ABSTRACT
This chapter considers whether everyday beauty practices deserve to be the subject of this new enthusiasm. It examines the claim that these everyday beauty practices are good and useful aspects of women's lives. The chapter focuses on women's time, money and emotional space. The absence of interest in examining it suggests that it is seen as 'natural' for women and therefore unworthy of examination. The chapter looks at another requirement of women's sexual corvee that is more obviously harmful to women, the wearing of high-heeled shoes. In the same period the job market opened up to middle-class women with the birth of white collar occupations such as office work and teaching. Peiss associates the new enthusiasm for cosmetics amongst women to this movement of women into the public world. Some hospital psychologists understand the maintenance of feminine beauty practices to signify 'mental health' and enforce makeovers on women they consider recalcitrant.
