Stephen Gundle has written the first book about the history and meaning of glamour. In her review of Glamour: A History Caroline Weber says he defines it neither as beauty nor elegance, but rather as an unsettling, unholy blend of 'class and sleaze' that defies elitist notions of decorum and good taste.

The oxymoronic qualities of glamour include sleazy elegance, accessible exclusivity and democratic elitism.

Gundle says "the glamorous personality is always performing for an audience, without whose envy or admiration he or she could not exist."

He says glamour has served to "fuel illusions and deceive people about the hierarchical reality of social relations. In this way, glamour played an important role in the creation and maintenance of a given pattern of power".

Weber sums it up:

Glamour, then, is a magic mirror that blinds us to who we really are and where we really stand. Unlike our sex symbols and screen sirens, we do not rise above the muck of daily life, with its unending struggle for money, recognition, joy. At best, glamour soothes us with a lie: that these things can be ours in spades, if only we are willing to dream. And do something drastic to our hair.

See her review of Glamour at the New York Times.

Pictured above are some paparazzi taking photos of Marcello Mastroianni and Anouk Aimée in La Dolce Vita, 1960.