vanity and other myths and legends

 

I was talking to one of my students. (You will notice this is a theme a lot around here — I talk to my students a lot.) It is about appearance. I am telling her she should go do something nice for her face.

This isn’t me saying anything damaging about her face, I just think a facial might be a nice stress relieving thing.

I get facials. They are nice stress relieving things. Also, I have essentially been making it up to my face ever since I shoved it into a windshield at sixteen. It started out as an apology but then just became habit. It’s working for me and the face. And —

It’s a nice stress relieving thing.

My student is balking, saying, Well doing that, taking care of my face —

Is such “Vanity!”

She says it with a capital “V” too. Also an exclamation mark. Apparently, this is seriously a sin, this being nice to the face thing.

I am unconvinced.

I know this girl. She goes to the doctor when she has health issues. She’s practically vegan. She’s very into healthy eating. She’s nice to everything else. Just not her face?

I say, Listen, Why is it okay to take care of your liver, your kidneys, your heart, but not your face? Why does it become “Vanity” if you are caring for your face, but it’s all good if you are caring for your spleen? Isn’t your face a part of you that you should be nice to too?

 

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I don’t get the whole, It’s treating yourself right if you do something nice for your spleen, but it’s a mortal sin if you do something nice for your face thing. God created faces too, right? Probably he thinks you should treat them as well as you treat that spleen.

 

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where the art work comes from:
that is richard avedon shooting twiggy