Why It’s Okay to Care About Beauty

By day I am a PhD candidate, researching, reading and writing on Cambodian culture. I love it. I consider myself extremely fortunate to do a job which I am infectiously passionate about, which fuels my curiosity and which never leaves me bored.

But this is not the sum total of who I am. Whilst I am conversant in Barthes, Hegel, Buddhist philosophy and Cambodian history, I also have a deep love of fashion and makeup. I see no incompatibility with being intellectually involved in art theory and being concerned with aesthetics at a personal level. Knowing which red lipstick suits me best and knowing the ontology of the three-body theory of the Buddha are not mutually exclusive. Nor are knowledge about the best places to shop in Siem Reap and knowledge of the political, social and artistic history of Cambodia.