Cosmetics through History

The Cosmetics have been in use since time immemorial across diverse cultures. Not only they serve to enhance natural beauty, but also provide a means of self-expression. From Cleopatra to today’ Hollywood actresses, the cosmetics have played an integral role in women's daily beauty regimes. 

The fashion for cosmetics first started in Ancient Egypt and was later actively embraced by the Romans. Subsequently, cosmetics and their use transcended all classes. However, nail colour was exclusively the preserve of aristocrats. In China, this trend even became enshrined in law with transgressors daring to wear nail colour, were summarily executed in public. Quite literally, people died for fashion. 

As cosmetics grew in popularity, women began to become more extravagant in their use of cosmetics. Imported beauty products from as far away as China, Germany and Gaul were lavishly used by women in their quest for beauty. Excessive use of these costly products ultimately incited public controversy leading to the introduction of the Lex Oppia Law of 189 BC. The law curbed the use of cosmetics and over-adornment of women generally in public places Prior to the law's introduction, women had been becoming ever more competitive in keeping up appearances, even gambling away huge fortunes on the costly cosmetics. 

In the following interim period between the Roman era and the middle ages, use of cosmetics disappeared. The Dark Ages, as this era was termed saw only very limited use of make-up amongst restricted sectors of the public. An edict issued by the Church, denouncing all those wearing cosmetics as heathens and devil-worshippers, ensured that cosmetics suffered a rapid loss in popularity amongst the public. Overwhelmingly, the use of cosmetics during this era was associated with women of ill repute and actors for whom society had scant regard. 

Only much later, in the Elizabethan Era, did cosmetics become popular once again. Lead preparations were particularly favoured as women sought to lighten their skin. Mercury compounds, such as mercury sulphide, were applied to the lips for colour. 

After a brief resurgence in popularity, cosmetics only became popular again during the reign of another long-reigning monarch, Queen Victoria (1837-1901). As in the Elizabethan era, a pallid complexion was favoured over a tanned look. Mercifully, the pale look was attained through applying concoctions of lemon juice and vinegar as opposed to the more lethal lead preparations of the past. Overt applications of make-up were frowned upon, with lipstick and rouge being studiously avoided. Purchase of cosmetics was a somewhat furtive affair, with clients obtaining products from local chemists with concealed back door entrances. 

Only with the establishment of a cosmetic counter (London - 1909) where women could publicly try out cosmetics before purchase, buying and wearing of cosmetics gained acceptability. Today the sheer diversity of cosmetics products and the freedom to apply them sparingly or liberally is largely due the burgeoning of the cosmetics industry, spearheaded in the UK by Gordon Selfridge and the influence of Hollywood in the 1920s.

Mary Magdalene – Sacred or Sinner?

I wish if I could tell you clearly who Mary Magdalene was. She could have been Jesus' most celebrated female disciple only if numerous people hadn't put her secret relationship with Jesus as central theme of their artistic works. At different times, church, religious groups, painters and writers have been playing with her individuality. It made us curious enough to find out who she really was. Needless to say, credit goes to very limited and conflicting  literature found, written mostly after her death. 

Legend says that Mary Magdalene lived in a castle on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (in present day Israel). Unlike her siblings, Mary indulged herself into luxurious pleasures and became notorious for her extravagant lifestyle. Her sister, Martha persuaded her to listen to Jesus, who had already relieved some women from curse of evil spirits and diseases. Jesus visited Marry. She sat at the feet of Jesus and washed his feet with tears, thus Jesus cleansed her of seven demons (seven sins). The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) present Mary as a woman who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, and saw him alive three days later. After putting all Gospels collectively, I found Mary Magdalene to be a visionary leader. 

Unfortunately, early church leaders bundled Mary’s identity with a women whom Bible did not know. The idea of calling Magdalene a prostitute originated in the sixth century, when Pope Gregory I identified her woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Magdalene as prostitute was perpetuated by much Western form of arts, in which she is shown, having long red hair, while other women follow contemporary standards. Because, any retrieval of Magdalene as a saint could shakes up male church leadership, that's why Church called her prostitute, but could it have destroyed all evidences in attempt to rewrite history? 

Now question arises whether history been wrong for 2000 years or not. Is this true that Jesus and Magdalene were married? Author Dan Brown’s clever weaving of fact with fiction in his novel The Da Vinci Code convinced me that Jesus and Magdalene were really married and had a child. But is this romantic assertion supported by historical evidence, lets’ find out - 

• Discriminated depictions of other women and Mary in Meister des Marienlebens‘ crucifixion paintings show how he viewed her relationship with Jesus. 
• Mary's role as a Crucifixion witness was unusual because women at that time were not considered credible witnesses in legal proceedings. This shows Mary’s importance in Jesus’ life. 
• Gospel of Philip says that Jesus was used to kiss Mary, often. Other disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. Gospel of Mary describes tensions and jealousy between Magdalene and Peter. 
• The identity of "Mary" appearing as the main character in Gospel is sometimes perceived as companion of Jesus. Magdalene’s frequent appearance than other women in the canonical Gospels suggests role of grieving wife and widow. 

• The 13th-century Cistercian monk, Peter of Vaux de Cernay claimed that young Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene as bachelorhood was very rare for Jewish males of Jesus' time. 
• After the Crucifixion, she watched Jesus’ tomb. Others went away, but Mary stayed crying, which shows Jesus’ importance in her life. 

Jesus and Mary were married, but Christian text was a bit shy on romance and decided to sauce it up a little.

Even 2000 years after her death, Mary Magdalene’s real individuality would decide whether Jesus was a God or another human with ordinary desires. I hope, just like me, there are million people  out there who are hoping to get to know real Mary Magdalene. 

Hitler - Dictator or exploded face of an Artist?

After Alexander, humanity did not witness existence of a man who could control almost entire world as per his wishes until Hitler came in picture. Interestingly, like Alexander, he influenced countless men with his magnetic leadership style, but unlike Hitler, Alexander would have never executed the mass murder of six million Jews for sure. How strange it seems that Hitler, whose political visions bought the world a war, once wanted to be an artist. 

From childhood, Hitler had strong desires to be an artist. Eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons and even entertained thoughts of becoming a priest. It may sound hard to believe, but Hitler was once very emotional kid who often had to face opposition of his father against his artistic wishes. Being sensitive, death of his younger brother deeply affected him and he drastically changed from being confident student to a detached boy who often fought with his father and teachers. 

From 1905, Hitler lived in Vienna (Austria), worked as a casual laborer to eventually become a painter. Very few of us know that Hitler produced and sold hundreds of his paintings in streets of Vienna to earn living. In between all this, his attempts to get into Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna) were persistent. When Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna rejected his piece of work over and over, failure of an artist probably met notorious and murderous instincts.

A painting by Hitler - he produced and sold hundreds of paintings to earn living during 1908–1913.

We all know how World War I left Germany starving with Treaty of Versailles, which imposed heavy taxes on country. After joining Nazi Party, Hitler soon gained notoriety for his speeches against the Treaty of Versailles and Jews. Hitler’s hatred for Jews always remained unreasonable to me knowing that he had many close Jewish friends, during his stay in Austria.

It is interesting that he might even had a Jewish grandfather. Hitler’s grandmother was housekeeper in a Jewish family. She had no social contact with anybody, except family's 19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, who possibly brought Hitler’s father to existence. Throughout his life, Hitler acted like a the most weird person in political senses. He always praised Christian culture, but in person, he criticized Christianity. He once even called it, fit for slaves only. 

Perhaps Hitler, who defined new altitude of dictatorship, was never fit for it. Deep down inside, he was an artist whose military judgment became increasingly erratic at the end of WW II. In simple words, Hitler may sound like a dictator of Nazi Germany, but possibly his persona was far smipler than that. Certainly, Hitler was ultimately responsible for deaths of 21 million civilians in war, however,  he remained as an untold artist in history pages. 

Ambitious tale of ambitious Alexander

For ages, many rural admired and imitated his leadership style. King Pompey (Rome) even adopted his haircut as a sign of greatness, and searched his 260-year-old cloak. Stretching his kingdom from Ionian Sea to the Himalayas, he created the largest empire of the ancient world. Greece enjoyed a period of prosperity and international trade during his existence. Many inner states of Greece revolted against him over and over, but these were his charismatic leadership skills that saved Greece from falling apart. Yes, I am talking about Alexender the great, a strong and handsome commander with one eye dark as the night and one blue as the sky. 

Out of King Philips‘eight wives, Olympias gave birth to Alexander who showed his heroic instincts with controlling a stubborn horse at age of 10. When Alexander succeeded Macedonia at 20, he had to find a kingdom, big enough for his ambitions. Against hairy Macedonian kings, Alexander went clean-shaven, because he was never meant to be a forgettable ruler. His fairness passed into ruddiness on his face and chest. 

Before crossing to Asia, he conquered the entire Persian Empire. Persian king Darius III fled the battle and left his fabulous treasure behind. When Jerusalem opened its gates in surrender, he headed to Egypt. He marched into Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and captured Babylon. During his world victory tour, Alexander founded a series of cities, including Alexandria (Egypt) and modern Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Stretching his kingdom from Ionian Sea to Himalayas, Alexander created the largest empire of ancient world

When his eagerness to conquer the world with winning India caught fire, Eastern boundaries of his kingdom started weakening in his absence. After making King Porus from Punjab an ally, Alexnder moved further to Indian boundaries. In an attempt to seize fort of Massaga, Alexander got wounded sincerely in the ankle. Using the incorrect maps of world, Alexander thought that the world ended mere 600 miles away from the edge of India. Beyond his knowledge; there was a prosperous Nanda Empire of Magadha in the east. He tried to persuade his army to march further, but soldiers longed to see their homeland, refused to fight against 6000 elephant man army. 

Despite arriving with his troops at the river Ganges, he decided to return home. During travelling, his closest friend and possible homosexual lover, Hephaestion, died of illness. His death devastated Alexander and he also left this world in 323 BC after downing a large bowl of unmixed wine in Babylon. Opposition and rivalry soon started afflicting his territory. Both son Alexander IV and half-brother Philip III were murdered after his death. A series of civil wars tore his great empire apart. 

Although in Persian literature, Alexander is accused of destroying temples and burning the sacred texts, yet in India and Pakistan, he is paid respect with being called – Sikandar (A rising young talent). Died at age of 32, Alexander left his dream of making the world his kingdom. His Sky touching ambitions, beyond definition make Alexander classical hero in Greek and non-Greek cultures for eternity. 

The Jews - lost in migrations and massacre

Jews, being minority in every country (except Israel) have experienced harassment throughout the history. A community that got doubled within the confines of the Roman Empire witnessed the social discrimination, assimilation, migration and massacre, persistently. 

Jews repeatedly have been expelled from their homeland and settled wherever they could practice their religion. Their harassment started under the Roman Empire, where Jews were driven from land to land followed by destruction of Solomon’s Temple by Babylonians. During Christian Roman era, they were officially announced second-class citizens. In the middle Ages in Europe, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, 100,000 from France, 200,000 from Spain and 37,000 from Portugal. Many of these Jews settled in Poland where they unfortunately had to witness mass murder of six million of them, during Second World War (Known as The Holocaust).

After the founding of Israel, methodical persecution caused almost all of Jews to flee to Israel, Europe and North America in the 1950s. The Islamic Revolution of Iran caused many Iranian Jews to flee Iran to the US and Israel. When the Soviet Union collapsed, community got affected by wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s, yet suffering from Israeli- Arab conflicts. Prior to this, around 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, back from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States, between 1974 and 1979. 

Posters of ' Schindler's List' and 'The Pianist' , Both movies depict measurable life of Jews, 
during 'The Holocaust' (WW - 2)

Their maltreatment reached to peak in Nazi Germany, slaughtering roughly 6 million Jews. The Holocaust — a systematic persecution of European Jews during World War II, led by Adolf Hitler remains the most horrible persecution of Jews. They were forced to be in Concentration camps where they were used as slave until they died of exhaustion or disease. They were transported hundreds of miles by freight train to be killed in gas chambers. Out of the nine million of them, approximately two-thirds perished since over one million Jewish children, two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men were killed during mass shootings. Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if they were not murdered time by time, they would have been 200 million in numbers today, rather than 13 million (0.2 % of world population). 

Since the time of the Ancient Greeks, Jews were surrounded by wider non-Jewish society and either by choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely like the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappeared completely after continuous assimilation. 

A community that notably surprised the world with Physics invention with Albert Einstein and gave new dimensions to art of cinema through Adrian Brody and Winona rider has suffered the irresistible pain, over centuries. Hopefully in days to come, a Jews won’t have to face more inexplicable hatred since a woman (Jesus Christ's mother) who gave birth to Christianity was a Jew.