythical pixies and all their interpretations over the years there's a lot of lore to cover. Tinker Bell, as she appears in the Disney version of Peter Pan and also, in Disney Fairies, was based on Marilyn Monroe and for years has been seen as a teensy sex symbol as well as a beloved children's character. In rebooting her for a new generation of girls as an aspirational character, they did something amazing in Tinker Bell, they explained why she wore the clothes she did.
Upon arriving at her new home in Pixie Hollow, she is presented with some leaf-clothing that is about 8 sizes too large. In order to get down to the business of being a tinker, frolicking, exploring and generally being active, Tinker Bell cuts the clothes down to size so she can move and not be impeded by the sleeves of the dress. She also finds that her hair is in her face during the process, and pulls it back into her trademark pony tail.
The whole scene lasts about 20 seconds but speaks volumes to anyone watching about the kind of gal Tinker Bell is and why her clothes are a choice she makes. A functional and practical decision on her part is also one that ends up being stunning is not a bad thing, nor is the fact that her friends react by complimenting her, she's pretty but it doesn't affect how they treat her later on and she doesn't get a big head about it, despite the dramatic reveal in the next scene.
"I began thinking what the costume design would be for each season," he says. Since Lost Treasure is set in autumn, "the weather is cooler, and her outfit should reflect that."
The result is a tad tomboyish and covers more of her body, yet still clings to her curvy figure. "We wanted to make Tink as real as possible in Lost Treasure," says director Klay Hall. "It made sense she was going to put on a jacket, leggings and boots. This is sort of a new phase for Tink, and the look brings her up to the current feeling we are trying to convey," such as the belt she uses to carry items she needs.
The fact that a female character is changing clothes in a property may seem small, but like my favorite scene, these small moments where motivation is addressed add so much to the story and the depth of character that can be displayed in a property. One small step for pants, one giant leap for storytelling.
Did her parents let her out of the house like this? 
