I’d like to share this, uh, informative excerpt found while anwering a recent question on shyness. It’s from This Passion Called Love, which was written by Elinor Glyn. Ladies, sharpen your pencils. You just might want to take notes on this one.
1925: Things That Turn Men Against You
American girls, I think, are the most delectable of any in the world. Even so I want to say this: Nothing appeals more to a man than immaculate cleanliness. A stunny beauty, who looks even slightly soiled, will lose out every time to her plain-faced sister so pleasing to the senses.
Men are repulsed by a woman who tries to be anything she isn’t ~ a flapper, for instance, if she is getting along in years. Your mind may stay young through all the years, and really should; but not your dress, your conversation, or your hair. A grown-up woman who makes use of ‘baby talk’ is an abomination. You cannot be a flapper all your life; so the hairdressing that looks ‘cute’ at twenty is unbecoming at thirty, and ridiculous, to say the least, at forty-five.
Above all, do everything you can to preserve your looks. While a kind heart and a beautiful spirit are wonderful assets, you can scarcely expect a husband to become thrilled at your inside beauty alone when the outside is so neglected. The exterior, somehow, is of great importance to all men. They miss it when it is gone.
Here are a few little things that greatly lessen a woman’s charm in most men’s eyes:
Red hands or arms.
Finger nails too highly polished or shaped like swords.
Fat women with bobbed hair.
Hair that is ‘doctored’ in any way.
Cheap perfumes.
Whiney voices.
Giggling.
Earrings like chandeliers.
Knickers in the city.
This should be enough to start you thinking along the right lines.
Source: Glyn, Elinor. This Passion Called Love. Auburn, N.Y.: The Authors’ Press, 1925.
~ pp. 175-77 ~