Time for another ranting blogpost. The age-old debate: what’s the deal with makeup?
So there’s a very persistent myth out there. As with any urban legend, there’s various versions of it and people claiming to have experienced it in varying degrees. It usually goes something along the lines of “makeup is deceptive” or “women wear makeup to pretend they’re someone they’re not” or “women wear makeup to impress men”. I’m here to unveil the truth. As told by my band of troublemakers.
For whom?
“The industry I work in is pretty much male-dominated. If I show up with more than just mascara on my face, I can count on somebody chiming in with a “Whoa little lady, who did you get all dolled up for?” Uhh for myself, a-hole. Who asked you anyway?
But why?
Here’s a couple of reasons why women choose to wear makeup:
- For fun. That’s right. There’s plenty of women out there who enjoy playing around with makeup just to see what they can do with it.
- To cover up imperfections. Everybody has little flaws. That makes you human. Sometimes though, you want to cover those up. Makeup can do that for ya. This can run from skin discoloration to a simple case of “I did NOT get enough sleep last night”.
- Because it makes them feel pretty.
Notice how none of those reasons relate to another person? Interesting, isn’t it? So here’s an example about a good way to respond to a woman wearing makeup:
“So my boyfriend keeps telling me how he thinks I’m much prettier the less I do in terms of makeup. However, that won’t stop him from complimenting me when I do wear makeup. Which I do, cuz I love playing around with silly colors. It’s like playing dress-up with your face! Anyway that’s the way to do it, folks.”
See that? It’s not true love unless they’ve seen you without your eyebrows.
Since I like lists, here’s a little one of things that are not reasons for women to wear makeup:
- To fool you. If you’re stupid enough to think that my eyelids are gold and sparkly by nature, you have much bigger issues than can be addressed in this blogpost.
- To impress you. Any man that can be won over by a mere pretty face is not worth keeping.
- Sexism. See, the whole point of equality and women’s empowerment is about given women the CHOICE of what they wanna do with their bodies, faces, wages, uterus, you name it. So a woman choosing to wear makeup does not mean that she’s not a feminist. *SIDENOTE* I’ve noticed some of you get uneasy when being called a ‘feminist’, so let me quickly explain what that means for those of you that pretend not to know: you can either be for equal rights for everybody regardless of gender and be a decent person, or you can be sexist. That’s it. Those are your options.
So what?
Well, for some reason everybody feels like it’s OK to share their opinion on makeup and their theories on why women choose to wear it. See, here’s the distinction. It’s OK to have an opinion. That doesn’t automatically make it OK, necessary, required or requested that you share that opinion with the world. You really feel like your thoughts on the subject matter soooo much? Do like I did. Start a blog. See if the type of crowd you attract with that is the kind you feel comfortable running with.
At the end of the day, there are so many reasons women (or men, btw) can wear makeup. The most important thing for you to remember is this: it ain’t your business so nobody’s trying to hear what you have to say about it.