There's a lot here she's not touching. Her new sense of ambassadorship for blind women which marks her sense of having a responsibility as a newly disabled entree into this culture. Stereotypes about appearance equating intelligence, social attitudes toward people with disabilities being unable to dress or maintain their appearances and her own insecurities about 'making mistakes' are other aspects of this topic. I get her thinking but as someone with generations of experience. I don't agree. I will note that my refusal to use makeup is more about skin issues than my vision though it's easier to explain that way. I've never used Be My Eyes for example though my clients swear by it. We have far more resources to get around these stereotypes than we used to. How we use, or not, those resources is up to us, but vanity for personal reasons versus social ones is definitely a topic people with disabilities get stuck with sorting out. This is a good opener for a semester's worth of discussions.


My own take on fashion just for the fun of it.
My closet has very little solid colors in it. When the cataract was 'inoperable' I made sure I had the full range of tie dye, vivid colors and my trademark retina-damaging patterns so I'd have at least some sense that my clothes matched me for a few years after I could no longer see them. I've never been particularly dull but I had a young son. No way was I going to get fixed into some conservative navy pantsuit for his important milestones.

I did, finally get the surgery. I have a reprieve of unknown duration. I'm gently phasing out the rest of the monocolor items or pairing them with appropriate torment for my own gleeful pleasure. I've been designing and installing tattoos, too. No way somebody's gonna be able to quietly drop those in the good will bin when they ship me off to the nursing home.