This weekend I went through a very uncomfortable situation with my ex-classmates about a meme. The meme is of a woman who decided to show the difference between her face with makeup and her face without makeup. However, someone took the picture and captioned it “this is honestly wild”, twisting completely the meaning of the original picture. The meme itself didn’t bother me enough to make a comment, let’s face it, I see this on a daily basis. However, what bothered me was the comment that my friend made under the meme saying, “this is why you guys shouldn’t trust women”.
Of course, the degradation didn’t end here. A comment this “simple” lead to countless jokes and obnoxious comments about the girl’s aspect such as “she needs make up” and “this is why I’m taking my next girl to a pool for the first date” showed how entitled we feel to make comments about the decisions that women make, and how naive we are in the sense that we still think women do their makeup to be complacent or look beautiful for everyone else, instead of doing it for themselves.
We belong to a patriarchal system with the ancient belief that women are supposed to fulfill everyone’s needs and expectations, not to mention keep quiet in front of overly critical opinions. From makeup to the wage gap, our opinion and needs are undermined, leaving us with little voice and a million of complications.
In the face of this systematic problem, there is of course, various levels of prejudice. White women do not experience the same level of prejudice women of color experience, placing women of color in a lower level for facing, not only sexism and misogyny but also racism and xenophobia. Trans women of color are even in a lower position that women of color and white women, facing transphobia and cissexism all together with racism. However, we all face sexism and belong under a patriarchal umbrella that covers us and precludes women from moving forward at the same pace that men do.
The complications are endless and women are expected to be facing them with passiveness, accepting punches and never reacting to them. When I reacted to this meme I was called aggressive and told to stop “overreacting”, not to mention that the moment I tried explaining I was trying to get my point across in a peaceful manner, I was told to "eat a snicker". The moment we want to defend ourselves we are called dramatic and told to stop overreacting, which of course gives the impression that women are always defensive and trying to play the victim, in a world that is constructed to make us the victim.
Now here is the thing, everyone who believes we look better without makeup and has the need to say it: stop thinking we make decisions based on what you believe looks better on us. Everyone who says “makeup is not good for you, natural is much better..." stop hiding your sexism behind concern. Everyone is entitled to choose what is best on their own, not to make a comment about what’s best for others. If you are ever told to eat a snicker, embrace your inner Beyoncé and as she did in Lemonade, channel your voice and write an artice.
