h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Fashion Victims - A4045583
Author: Frood (Visit the UnderGuide A1103329 It's rather fetching and won't upset your mother.) - U168592

This is a Flea Market rescue, and has also been in the Writing Workshop for a bit too (see threads below). Original Entry is here: A2974052

Thoughts, ideas or whatnots welcome, I think it's okay, but needs some work of some sorts. Ta.

Frood.

Just a couple of things.

While the section on Loin cloths is funny, I think they have more to do with protection than keeping out the cold, and they're quite good at that.

In the animals as victims section, it says 'to see what side affects they have'; this should of course be side Effects.

In the bit about plastic surgery there is a sentence about silicone implants which needs a space befor it.

I don't think there's much wrong with it.

BL. Have fixed up those little bits you mentioned

MJ

Ace! It's about time somebody got around to writing about this.

Just a couple of historical notes: what about arsenic-based cosmetics? More often than not these beauty products were used to er, turn beautiful married women into beautiful married widows, but I think it might deserve mention in your lead/mercury section anyway. Oh and I do believe the Greeks were among the first to invent cosmetics (did you see the recent article about them finding an old pot of Greek white skin cream in an ancient drain?). Not to mention they were big fans of oils and perfumes, and I recall reading somewhere about their 'blond hair' fashion... (does anybody else remember this?). Check this out: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Greek_World/cosmetics.html

Anyway, nice work.


Far.

Cripes... 'beautiful *married* widows'... what in *space* was I thinking when I typed that?

Cheers Far, will have a look into those bits and see if I can add something more.

MJ

This section is opinion and not fact, and therefore shouldn't be part of this Entry:

'The tie is a device designed to be uncomfortable and slowly strangle the wearer whilst looking ghastly, and can only be the invention of a sick mind, yet its use continues, merely because it is fashionable'.


The wearing of a tie has nothing to do with fashion. Many people (mainly men) enjoy wearing ties because it shows an affiliation to a club, regiment/corps, hobby, political or other kind of statement (e.g. 'male chauvinist pig' tie). And, far from looking ghastly, I think they look smart.


The biggest fashion victims are those who wear bras, almost exclusively as a result of peer pressure; but this doesn't get a mention.

True, the tie section was left over from the Original Flea Market Entry and I have altogether been unsure of whether to leave the section in.

I'm not even going to delve into that can of worms that has been opened regarding bras (There are links in the piece to other EG Entries about the wearing of bras however).



MJ

Well Al, I do have a friend who detests wearing ties for the reason that they *do* cause him to choke: he can never find a shirt with a big enough neck, that won't look like a gunny sack on him. So he wears the said shirts open at the neck... and when he absolutely has to wear ties, he fairly turns purple buttoning the shirt up. Then again... I suppose that has more to do with collars and necks and indirectly involves ties.

Shouldn't the original author, Bluebottle, be credited as joint author? I thought that was standard practice with this kind of re-write.

I'm not very keen on this overall--to me, it comes across as too polemical, so I'll only comment on two points of fact:

"Silicon implants, the most common method of enlarging breast size, have left some women with bigger problems than having to buy larger bras." You've used "silicon" where you should have "silicone"--you'll need to change that in a few places. The site you've linked on "silicone implants" would be more fairly linked on "problems", since it's not a general reference.

"More recently it has become fashionable in Europe and America to get a dark sun-tan by exposing your body to the sun's radiation and killing all your skin's cells. A tan is a layer of unhealthy, dead skin, yet that does not deter many of us from going out of our way to get an all-over sunburn." This is plainly wrong: a tan isn't a layer of unhealthy dead skin, it's an increased amount of melanin in one of the living layers of the skin. The bad effect of too much sunlight is not that it "kills all your skin's cells", it's that it increases the chances of living cells turning cancerous.


Azara

Az I knew this was going to be a tough one when I took it on from the Flea Market

Those sections you've pulled up are from the original Entry, so thanks fo pointing them out, I sort of skimmed over it a bit too much I think.

Will try to bring the beast into line

MJ

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

for MJ!

As I said above, it was a bit polemical for my personal taste, but you did great work on it.

Azara

I'd completely forgotten about this!! I tend to agree with you Az, but hey...EG ho! Arr.