Is putting on makeup a feminist act or am I succumbing to patriarchy's unjust beauty standards?
Generally, when I put my face on every morning, I could care less what men have to say about my looks. When I wing my eyeliner or wear purple lipstick, I'm clearly doing it for artistic purposes rather than male approval. However, when I'm going on a heterosexual date, I notice that I tend to tune down the funky colors and go for a more "natural", nude look.
As a gender and women's studies minor and huge feminist, I believe makeup is an expressive tool used by both men and women to represent themselves. Makeup is an art, it's as much as a medium as fine oils or charcoal.
Makeup bonds women together. It's a conversation starter; it's a link to beauty culture. You don't know how many times I myself or another woman became friends from comparing mascara wands. I actually met my best friend while we were doing laundry because we both were rocking winged eyeliner.
The basis of feminism is bodily autonomy. It's your choice to look how you want and do whatever you please with your body. If I choose to get tattooed, it's my right because it's my body. Same applies for choosing to wear or not to wear blush.
For the most part, I don't feel pressured to wear makeup to look put together or attractive. I'm just as comfortable bare-faced...but I do tend to feel more confident with a red lip rather than Chapstick. Makeup allows the wearer to exaggerate features they want to stand out and to express themselves artisitcally.
I sometimes ask myself: "Why am I doing all this to my face?" while I am putting on makeup. This question leads me to the answer: "I do it because it makes me feel pretty and I enjoy it". If it did not make me feel pretty and I did not enjoy it, I would not wear it-simple as that. When I put on my sparkly red eyeshadow, I am not thinking about whether or not the men I am going to see that day will like it. I know very few women who use makeup to please anyone other than themselves, which definitely makes me view it more as a form of self-expression rather than something to please men. There is a joke directed toward men that goes something like "Guys: make sure your first date with a girl is to a swimming pool so you can see what she's trying to hide under there with all that makeup." I especially hate remembering this while I am putting on all my makeup. I think it furthers the idea that women use makeup solely to hide what they truly look like because they do not think they are pretty enough to go without it.
ReplyDeleteI used to feel extremely pressured to wear makeup; I would never have left my house without a full face of makeup on. I do not feel this way anymore, and I wear makeup only for me. I am not an artistic person, though I want to be, so I view makeup as a way for me to be creative rather than as a tool to hide behind. I think that a lot young women are beginning to realize that makeup is made for us to enjoy (if we choose to use it). I know girls who view makeup as a hobby and invest their time and money into it because they love it; not because society tells them they have to love it. Whether or not a woman uses makeup to disguise or change her appearance is her business and no one else’s. Just as you mentioned, I definitely use makeup products that accentuate and exaggerate some parts of my face. I do not feel like I am obeying the beauty standards of the patriarchy when I put on makeup. If I am pleased with the end product when I get done with my makeup, then that is all that matters to me. Thank you for starting this conversation!
I like this stance on makeup a lot. I think it makes sense that women, especially modern women, wouldn’t continue using makeup if it were definitively confining. Also, on another positive note, this perspective sheds light on the fact that makeup norms of today are pretty restrictive in regards to men. That’s another reason that I like your ideas about makeup, since pointing out how few ways men can express themselves through makeup is the first step to changing that.
ReplyDeleteAll throughout high school, it never occurred to me, as a male, that I could cover up acne with concealer. It was something my sister and my friends (who were mostly women) did, but it was clearly not right for me to do it. If anybody had ever noticed, I would have been the point of ridicule for doing so. So basically, until college, where your behavior is policed much less harshly, I had to live with breakouts whenever they occurred.
Even since I’ve been at WKU, living in a dorm with communal restrooms has restricted my ability to physically get around to applying concealer whenever I need it, simply because I didn’t want to deal with comments, questions, and funny looks. Also, I think it says something about the heteronormativity of the culture we live in that I also had a subconscious fear of having the conversation about my sexuality come up via my applying makeup.
Of course, as I say all this, I want to be careful not to open the door for men to appropriate makeup because I feel that they are missing out on the empowerment of makeup - men have many other ways to feel empowered in their appearance, and the culture of “metrosexuality” has only widened those avenues. I simply think that the methods of self expression should be a little more egalitarian than they are, because as it stands, it sometimes feels like we’re in a gender war over things like makeup and clothing, or maybe appearance in general.
Body images for men are not nearly as complete as masculinity culture would like us to believe. There could be any number of things a straight man would like to change about his own appearance, but which he feels it’s ultimately unnecessary to, because all that really matters is whether or not a woman is interested in his appearance. While in some ways empowering to women, this restriction can be really psychologically harmful. But it’s not to say that women impose this standard on men - it’s the patriarchy oppressing men, as it often tends to, whether we like to think about it or not.
I think that many makeup-wearers have heard a lot of the same comments about makeup that you have pointed out in your post. When I entered my pre-teen years and started trying out makeup and makeup techniques, my interest was curtailed for several years because my parents expressed disapproval of my wearing makeup, stating that I did not need to use makeup to “hide” my appearance. I think this statement can be added to the “empowerment vs. oppressive” argument on makeup to sum up three stances on makeup wearing: makeup is a negative because it masks a person’s appearance, makeup is a negative because it’s not “feminist” and is used to attract the attention of others, and makeup is a positive because it can be used to empower those who wear it. The fact that we categorize wearing makeup in these ways shows that makeup is one of those appearance enhancements that people often feel entitled to give an opinion on. People giving their own opinions on what makeup means to others is similar to how people have their own opinions on what constitutes a “feminist” act and how a feminist should look and act.
ReplyDeleteI think people typically view a “feminist” in a very stereotypical manner: a feminist is a white woman who hates men and doesn’t care about her appearance, doesn’t wear bras, doesn’t shave her armpits, and is opinionated to the point of annoyance. As you can probably tell from the several feminist stereotypes I just listed, a lot of them center around a woman’s appearance. This means that the “feminist” vs. “normal” woman is usually contrasted based on appearance: a woman that seems to partake in using makeup, wearing attractive clothes, and presenting herself in an appearance that many would deem typical or pleasing would automatically be excluded from the stereotypical “feminist” appearance. Excluding and including people as members of a certain group based on something as trivial as your personal preference for mascara is a problem found within the feminist movement, and I think that something we as feminists need to work on is not putting down women that don’t do the stereotypical “feminist” act.
A feminist shouldn’t be considered a credible feminist based on appearance. Honestly, the only thing that can really categorize you as a feminist is whether or not you believe that men and women deserve equal celebration and opportunities for success and happiness.
I know as a man I am probably the wrong person to respond to a post about women wearing makeup, but I feel like this goes with the universal view on individualism and just doing what makes you happy. But I would like to pose the question for the first two paragraphs. If you are wearing makeup then you are succumbing to the patriarchies beauty standards, but if you don’t wear makeup because of this aren’t you also subscribing to the beauty standards of those pushing you to lose the makeup? I personally know some feminist that hold strong viewpoints on how women shouldn’t wear makeup, but what they are doing is just as bad as what they think the patriarchy is doing to these women. Whether you wear makeup or not, I feel, you should do whatever makes you feel comfortable or beautiful. Judging and pushing your standards on others by how they look or what they wear just seems infantile and fundamentally shallow. I know I am not a whole lot older than everyone else in this class room but I do have a couple years of extra experience, and what I found is that if you keep trying to appease one group or the other instead of just doing what you what and what makes you happy then what is the point. I know there was a time when I was worried about what other people thought of what I wore and how I presented myself and I wasn’t truly happy until I embraced my individualism.
ReplyDeleteI always TRY to wear makeup on a daily basis unless I completely have no time in the morning to put it on (which is no in usual). With living with my fiancé (who is male) he always asks why I take the time to put make up on and what is the purpose. To a heterosexual male, makeup may seem excessive for some reason. Like Laura talked about how she wears more neutral tones when going on a heterosexual date. To me I feel better and more confident when I have makeup on. I am not trying to impress anyone for any reason. When I make the effort to look better I feel as if I am more confident and when I am more confident I feel like I do better all around whether it be at school or at work. They say to dress for success and I feel like makeup is apart of that idea, for me personally anyway. So when I have a huge test or a presentation I always try to make the time to put on makeup.
ReplyDeleteI have never thought of someone who didn't wear makeup as not trying to be successful or confident but rather everyone has their own look and style so if makeup isn't apart of that, great! It is not an ordeal if someone does not like to wear makeup. Everyone has their own ideas of dressing and what looks good on them, therefore (even though my opinion is irrelevant in what other people do) people should wear and dress in the way they are comfortable. I feel like instead of shaming women for wearing "to much makeup" we should try and build each other up and say how much another person style is appreciated, even if it's different from our own rather than shaming them for it.
Another issue with makeup that I would like to touch on is the stigma of men wearing makeup. As a woman, I feel as if I take advantage of the fact that if I'm having a breakout on my face I can use some concealer and cover it up. For men, unless you're an actor, I feel as if our society views men wearing makeup as effeminate, making them less masculine if they do. This goes back to the idea of dominate versus submissive that goes along with masculine and feminine that we talk about in class. Even though I feel it is becoming more acceptable in our society for things like drag queens and men in the gay community to wear makeup, I feel as if heterosexual men still have a certain stigma about wearing makeup in their daily life. In my opinion, a little makeup to hide a blemish does not make someone less masculine or more feminine, but rather there is an annoying pimple and there are ways to hide it. Overall, I feel like we as a society should share the benefits of makeup with all people and not only women.
Hey Lora! I really enjoyed reading your post because it addressed a very important issue within today's feminist movement: bodily autonomy. As a cisgender female, I grew up constantly being pressured by my family and friends to like and wear makeup. I would receive makeup as birthday/Christmas presents, I was forced to wear makeup during piano and dance recitals, I would even receive comments such as, "If you would just wear makeup your skin tone would be so much more even". But still to this day, I very much dislike wearing it. I enjoy how natural and bare my face looks on a daily basis, this is MY face. And while I admire and applaud men and women who use makeup as an artistic means to express themselves, I like to think I express myself in different ways.
ReplyDeleteAn individual should always have the right to express themselves in any manner because their body rightfully belongs to them and the choices only they can make. I believe that feminists who think wearing makeup actively encourages the patriarchy are woefully incorrect, for how can one person make assumptions or rules for another's body? While makeup is a far cry from the eugenics movement we've discussed in class, it can be related on the basis of some making assumptions and rules for others' actions. Bodily autonomy and expression are extremely important parts of representing oneself, and maintaining the right to make one's own choices truly reflects feminism as I see it today.
I've thought about this a lot debating with myself over it. On one hand I've used make-up as a form of self-expression and something that I like the looks of. On the other hand I worry more about my make-up when it isn't for just me, for example when I'm going on a date or have a family thing. I try to look as good as I can through make-up which has made me realize how much I don't like how I look without it.
ReplyDeleteIve used both sides of the argument at different points in my life. Sometimes saying that I wear make-up to stand out and to be different, my own personal expression. Other times I do it to blend in and not be noticed. But everytime I put on make up it is because I know other people will see it and I want them to see me how I wish I looked rather than how I actually do. I consistently contradict myself saying I do my make-up how I want and I don't care what others think, but at the same time I am wearing the make-up so they think of me in a certain way.
Make-up gives me a small amount of control over how others see me and what they then think.