The Mirror

A friend once said she passed a mirror and was surprised to see there the Wreck of the Hesperus (not a picture, but a much-parodied poem by H.W. Longfellow). I knew just what she meant. I have occasionally returned home from a challenging night out and, groping my way around the bathroom with eyes squeezed shut, have covered the mirror with a towel before brushing teeth, washing face, and retiring to bed, unwilling to come face to face with the face I have been presenting to the public (a face I probably spent considerable time tarting up at that same mirror earlier in the evening).

While I'm at it, I'd like to quote here from an essay by Susan Sontag, published in 'Women' (Annie Leibowitz, Random House, Inc, 1999): 'Nobody looks at pictures of women without noticing whether the women are attractive or not. To be feminine, in one commonly felt definition, is to be attractive, or to do one's best to be attractive; to attract. (As being masculine is being strong.) While it is perfectly possible to defy this imperative, it is not possible for any woman to be unaware of it. As it is thought a weakness in a man to care a great deal about how he looks, it is a moral fault in a woman not to care 'enough'. Women are judged by their appearance as men are not, and women are punished more than men are by the changes brought about by aging.' 
Things may be changing- it is much more acceptable now for a man to 'care a great deal about he looks', although there are looks and there are looks. I have it on the good authority of the Times Magazine (05.05.12) that young men working as sales assistants in the 'cult' clothing store Hollister are required, in keeping with the store's Looks Policy, to wax their chests. How biblical! As Jacob said in Genesis 27:11, 'Behold, Esau my brother is an hairy man, and I am a smooth man.'  I guess Jacob got the job. Though the mind boggles- my mind boggles, at least- at the very idea of a topless sales assistant, male or female..