Veronica Scissors
Veronica Scissors drops today! Go buy it! 99 cents! I’ll wait.
In a previous post I talked about how this story was inspired by watching my daughters as they looked in the mirror, experimenting with make-up and hair and clothes. They never looked happy with their look. They never seemed satisfied with it.
That is by design. Big Beauty, or whatever you’d like to call it, has a vested interest in keeping the quest for perfect beauty alive. They do not want customers to feel beautiful. They want customers to feel almost beautiful. One more beauty product away from feeling truly beautiful.
It takes me back to the anger I’d feel while watching my daughters look at the covers, and the blurbs for articles, on the cover of Cosmopolitan (Usually while we were buying groceries). Stories about looking beautiful, and keeping your man happy. Diet tips. Sex tips. Tips on maintaining a perfect tummy. How to win back your man. All described in text laid over a photo of a perfectly dressed and coiffed model. I wanted to throw myself against the magazine rack, to shield the girls from unrealistic expectations, and impossible standards for beauty.
I remember flipping through a Cosmo that I found in the apartment of my girlfriend at the time. I looked at the by-lines: the majority of these articles about pleasing your man and looking sexy for your man were written by…men. It’s true. Look the next time you are bored in the supermarket. Propaganda written to keep women scared and insecure.
So, my story, Veronica Scissors, attempts to personify those ulterior motives and negative influences into a literal monster that lives in the mirror. Readers: meet Veronica Scissors.