I LOVE make up. I love it so much that sometimes the very thought can make me foam at the mouth and I have to have a lie down. I dream of getting a copywriting gig at YSL so I can pitch my Touche Eclat line - "It's Tippex for the face"!
Eyeliner was the first cosmetic that made me feel like a grown up lady and I still believe that an inch of Rimmel kohl makes me Bardot, Garbo and Rizzo (although the reality is a little more Klaus Nomi). If I ever get arrested for an obscene act, it will happen in the Selfridges Beauty Hall. My make up bag is my grown up pencil case and I'm just as protective of my Rogue Allure as I was of my Caran D'Ache.
This is why I was a bit shocked by last month's No Makeup Day and the subsequent reverberations of support from high profile feminist writers. Why is there a school of feminism that wants everyone to give up their lady pencil case and use the cosmetic equivalent of manky crayons and foam safety scissors from an old biscuit tin? It blows my mind daily that there are so many smart people who still conflate feminism with "dressing like an Amish person". That if you want to look hot, you might as well put all your knickers in a sack and hand it over to the Patriarchy. The only thing that is truly antifeminist is telling women how they must behave. To say "you can't wear make up and be a feminist" is like founding Gossip Club and deciding that the first rule is "you do not talk about Gossip Club."
And then there's the PR issue. Why do so many clever people refuse to identify as feminists? It's because the shouty no make up brigade are making it look so miserable. A friend recently complained "Feminists make me feel like Hester Prynne, only with scarlet lipstick instead of a scarlet letter." I wanted to cry. That, or scream "Don't hate the feminists! They fought for us to have contraception and our own bank accounts! Some feminists are miserable fun sponges, but that's not an inherent part of the cause. Loads of us just like fighting the good fight, cooking a good steak and reciting the whole of Anchorman to ourselves in a questionable Swedish accent. We LOVE lipstick."
Some people think that make up is about pleasing men. I do wear make up to look nice on dates. But I like to look nice when I'm in the post office or home alone doing Swedish Anchorman. The only person to say "let's put on make up so that boys will like us" is Lisa Simpson's talking Malibu Stacey doll. There's something a bit creepy about guys who like girls to look "natural". Aside from the fact that a boy's idea of "natural" is "a metric tonne of dew effect foundation", going barefaced is associated with extreme youth and vulnerability. If you don't like women to wear make up, you don't like women who have taken control the way they present themselves. As brilliant beauty writer Sali Hughes frequently points out, women who live under Sharia law are forbidden from buying make up and risk their lives to do so. As much as it angers me when UK newspapers are bitchy about celebs looking "tired", I'd take that over a Benefit ban that comes with a death sentence.
We're insidiously cruel about famous lady make up wearers too. How often have you overheard people slagging off the TOWIE girls because of their association with artifice? These women do make questionable life choices, but that's related to the scripted reality shows they appear on and the subject of a whole different debate. Yet people comment on their promiscuity stupidity, frequently linking these criticisms to their use of fake hair and fake tan. In fact, "fake" is often the biggest insult levelled at a female reality TV star. Their male counterparts aren't vilified to the same degree.
There's nothing wrong with not wearing make up. You can choose to go out in three sets of false eyelashes, no sets of false eyelashes, or a load of mascara on your chin to create a "beard effect". You can pin your hair back and write one of Hilaire Belloc's shorter Cautionary Tales on your forehead. If painting your face isn't for you, fine. But make up isn't a mask of acceptability we use to cover ourselves with because we think we're hideous. It's not because we want the patriarchy to fancy us, with our unreal glossy lips and artificially embiggenned eyes and pretend promise of fertility. Some days it feels like armour, but usually it's a source of joy, fantasy and fun.
Follow Daisy Buchanan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@notrollergirl
Tom Pearce: On TOWIE, We're Not All Uneducated Idiots
Imogen Thomas: My Battle With Body Image
Charlotte Lytton: The Fun Side of Feminism
Lipstick feminism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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It isn't about feminists slamming women who choose to wear makeup, instead it goes to show women that there is more to life than looking good on the outside.
Ms. Buchanan, as a woman who wears makeup can you comfortably leave the house without the least bit of eyeliner, lip gloss or powder? Can you bare the thought to leave the house in your natural glory, letting your pores and blemishes show without shame?
In todays world, women are more ashamed of how they look naturally than they do when they have makeup. We live in a society that prizes women who are nipped and tucked everywhere, who cover every blemish with an airbrush and foundation and who probably don't remember what their real hair color is. So for women to call on other women like you to take a day and just not wear any makeup is not calling you out as shameful to the feminist movement but to simply realize that under all of that makeup is a beautiful and natural woman.
usually i need this type of pick me up when aspects of my work place are getting to me (i work in customer service.) When I walk out into my store with a face of make- up on i don't see myself as more beautiful (real beauty comes from within) or a better version of myself, i'm someone else entirely. my make-up is 'war paint' and with that armour on i feel revitilized and able to cope with the day and whoever may ruffle my feathers because there's a barrier between them and me. i'm someone else and they can't get at 'me.'
i don't think their's anything wrong with this. the most put together women i know always have make-up on at work and they make me feel lazy, lol. i identify women who put on a great face of make-up as capable because i woke up and chucked on my work clothes whereas they came to work impeccably put together. they look as though they have a tighter control over their life than i do so i think this is why it's my pick me up. when i don't have the energy to face the world with a fresh face i use make-up to be someone else for a day and then the next i am myself again.
Feminism means you get to make your own choices. If you don't feel comfortable in your own skin then by all means, modify it.
And no, I don't wear makeup. Never learned. Never wanted to learn. Had other things I was much more interested in doing that precluded sufficient practice to do the makeup thing well and had no interest in doing it poorly.
Lots of make-up indicates lots of free time. It will, generally, be assumed that since you were spending that time on beauty training that you were not spending it on arts, crafts, or trades. The willingness to spend that much time on it suggests that you may be a man-eater or gold-digger. It is not proof of this but that will be the first impression you leave.
Which can be to ones advantage. Appearing to be dumb is very useful in some forms of competition as it causes you to be underestimated.
I will argue that make-up application actually encompasses all of those areas. I feel that my own "face painting" is a craft for me, as much as say knitting is (which I also dabble in). For my sister (a highly paid professional by day, make-up artist by night) it is also an art form and trade that provides her a creative outlet and a successful side business. How "dumb" is that?
But if they are paying by all means fleece em good.
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So terrible. Millions of them. All in your head. This is not an issue.
Then she goes on about the horror of Sharia laws, which makes my head hurt. Because we don't really live in that society, do we? We live in a society where the big interests, the powerful forces and good chunk of the patriarchial power comes from reducing women's value to their looks alone (heterosexuality be damned. It really doesn't matter what I think of my own looks as long as the people who have power over me think that's the most important aspect of me) and make them keep pouring money into a huge industry based on that notion alone. This writer isn't saying anything that hasn't been said over and over in the past decades and I there are some very powerful forces to back her up. Because while wearing make up does lead people to make assumptions about you being weak, not doing it at all turns you into a threat, and people respond accordingly. For example by calling us "miserable fun sponges", like this one does.
Add it up. A day, a week, a month, a year. Count the hours. Not just initial application, touch ups, removal, skin treatments to prevent breakouts etc from coating your pores with that crap.
Now imagine some competent, smart, capable woman you know and imagine that for her entire life the time she spent practicing or studying or gaining experience was reduced by the amount of time it takes to do makeup.
Would she be just as awesome as she is now? Or would the reduction in study and practice or exercise make her less capable/fit?
Practice makes perfect. If you are practicing eyeliner application you aren't practicing something useful.
In theory you could be reducing leisure time instead but the primary point of makeup is to *be seen in it*. So it tends to be productive time that suffers for it.
Or I like women who present themselves as they are...
"If you don't like women to wear make up, you don't like women who have taken control [of] the way they present themselves."
I'm sorry, I know it's quoted in the comment I'm replying to, but I just can't let that rest - seriously? You think if someone is okay with the way her face actually looks that she's taking no control over the way that she presents herself? Hygeine, dress, confidence, comportment all mean nothing if you're not wearing lipstick? Just... wow. You need to put down the makeup bag and back away sloooowly.
If you answered "Yes", you're a feminist - regardless of gender, age, sexuality, socio-economic background or how much slap you've got on. Feminism isn't about rejecting femininity - no-one asks men to stop wearing aftershave or putting wax in their hair, or insinuates that because they're concerned about their appearance they can't be taken seriously.