The Lady's Dressing Room - Jonathan Smith

Swift's poem, The Lady's Dressing Room, talks about how women during his time were dirty underneath all of their beauty (clothing, make up, etc.).

"And first a dirty Smock appear'd, Beneath the Arm-pits well besmear'd". "On such a Point few Words are best,/ And Strephon bids us guess the rest;/ But swears how damnably the Men lie,/ In calling Celia sweet and cleanly."

This, at least I believe, is Swift talking about how a dirty woman appeared, with arm pit stains. And from the second quote, I understand that since the woman has the arm pit stains, she is no longer beautiful, sweet or clean. I think this is absurd. I mean come on, men sweat too! He doesn't need to be so critical. And he's not done...

"A Paste of Composition rare,/ Sweat, Dandriff, Powder, Lead [cosmetic to whiten face] and hair;"

Here, he is talking about how she has dandriff in her hair and how that is something else that makes her dirty. Throughout this poem, he talks specifically about 1 women, Celia. But toward the end of the poem, he goes on to describe that he believes ALL women are just as dirty as Celia is described.

"His foul Imagination links/ Each Dame he sees with all her Stinks:"

I am not a fan of Swift's negative attitude toward women. All of the dirty things that he described Celia having are things that EVERYONE has, not just women. I'm sure he goes through and has the same "dirty" things that he describes in his poem.