Empowering Every Woman to be Beautiful

The Ideal Woman?




Once upon a time, while speeding along Hudson River Drive en route to Westchester County, New York, I passed a billboard featuring the British supermodel, Kate Moss. My then boyfriend (I’ll call him Scott) was in the car with me. We were having a rare moment of tranquility. We hadn’t argued for a full 24 hours. A record for us.

Just as I was settling into our peaceful exchange about the autumn weather, the city’s newest restaurants and my budding makeup career, something abruptly snatched me back to reality.

Scott made this comment: Kate Moss. She’s the ideal woman.

What did he just say?

Or as my friend, Dana, would say with her head wiggling back and forth, “No, he didn’t!”

Now don’t get me wrong. I like Kate. I think she’s really beautiful. I did Calvin Klein’s makeup once during Fashion Week and I got to be back stage with Kate before the show. She’s really sweet. And at just 5’7, the girl can burn up a catwalk.

But that’s not the point. The point is my boyfriend thought she was the ideal woman. In case he hadn’t noticed, I look(ed) nothing like Kate Moss. I was offended. I was hurt. I wanted to punch him in the nose.

We fought all the way to Westchester.

He tried to make his case. She’s glamorous. She’s got a certain mystique. She's gorgeous. He was simply digging himself in deeper.

By the time I arrived home I was fuming.

I was friends with a kind-hearted, free-spirited couple who allowed me to rent their small, cottage-like apartment for almost nothing during my lean years. The wife told me many times that her husband did not like her wearing makeup or getting too “glammed.” She didn’t even wear lip gloss because, “My husband really likes women more natural.”

I knocked on their door to commiserate with the wife after I told off my boyfriend for the Kate Moss comment. As the wife and I discussed what a pig Scott was, her husband came home. He asked what was going on.

I told him what Scott had said about Kate. The Hubby’s response: “Well, she is pretty amazing.”

O-kay. I gathered my belongings and headed downstairs as the argument ensued. Honestly, I was shocked he even knew who Kate Moss was. He seemed far too "Birkinstock" to pay much attention to fashion icons.

All of this taught me two things:

Men who say they don’t want their women dolled up usually like it quite a lot when other women are dolled up.

I needed a new boyfriend.

Survey: Would you have punched Scott in the nose?

For another funny post on this subject, check out AGrlCanMac's post: Don't Listen to Men.