Opening Up Space: A Lovely Technofeminist Opportunity

Lola Montez Introduction

The pice that we have chosen is the Arts of Beauty; or, Secrets of a Lady's Toilet by madame Lola Montez. This piece reads like an instructional guide for women on how to fit Western standards of beauty. Each chapter focuses ona  different aspect of female beauty like hair, blemishes, and eyes with a chapter at the end dedicated to the "Fifty Rules in the Art of Fascinating". It also offers commentary directed to both men and women, seemingly in a parody style, yet supporting gender-normative standards of the time period. This text is intriguing to work with because of its seemingly anti-feminist viewpoint, yet Montez was known for being provocative and unconventional in a way that has led our group to believe there might be more to this text that what meets the eye.

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