Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

The distinctly over-developed American beauty culture virtually compels women to take part in a quest for physical perfection from the age of 5 until the day they die. Personal liberty amounts to the freedom to choose which of the available stereotypes one selects for oneself. This sad and horrific quest is well-established in Britain, only the intensity is different. 'Children basically don't like to look like children', says the designer for the firm that makes them fake fur coats, 'and I feel they need a little help'. She isn't the only one. Toy cosmetics are offered to 5 year olds?they'll be on to the real thing by the time they're 10 and almost too old to enter the Little Miss America contest. Some 4 years later, if they're rich enough, they'll be off for their first workover at a beauty farm, to repair the ravages of life so far and prepare for the really serious business of beauty to come. You can get your passport to the American beauty culture at whatever age you like and, once you're in, you're there for life?assailed by the largest advertiser in America, making its fortune and, by proper dedication to its wares, your own. Personal liberty in America, says Kathrin Perutz,* is the freedom to choose which of the available stereotypes one selects for oneself; and she should know, for she writes as one who has chosen, in her time, the agonies of platinum blonditude and is even now thinking of doing something about her breasts. Her account of the beauty business, filtered through her own looking glass, is by turns sad, funny, witty, bitter and nothing short of horrifying. The guides, counsellors and friends are the magazines. At 'Seventeen', you are America's sweetheart, daddy's little girl, young enough not to care, except about a rigorous dedication to the essentials of grooming. At the age of 'Glamour', you realise you're an undiscovered princess, a small town girl who, with a facial makeover and a change of hair, could net the New York prince. 'Cosmopolitan' offers more than instant class, it offers a way of life, a complete personality with every issue. This is 'Real Girl' talking: 'What does a girl like me think about all day long? Men? Clothes? How to look prettier? The party I'm going to Saturday night? I think about all these things, but it's not quite as simple as …