Within the first ten minutes of Transparent Season 2, there is a Pfefferman makeup disaster. Sarah is preparing for her wedding, and her makeup is all wrong -- a portent of things to come.
“Does the outside of my brow look ebony to you? I feel like it’s a little ebony," Sarah asks, showing the first signs of her nervous breakdown. "Am I crazy? Did we talk about mahogany? 'Cause I feel like we talked about mahogany and this is a little ebony.”
In a show this intent on exploring and dismantling prejudices about gender and sexuality, makeup is a natural storytelling device. It's a tool in the performance of femininity, after all -- and like just about anything else primarily associated with women, it's considered superficial.
[seealso slug="road-to-transparent"]
Throughout the season, eye makeup keeps uncovering the Pfeffermans' deepest shames and desires.
In one of many low points for Sarah, she destroys her ex-husband's new girlfriend's ludicrously expensive eyeshadow palate, staining his carpet, and then lies about it, feeling no particular guilt about upsetting the sort of person who would spend $485 on eyeshadow.
For Sarah's sister Ali, though, makeup is all show and no tell. She experiments with bold looks throughout the season -- but it's not a topic of discussion in the same way that her predilection for weird braids is. Here's a closer look at Ali's many shades of emotional instability, and the ways she paints them on her face.
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