Freckled Faces Finding Fortune

 "Four be the things I'd have been better without: 

love, curiosity, freckles and doubt."

 --Dorothy Parker, American poet and author

A small girl with freckles is normally considered cute or perhaps a little ornery and impish, but a woman with freckles often seeks every method to minimize her dappled condition. No longer charming, her adult freckles become something uninformed acquaintances consider an unattractive, potentially dangerous skin disorder. In truth, freckles are neither ugly nor unhealthy.

Leave it to myth and fiction to denigrate the different. There has been a literary tradition of casting one with freckles as the loser, or as the villain. In A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, Adela Quested is described as being unattractive because she is so "angular" and "freckled"; in creating Caliban, the deformed creature in The Tempest, Shakespeare chose to make him a "freckled whelp"; in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, the spooky Peter Quint has red hair and freckles.

There is even an legend that you can tell how many souls a soul-less redhead has stolen by counting the freckles on her face.

Those freckles are actually clusters of concentrated melanin which are most often visible on people with a fair complexion. Freckles can be found on anyone no matter their genetic background; however, the amount of freckles is genetic and is related to the presence of the melanocortin-1 receptor MC1R gene variant.

The formation of freckles is triggered by exposure to sunlight. The exposure to UV-B radiation activates melanocytes to increase melanin production, which can cause freckles to become darker and more visible.

Freckles are not a skin disorder, but people with freckles generally have a lower concentration of photoprotective melanin and are therefore more susceptible to the harmful effects of UV-radiation. It is suggested that they avoid overexposure and use sunscreen.

Angel Kisses

Freckles are also considered angel kisses -- beautiful, unique markings on attractive faces. In fact, Vogue magazine did a summer 2008 special edition just to showcase the gorgeous freckles many women possess.

Alex Bilmes, editor of the British edition of Esquire magazine, declared...

"Vogue declares this season's must-have look will be a 'sexy sprinkling of freckles.'"

""Freckles are sexy," Bilmes wrote in Vogue. "Freckles should be fetished, embraced, touched, kissed. Freckles, more than anything, are a provocation: if I can see that some of you is freckled, I can't help wondering about the rest. If your face is freckled, what does your back look like, your stomach, your thighs...?"

The Vogue article went on to describe the seductive power of freckles. One thing many men find sexy about freckles is their potential to capture the eyes’ attention. Seeing freckles on the face and arms often makes the eyes wander to the rest of the body and wonder just how many other freckles there might be. Additionally, many men enjoy kissing and touching freckles and see them as the ultimate turn on.

"A face without freckles is like a night without stars."  

--Unknown

Freckles may also give a woman the much-desired “girl next door” look. As a sign of natural beauty rather than the fake glamour, freckles seem youthful, playful, and fun as they are often associated first and foremost with little children who laugh and play.

Finally, freckles can be sexy because they are rare. They make a woman more unique and more interesting. This allure is enhanced by freckles that seem to only appear beneath the glow of the sun.

So many dermatological experts say women who have these beauty marks should embrace their genetics and learn to see their skin as a sign of sexiness because freckles are gorgeous. As more and more people embrace the sexiness of freckles, freckle fan clubs have started appearing on the internet. The web is full of sites dedicated to freckled beauties who know that their skin is truly their best feature.

Maybe Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) should have lived in this millennium so she could have found freckles to be her ally with "love, curiosity and doubt."

 Dorothy Parker

A Very Short Song

by Dorothy Parker

Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad-
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.