Last week at work we had one of the days we all fear. (when I say 'we' I mean the staff not the students....they seem to love anything that means they get some attention). It was Yearbook photo time.
The whole team hate this with a passion. The photos for the preceding two years have been nothing short of hideous. In the 2010 edition, I was going through a brunette phase. (What the hell was I thinking?!) I'm sure the 2011 photograph was taken shortly after a fire-drill. In the rain. The end result was that I looked about 67. And to be fair, no other female staff member fared that well either (the men, for some reason, look perfectly normal....how does that happen??).
So this year, I was determined things would be different. There was absolutely no way that I was going to be immortalised for a generation of Sixth Formers as some frumpy old woman. No way on this earth. I got up a full 20 minutes earlier to give myself time to put in contact lenses, apply more than the usual amount of make-up (the flash on those things is so harsh!) and to run the straighteners through my already pretty straight hair.
745am rolls around and I make my way to work. So far, so good. I can see, I have eyeliner on and I have proper straight hair. Excellent! By 815, I've already been spotted by a couple of students. 'Hey miss, your hair looks nice', 'you look good without your glasses' etc etc... You know the sort of thing...
All was going well until I see Ph. 'Oh my god Pfeiffer! You look like a girl!' What?? 'You look like one of those girls in the movies who's like a speccy nerd…you know the one who falls in love with the hot jock. He won’t go out with her because she’s a geek…’ I’m not enjoying this comparison. It has to get better surely?? Ph continues; ‘She then takes off her glasses, shakes her hair and we all see she's like the hottest girl in the school!' he announces, looking very pleased with himself. (Admittedly, he does tend to overstate things rather enthusiastically). I do?? Surely this is a back-handed compliment of the highest order? I wasn’t quite sure how to take it to be honest. My initial reaction was ‘Charming – cheeky bastard!’ However, when reciting the story to C later, she sighed; ‘Aw…what a lovely thing to say!’ Is it? I thought it was slightly insulting. Maybe that’s why C is much more cheerful than me – willing to see the good in every situation…
At break time, I make my way to the staff room where I collect more compliments about the way I look. Everything from; ‘Wow! You’ve got such lovely eyes – you really shouldn’t hide them behind your glasses.’ (I like this one) to ‘And you’re wearing make-up…’ (this one, not so much. I wear make-up everyday. Every single day. Clearly, some of my colleagues have me down as some scrubbed-face frump). The compliments in general are fantastic (I’m not great at hearing them, but who is? It’s still lovely when they’re around) but it also got me thinking…What the hell must I look like every other day…??
So I faced the Yearbook photographer with a little trepidation. I probably looked ok (ish) in the flesh, but stick a lens in my face and a harsh flash-bulb and who the hell knows what could happen?! The photographer himself was about 12. He didn’t seem to understand the concern of the female members of staff and our absolute need to see the image before he sent it for publishing and he refused our pleas for a viewing. That’s, frankly, more than a little mean. We have to wait until the inevitable CD of photos lands on my desk. Of course, it’ll be too late by then. The book will have been printed and our images burned into those pages for students to smirk over for years to come. Why our idea to use our own (vetted and very possibly photo-shopped) pictures was disallowed I’ll never know…
Anyway, this whole event caused me to think long and hard about my appearance. I’m still not sure if I’m a little bit offended by the reaction to my slightly more ‘polished’ look. But I am more than a little concerned that my contact lenses caused such a stir. Who knew that my glasses were making me so unattractive..?! What troubles me even more however, is the fact that clearly, I go to work every day looking an absolute mess…! I can’t really be offended by the lovely comments made by my friends and colleagues can I? But the fact that 20 minutes work on my appearance can have such a dramatic effect is somewhat telling…I obviously don’t make much of an effort for the average working day (I make much more of an effort for playtime I can assure you)
Offended or not, I’ve decided that I will make more of an effort. I’ve started a new exercise regime (WWMD? is coming in very handy there), am getting up earlier to sort out the make-up on my seemingly geeky-looking face (since the nice lady in L’Occitane told C and I that your skin ages by a week each time you sleep in your make-up, I’ve also religiously scraped it off before bedtime. Every little helps…) and I’ve vowed to wear my lenses to work at least twice a week. Sure, I’m not going to get compliments every day of the week, but if I’m going to be anyone in Ph’s little story, I’m certainly not gonna be the speccy nerd girl…………I hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment