Make-up: Private Performances in Public Spaces

I was riding the BART into work this morning when I noticed two women applying their eye make-up. The application of make-up, which my grandmother refers to as her "mask", is usually done in private. It is a private performance in itself which serves as a preparation for the public performance of persona. In contemporary society, the anonymity of public transporation creates a pseudo-private space. It allowed me to become a voyeuristic audience of this private ritual.

The woman I most closely observed continued to stroke her eyebrows over and over, long after she had applied her make-up. I imagine that this repetive gesture began with a real purpose. She needed to smooth back her eyebrow hairs or blend in her eyeshadow. Somehow along the way, the gesture took on it's own ritual signifigance. Perhaps it allowed her to contemplate her self in the mirror longer, or feel the self-stroking touch of her hand on the face. Something very private was going on in a totally public space.

It reminded me of the amazing gesiha transformation that B. D. Wong made on stage in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly. His performance was highly theatrical, public and private, similar to this woman's BART ride ritual. The performance of make-up application is a private theatre of narcissism. Daily make-up masks hide and reveal who we truelly are and want to be.