217 The Lipstick on the Mirror ~Tom Disch

"The Lipstick on the Mirror" is making a negative statement on Hollywood and advertising that have created empires off of convincing women that they should look a certain way. The speaker of the poem is an omniscient narrator that has been watching the "wicked queen", who symbolizes industry and advertising, influencing the "common" people. The tone of the speaker is very negative and disappointed, it is also condescending in the way that the speaker points out the negative actions of the queen. The speaker and their tone is effective in this poem because they are like the reader of a fairytale. The "wicked queen" is an allusion to the wicked queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is a commonly known fairytale with a moral at the end. From the beginning of the fairytale, one can tell that the wicked queen is going to be the antagonist, so when the wicked queen is used as the main subject of the poem, the reader can sense from the beginning that industry and advertising, symbolized by the wicked queen, is going to be looked upon in a negative light. The punctuation creates a rhythm because many details are placed in lists; for example, "Hosiery and bras, as consumers, enchanted," (19). The listing nature of the details of the poem allow for more and more detail to be added; the rhythm makes it seem as though the speaker could find numerous details to support their case with little effort. It is also effective how Disch uses adjectives almost as if they are nouns; for example, "Would lap it up, gazing in their lesser/ Mirrors to see themselves in royal attire," (7-8). Lesser could mean that the women are looking at what they consider to be their lesser beauty, but lesser really goes with the word mirrors.

Disch uses personification, among other literary techniques, often such as when he writes, "Whose compact mirrors would whisper," (12). He makes it seem as if looking in the mirror is what causes the problem, but insecurities force the people to hear what the mirror whispers. Another technique used is repetition of the word her. This is important because it shows how the women in this poem are looking at someone else's features instead of looking for good in themselves. The inclusion of a list of different ethnicities affected by the queen is an important touch because it shows how the evil of the queen has spread far beyond her realm, just as ideas of marketing and Hollywood have traveled far beyond the United States. Probably the most important line of the poem is the last when the mirror replies to the queen's question, "Though, Majesty, thou," (35). This line is important because is shows that the industries do not necessarily see anything wrong with the dramatic effect they have on society.

This poem is completely relevant to our lives because Hollywood continues to take over our lives. The number of tabloids and gossip shows increase exponentially every year, and with that more stories about stars with issues come out. For example, how many days out of the year has Britney Spears been on the news? Answer: too many to count. Advertising and industry has created standards for all people, not just women, as referenced in the poem, that cause more and more people to resort to extreme behavior in order to fit in. Examples: fad diets, plastic surgery, and miracle drugs. "The Lipstick on the Mirror" was very interesting because it shows that media, society's mirror, has been a disease affecting society for a long period of time, and the disease apparently has no cure because it is even worse now.