Beauty and its Beast: As told by Wanda Sykes
“Wanda, it’s going to hurt a little bit.” I was like, “I’m tough. I got that shit.” So she put the wax on there, put the tape on there, ‘poof.’ I smacked the shit outta her. You hear me. ‘Whoop! What the f*** is wrong with you?’”
The 21st century has redefined beauty in a very un-beautiful way. The standards for woman that have been set by the media are through the roof. No longer do you see articles that read “Natural Beauty is True Beauty,” but, instead, we see articles on How to be More Attractive, Ways to be Beautiful, and that of the sort. What happened to the ever-so-popular pinterest saying, “be-YOU-tiful?”
When telling her “Waxed” bit, Wanda Sykes talks about her first time getting waxed and how awful the pain was. She sets up her joke by stating, “I changed some things. I try to make some adjustments. I try to change some things. You know — Like I tried to get waxed.” She begins with a saying that we all have said at least once, in the New Year or something of the sort, and immediately the audience may start thinking about their own experience with this thought. This idea of “changing” something is commonly associated with working out more, or cutting out alcohol, or going on a diet, or being a nicer person, etc. This is how Wanda utilizes the impact of shock value. No one expected her, a 40 year old woman, to follow up “I changed some things” with “I tried to get waxed.” This starts the setup of the joke, and the way she presents it is key to why her joke doesn’t fall flat later on.
“Yeah, I tried waxing for the first time. Yeah, and my friend she has a spa. She runs it out of her house. I want to support her, so I want to get the whole spa package. And you know part of it is a bikini wax. Yeah, so I said OK I can give it a shot. I try. Yeah, you know.”
Wanda builds suspense and the audience gets more and more ready to hear the punch line. There’s an almost sarcastic twang to her tone that lets the audience know that this is about to be funny. “She said, ‘Wanda, it’s going to hurt a little bit.’ I was like, ‘I’m tough. I can handle that stuff.’ So she put the wax on there, put the tape on there, ‘poof.’ I smacked the shit out of her. You hear me. ‘Whoop! Poof! What the f*** is wrong with you?’ This is the punch line thats been much anticipated.
Wanda goes on to compare getting waxed to “something that would happen in the wild.” She says, “That kind of pain should happen out in the wild somewhere. It shouldn’t happen to humans. You know when you watch those nature shows... I pictured my ass-hole running across the Serengeti. I’m like, ‘Run ass-hole. Run ass-hole, run. Come on ass-hole. Ah!!’ Hot lion teeth on my ass-hole. That’s what it felt like. Shit, I got a tetanus shot when I got out of there.” This hyperbole enhances her joke. Wanda expands upon her joke after telling it. Her ability to stay in the joke is also an important factor to how funny it actually is. From her reenactment of slapping the waxer, to her facial expressions, to her screaming “run ass hole” across the stage, she keeps the sentiment of her story alive. As a very opinionated woman who wrote a book on politics, it’s out of character for her to discuss something so minute. I would expect a rich house wife, or a sorority girl, to talk about waxing, not a 40-year-old, professionally dressed woman. It is this story that actually brings attention to a big issue in society today.
We, as women, accept and deal with this pain because we grew up learning that “beauty is pain.”
A question that keeps popping into my head is this: Why did girls start removing hair from their bodies in the first place? Research found that hair removal has been around since Ancient Egypt. In ancient Egypt, women used to remove all their body hair with pumice stones and wax made from beeswax or sugar. In the Roman Empire, having no body hair symbolized wealth, and it was “uncivilized” to be seen with pubic hair. Queen Elizabeth I changed the game during the Middle Ages and started removing hair from her face but not her body. Removing hair from your forehead made it appear larger and boys back then loved a girl with a big forehead. In the 1900s, Gillette created the first razor specifically for women. By this time, it was “humiliating” to grow hair on your face, neck, and arms. The 1960s brought about many exciting things, including wax strips. The earliest form of these, however, were very damaging to skin, as were early forms of razors. This did not stop women from using them, oddly enough. Moving into the 1970s, bald faces, arms, legs, and pits were not simply not enough. Now, a smooth bikini area was trending. This brings us to today’s society, in which hair removal is an everyday routine; from shaving, to tweezing, to waxing and threading. People nowadays shell out hundreds of dollars to get hair laser removed. I think its odd how we’re so quick to manipulate the cycles that our bodies are meant to do, i.e. grow hair.
The brilliant mind of Nancy Etcoff wrote Survival of the Prettiest. The beginning starts with three very powerful quotes, but the one that stands out the most is this: “Beauty has long since disappeared. It has slipped beneath the surface of the noise, the noise of words, sunk deep as Atlantis. The only thing left of it is the word, whose meaning loses clarity from year to year.” What society deems “beautiful” is constantly shifting, and for some reason everyone shifts with it. Etcoff wrote, “During 1996 a reported 696,904 Americans underwent voluntary aesthetic surgery that involved tearing or burning their skin, shucking their fat, or implanting foreign materials.” Beauty is merely a social construct, it’s not real. What is real, however, is the very flesh that we are so quick to alter and change.
How ironic is it that your natural face is no longer considered your “face?”
Ali Wong says, “It is not unusual for a female comedian to talk about her body.” She talks about how she can’t wait to be married because there’s no more pressure to keep up your image. Once you’re married, you no longer have to do “all the sh*t woman have to do to keep f***able… no more plucking, no more shaving, no more trimming.” It’s a hassle! So, why do we do it? Wanda talks about how awful the pain of waxing is. Even though its extremely painful, waxing is becoming a very common substitute to shaving. We deal with the pain of it because “it keeps the hair away longer, so we don’t have to shave.” Hair used to be a sign of maturity, not something to be embarrassed about.
So, then, there’s this question of why hair is acceptable on boys, but considered gross on girls? Society has constructed a concept of what is and isn’t “beautiful,” and, in order to live up to its standards, girls must endure pain. We, as women, accept and deal with this pain because we grew up learning that “beauty is pain.” Why is it that girls feel obligated to get waxed, put on loads of makeup, clog their pores, and wear high heels that hurt their feet? Society has defined beauty in a way that makes natural beauty no longer beautiful. It seems as though going out of the house without make up is sloppy because you aren’t “putting your face on.” How ironic is it that your natural face is no longer considered your “face?”
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