The image of people's bodies and descriptions of their clothes played a huge part of Montagu's letters. As she traveled through Turkey, she wrote about the people she saw in nearly every letter, especially the women. Part of this likely had to do with the simply intrigue of the foreign people around her and seeing being dressed in such different clothes. One letter mentioned the incredible beauty of the young women, especially their hair, saying that it would be unusual to see an ugly woman. She also recalls seeing people who painted their nails red, which she cited as being a fashion she could never see as beautiful. I found this especially interesting as painted nails are such a common sight today. It was interesting reading all this from a British woman's perspective; it was like reading about someone walking through a museum. She never really mentioned her own body, either.
Burney's journal entries also mentioned clothes, but in much less detail, and while she discussed the whole ordeal of her clothes being complemented by someone, I got more of an impression of disinterest or disdain towards woman who are so focused on clothes. During the ordeal or having surgery, all the mentions of the body were very open, which surprised me at first before I remembered she was writing the journal for no one. Rather than something like a museum piece, like in Montagu's letters, I got more of an impression of the body as a real, very living thing. It wasn't as much about a thing of beauty as it was about just the body being the body.
No comments:
Post a Comment