JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 930
[Continuing the posts What Makes Human Robot Girls, 1941, How to Get a Boy-Date, 1941, and The Missing Pieces of Women, Pope Joan and the Proper Girl]
Following on the tall heals of several posts on mid-1940’s social engineering for young women comes this rougey sprite by Dorothy Cocks, Tricks with Make-up. It is one of a long series of quickly-produced pamphlets flung from the presses of the Ladies’ Home Journal under the stewardship of Elizabeth Woodward.
There’s much to learn about what was expected of the social shell of women in this pamphlet, but what I’ve focused on is this jewel on page 7: “Which is Your Type: Pretty or Smart?” And that’s it: no ground in-between, no space for something else, and evidently no room for being smart AND pretty. Here it is:
The advice to “touch perfume behind your ears and above your upper lip” is a new one to me.