Lipstick

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

From Revlon to Glossier, from Marilyn to Gaga, lipstick is as shape-shifting and unwieldy as femininity itself.

Who wears lipstick today – as a matter of routine? And for those who do, is it out of obligation to a strict feminine standard, or some other reason entirely? Lipstick reconsiders the beauty world’s most conspicuous – and contentious – tool of artifice. Tossing expired ideas about femininity like so many tubes of melting wax, Lipstick explores how self-adornment can be a source of play, pleasure, and transformation, as well as how lipstick can knock gender norms off balance.

Author Biography

Eileen G’Sell is Senior Lecturer of College Writing at Washington University, St. Louis, USA. She is also the film critic for The Hopkins Review, an award-winning literary and culture magazine out of Johns Hopkins University. Her writing has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Baffler, Jacobin, Los Angeles Review of Books, Belt Magazine, Current Affairs, Film Quarterly, and Hyperallergic, among other publications. www.eileengsell.com