A woman is usually labeled a “Bad Feminist,” when they make a different decision than their fellow feminists. The feminist movement has categorized certain choices as anti-feminist such as choosing to be a housewife on the basis that a woman is submitting herself to the patriarchy. Today the feminist movement has mostly recognized that it is a woman’s choice to either have a career or have a family, and that one choice is not more feminist than the other. An area where the “Bad Feminist” label has taken hold is makeup. Makeup has been construed by some feminists as patriarchal because the cosmetics industry implies that a woman cannot be pretty without them. However, wearing cosmetics should up to the individual because that is the beauty of feminism. Women can choose to either wear a full face of makeup or wear none; it is not an expectation for femininity and womanhood.
Feminists that attack makeup as patriarchal seem to have forgotten that during the Victorian Era, makeup was associated with prostitutes and promiscuity. Victorian values dictated that women should be natural, youthful, and pure. When the 1920s came along, the meaning of makeup changed quite a bit. It was during this decade that modern conveniences such as the compact case and lipstick tube were available, making makeup easier to apply. Women’s freedom in the 20s was associated with wearing makeup, smoking, and drinking in public. Makeup gave women the control of how they presented themselves to the world, and the choice to wear makeup was also tied to having the vote. If they could make decisions about the future of America, they could make decisions about how they looked.
Makeup was and still is feminist because the idea of a made-up woman still puts people at unease. Visible makeup is still viewed as destroying a woman’s beauty and an indicator of her sex life. By choosing to wear makeup for ourselves and not for society’s expectations we are taking back the ability to look how we want. The cosmetics industry does not want you to control how you look, rather they want you to buy into the ever-changing makeup trends. The cosmetics industry does not want you to feel beautiful when you wear makeup, they want you to feel inadequate so you keep buying more product. Taking control of the makeup you wear allows you to put your stamp on the world, instead of allowing others to tell you what the “correct” makeup is.
To the feminists that attack other women for wearing makeup: stop. Someone has made a different choice than you did, and there is nothing wrong with that. The anger directed towards women who choose wear makeup parallels the anger directed at women who chose to be housewives. Embracing something that is considered traditionally feminine in today’s society does not mean that a woman believes she is inferior to men. Making this assumption is not only sexist but also serves as a way for women to tear each other down. When we seek to tear each other down over the issue of makeup, the patriarchy gets what it wants—control over women. The patriarchy wants to keep women divided because divided women are easier to control than women who are united in solidarity. Additionally, bashing the cosmetic choices of other women, seeks to diminish the credence of the feminist movement because people will start believing that only a certain type of woman is worthy of fighting for equal rights. So makeup, no makeup, or no makeup makeup let’s embrace each other because our unification is the patriarchy’s greatest fear.
