Today, as I was applying mascara to my eyelashes and rubbing CC foundation into the creases of my nose, I thought, "Wow, those men will never guess that I actually look like an ogre under here. Today's makeup look will definitely convince them that I am a professional model and never have blemishes or oils or bruises. This is my most successful trick yet." (Laughs maniacally).
Not.
Nothing infuriates me more than the idea that women who wear makeup are doing so in an effort to either please men or dupe them in some way. If you seriously look at a person with bright purple lips and dark green eyelids and think that those are natural human features or that the person is a lesser being after wiping those cosmetics off (because that's what they are, cosmetics, not a new skin color) then you need to make a field trip to Sephora.
Comments like, "Take her to a water park on the first date," are incredibly insensitive and perpetuate a tradition of trying to make a woman's appearance meet unrealistic standards. Makeup is an art form. A form of expression. It is the personal right of any woman or man to decorate their face any way they desire.
Telling a woman that she shouldn't wear makeup or that she should show her "natural beauty" instead is just another way of saying "I have an opinion on the way you look, and it's more important than your own."
Comedian Amy Schumer says it best in her sketch, "Girl, You Don't Need Makeup" (which won an Emmy, by the way).
Schumer addresses the double standard that women face when deciding how much or how little make up they wear. This is a standard placed on women by celebrities and the media; it is perpetuated by men, and sometimes even women, who think they should have an opinion on the matter.
The point is that you shouldn't be telling people what they should or shouldn't be doing with their own bodies, period. You may not even be aware that you are supporting this double standard, but making comments like, "Are you not wearing makeup today? Well, it's working for you. You should do that more often," is not flattering in any way. (This was a comment I experienced firsthand.)
The real kicker behind that comment was that I was wearing makeup. Yes, I wasn't wearing lipstick or eyeshadow or mascara, but I had foundation on, and I had powdered my face before coming in to work.
Megan Dong, illustrator of the comic pictured above, puts this phenomena in very real terms in an interview with Mic:
"I don't think [men] realize that their expectations of women are unrealistic and unfair, and that the idea that women only wear makeup for the benefit of men is presumptuous," Dong told Ellie Krupnick. "I think that most men who prefer the 'natural' look don't realize that most women wear makeup to achieve it."
According to Krupnick in her feature article on Dong, "there are...plenty of women (and men) who wear makeup because they love trying different colors and products, perfecting techniques and experimenting with different looks for pure fun."
P.S. Waterproof makeup exists, so to all you boys planning on taking your date for a swim to preserve your own selfish notions of beauty: be afraid. Be very afraid.
