The ideal beauty?

The ideal beauty?

The ideal beauty in the Elizabethan era were to have a pale complexion "a white skin was essential feature of perfect beauty"(The artificial face Fenja Gunn. Rosy cheeks "the rose and the lily set the colour for complexions"(The Artificial Face Fenja Gunn pg 65). A red lip or rosy lip was worn to match the cheeks.

Elizabeth was seen as the ideal beauty "the queen was personified the Elizabethan ideal of beauty"(The Artificial Face Fenja Gunn). With her golden hair and pale complexion. Elizabeth had a lot of power over Britain not just politically but also appearance wise. "A light white powder and blush of rouge may have been used by few women to enhance their complexions, but cosmetics were not generally used until Elizabeth's reign" This shows the power she had over people using cosmetics. This was an expressive era where people expressed themselves through their version of popular culture with music,literature, art, and fashion. Elizabeth may have been no poet as we know of but she sure did know how to dress and look astonishing she was a fashionista! The fashion changed into lighter padded clothes. "Tudor costume disappeared in favor of lighter padded clothes, which made use of lavish and bright coloured fabrics, exquisite embroidery and huge lace ruffs"(The Artificial face Fenja Gunn).  The clothing changed as people got more expressive with not just art etc but with their opinions as they were allowed to say if they wee Protestant or Catholic as Elizabeth tried to sort of bring the religions together not against one another. "The fashions of the day reflected this change in attitude" (The Artificial Face Fenja Gunn). People were proud to be British we defeated The Spanish Armada we were popular for cosmetics and fashions and of course Shakespeare who we all have knowledge of to this day he is still seen as a linguistic genius with his puns and wit.

It was said that "no single individual has ever exerted such an influence on the fashions and beauty of a period"(The Artificial Face Fenja Gunn). This quote was about Elizabeth her image so powerful and fully represented her as a person. However makeup was not always seen as a attractive and wonderful look to the medieval church. It was seen as a sin to want to cover your skin in led; the sin being vainity."Ecclesiastical puritans totally condemed artifical vanites as the devils influence on women kind" It was said that men and wome who were vain were to be punished. Traits like owmen writing love letters and poetry were seen as attractive not ccovering up what God has given you.

Was Elizabeth an imposter?

It has also been said recently that Queen Elizabeth was an imposter. The controversial tabloid The Daily Mail published an article that read “Is this proof the Virgin Queen was an imposter in drag? Shocking new theory about Elizabeth I unearthed in historic manuscripts”. Which to me sounded absolutely absurd. The theory had started from a book by Steve Berry named "Famous Imposters" his reasoning behind it was that apparently Elizabeth told the troops at Tilbury that “I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England, too”. He has taken this loteral and has said it to be true as she was a man. This conspiracy has been around for many years it is known as The Bisley Boy Legend. I also watched an intriguing documentary on the subject named "Secrets of the virgin queen". At first I giggled at how pathetic the idea sounded. The I began to question he myself. As she held the power of a man. It was aid she was unusually tall for a woman of that era, she had big long hands, she was better than most men at sports and her mannerisms were apparently manly. It also made me question why she was not married or had a child could this be that she was a man? Maybe thats why she wore the heavy makeup to hide stubble? The neck ruffs to hide her Adams Apple? I found this both mad and intriguing. It could even inspire a drag Elizabethan makeup look. But not for me I believe Elizabeth was a she and not a he.