What Would a Busy Blogger Do?

The time has come, the blogger said, to talk of many things—actually, just one, which is a need for a bit of time off. Specifically, time off without feeling like The Beheld has gone black while I'm off jet-setting, rosebud-gathering, or—as is the case here—working on another project (beauty-related, yay!). And so I'm handing over the keys for the next two weeks to one of my favorite bloggers—and favorite critical thinkers on beauty.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a doctoral candidate at New York University, writing on Jews and intermarriage in 19th-century France. But unsurprisingly, what drew me to her was her musings on beauty tucked into her blog, What Would Phoebe Do. (Which is not to say that strains of these interests don't occasionally converge, though I doubt the term "Jew-fro" has much application to intermarriage in 19th-century France—please correct me if I'm wrong.) Whether she's writing about nail art and class or what it means to "look your age", weighing in on that NYTimes makeup and self-esteem debate or "Nice Guy" syndrome, collecting her thoughts on everything there is to say about makeup (everything!) or just giving a dispatch on luminizer, Phoebe consistently makes me think—and rethink—about the issues I hold dear. And she'll do the same for you. 

In addition to her academic work and What Would Phoebe Do, she's also a freelance writer, most recently for The Sexes, a blog at The Atlantic. And, for the next two weeks, she'll be blogging here in my stead. I'm looking forward to reading The Beheld for the next couple of weeks as a reader, and I'll see you all soon.