We love you anyways J-Lo. No but really, since research has established that we transmit most of our messages through the face[1], wouldn’t it make sense to always want to make our faces pretty and appealing. With our faces, we can communicate to others who we are and what we want them to think we are[2]. So on the right side J-Lo wants to be perceived as a beautiful, seductive Hollywood actress, and on the left….well, I’ll leave that up to you to decide. The overall drastic change is of course due to the red-lipstick, mascara and eye-liner, which are grooming codes that females use to send out a certain signal, such as I am feminine and powerful. Cosmetics have in fact always been “instrumental in liberating women to express themselves sexually on their own terms”, so J-Lo can therefore choose to look good or not. If she does choose to look good, she will smack on red lipstick, and flaunt her eyes with mascara to make her eyelashes look longer and darker. There is of course also such a hting as wearing too much makeup, so J-Lo might want to find a nice in between. Now her hair is something else altogether. “The way people have worn their hair has always been a sign of beauty, personality…and even physical power”[3]. In these two photos, J-Lo’s un-brushed messy hair makes a huge difference in her appearance compared with her wavy curled hair. I guess you either go all out or not at all.
The footnotes worked well for you. Interesting observations!
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