Immortality is just the cherry on top of the cake, because in order to achieve the desired state of happiness, people not only want to live forever but also be young and beautiful, which is what the entire fashion and cosmetics industries, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, prey on.
I can understand that people during the Renaissance put on thick layers of make-up and wore wigs to hide the effects of syphilis, but when I see modern women, especially very young, even teenagers, powdered so much that it is difficult to tell what their facial features are because they look as if they were covered with plaster like a building façade, then I have a reflex of disgust. The same is true with perfumes. In the times when hygiene was a problematic matter, perfumes probably made sense, but now using a lift with someone drenched in Chanel No. 5 or whatever it is they used borders on torture, especially for a person like myself, endowed with a sensitive sense of smell. And these are only aesthetic impressions, although I doubt that make-up is really neutral for skin. But what about things that actually hurt, like shoes on high heels, botulinum toxin injections, or steroids used by bodybuilders?
When I watched Mothering Sunday with Odessa Young some time ago, the sight of her unshaven legs bathed in sunlight was a picture of absolute beauty (the film takes place in the interwar period, and the director Eva Husson paid attention to realism in detail). I have never been able to understand why women shave their legs, armpits, and pubic hair, especially since I sometimes see undesirable results in the form of rashes. Men don’t do this. And if I were a woman, I would spare myself the argument that they do it for men, because personally, being just an average guy, I like hair, and I’m certainly not alone in this. And if it’s a matter of some stupid fashion, maybe it’s time to change it?
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