The IT Girl

(collage and oil painting on cardboard, 9X12, 2009)

"IT" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "IT" you win all men if you are a woman—all women if you are a man. "IT" can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction.
Elinor Glyn

Self-confidence and indifference whether you are pleasing or not—and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold. That's "IT".
Elinor Glyn

I recently discovered that the ever-so-familiar term “The It girl” was originally applied to Clara Bow after she starred in the 1927 film simply called ‘It’. I can see why Bow was chosen for a role of a young woman who possessed ‘it’. Although hardly a beauty the actress displayed very appealing qualities of both animated innocence and hidden temptation.

Bow’s sex appeal is a proof that one doesn’t need to be conventionally beautiful to be attractive, a concept that is falling into obscurity with our celebrity-obsessed society. It makes me sad to see so many attractive women around me that are unaware of their attractiveness, just because their beauty is so different from those of celebrities. I believe it was Montesquieu who said something along the lines that a woman has one chance to be beautiful and 10,000 chances to be attractive. I wish modern women would understand that each one of us has ‘it’ and that a symmetrical face, puffy lips and long legs have absolutely nothing to do with ‘it’!