A follower asks,
“I wished [this] article had explained why, in 2016, beautiful girls spend so much time & money on makeup, like it was a necessity.”
I will refrain from posting who it was that posed this question as I am going to be answering in a more general sense, and don’t want to assume any of the motives behind the person who asked this.
Why women wear makeup is a question that lots of people ask; we live in a new, blossoming wave of feminism where women should be able to be who they are without hiding or masking who we are to please others. I was recently on a podcast where I addressed my high-pitched, “girly” voice and took the stance that I don’t want to change my natural self to appease those who don’t respect who I already am. So, it might seem weird that I’m a huge fan of using tons of makeup.
I guess the best way to generally answer this question is: I don’t wear makeup for men and I don’t wear makeup for other people. I wear makeup for myself, because it’s fun and I like the way I look with it. It’s a little way of changing up my personality every day. I can make myself look younger, older, sweeter, grungier, sexier, or sillier with 30 minutes of powders and pencils and gels and goops, and it’s an artistic expression that I have a ton of fun creating.
It would be dumb of me not to admit that beautification isn’t a part of this, because it totally is. But so what? I don’t wear makeup because I think I’m ugly, I wear it because it’s a [relatively] cheap and easy way of fine-tuning little “imperfections” I perceive. It’s safe and temporary and makes me feel empowered being able to take control over my body and image.
Is makeup a necessity? While I’m sure there are some people out there who insist it is, a lot of the most on-fleek girls I know of don’t think so. Watch an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians; those girls be running around with no makeup all the time. I love wearing makeup, but when it’s not fun for me I don’t put it on. There are women who must cover up their face before leaving the house, and that’s totally fine. You do you, other women (or fellas)!
Womens’ beauty routines are inevitably all tangled up with eons of sexism and heightened expectations, and maybe if the world were a different place I wouldn’t be as into it. But we would all be into different things if that were the case! Makeup is a fun and expressive ritual, and imma keep doing it even if I don’t need to.
And now for a rant.
I hear a lot of dudes say such valiant things as “I think women look better without makeup”, and what do I say to that? Psh. It doesn’t make guys sound nicer or more feminist to reject womens’ attemps to look nice or different. If you want to have opinions on whether or not people should be spending time on makeup, make sure you know exactly what it is you’re criticizing. Almost every time I hear the proclamation of “too much makeup”, it’s about the result of incorrect application/products/colors. I could put 20 different products on myself and still look all #nomakeup, but could make my face look super busted with nothing but a swipe of blue eyeshadow. Educate yourself before diagnosing.
Also: Before you tell your girlfriend she looks prettier without makeup, please consider the time, money, and work she put into looking exactly the way she wants to look. There are tons of ways to compliment a woman without dismissing her efforts.
