Code-X (45)

By: Joshua Glenn
December 20, 2014

Call this cosmetics category code: Retouching the Paint.

Definition: A woman ought to regard herself as a precious work of art… an artifact to be painstakingly maintained in pristine condition, and touched up as needed.

Notes on this code: Woman posed as tough for a classic portrait. Smooth, even complexion, like a statue — see Baudelaire’s essay on makeup.

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MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco