One of the biggest award shows of the year was televised just over a week ago — the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
As with all live events, the media comments on certain aspects of the show for days and days to come as if nobody had seen it for themselves. This year, the biggest story to come out of the VMAs wasn’t about Taylor Swift missing it for jury duty or Kanye West saying something that he shouldn’t have said, but instead was about none other than the girl on fire, Alicia Keys.
Alicia Keys showed up to the awards show without an ounce of makeup on her face.
While Keys has been going bare-faced for a few months now, the VMAs was her big onstage debut. She gave a speech since the show aired on the fifty-third anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Instead of reporting on her influential speech and song, where she sings, “Maybe we could love somebody, maybe we could care a little more. / Maybe we could love somebody instead of pushing the bombs of Holy War.” She is urging viewers to love each other rather than create such hatred and evil in the world. Love more, care more but don’t harm more.
If someone had not watched the VMAs, they would probably be unaware of Key’s message, because the media is focusing on her face.
This is the same as most women in the industry.
Keys wrote through Lenny Letter, Lena Dunham’s online feminist newsletter that she had been “finally uncovering just how much [she] censored herself, and it scared [her].” Keys also tells readers that she barely knew who she was anymore.
The no-makeup look first occurred when Keys arrived at a photo shoot for her newest single. She remembers that she had just left the gym, so she was as raw and natural as a person can get. When she arrived at the shoot, she expected to be dolled up by the makeup artist on set, but the photographer had other ideas.
The photographer wanted to shoot her right then, saying that “the music is raw and real, and the photos [needed] to be too.”
While Keys wasn’t comfortable with it at first because she had always relied on makeup to hide her natural face, she mentions that “it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most beautiful” that she has ever felt during a photo shoot. She saw a different side of herself, one that did not have to hide behind a face of makeup.
Because of the empowerment she felt, she decided to go completely makeup free, including for events like the VMAs, and good for her for making a decision for herself and not for the benefit of anybody else.
After the VMAs, however, and probably even during, many articles started to pop up about the singer’s look at the award show. Some of them said nice things and empowered her, but many criticised her for not putting on makeup for such an important event.
That’s a problem. Nobody, especially people on the Internet, should ridicule someone based on their appearance, especially not Alicia Keys, someone who is both beautiful with and without makeup.
Even articles, like this Buzzfeed one, that are merely pointing out other criticisms to Key’s bare face are a problem. They’re drawing more attention to the criticism and only adding fuel to the fire.
Some say that for a woman who is often in the spotlight, putting those photos out for the world to see takes a lot of courage. Because of her place in society, her looks are scrutinized. She is expected to look perfect all of the time, and if she doesn’t, everyone is going to know. Everyone knew at the VMAs, let me tell you.
Even worse than the scrutiny that Keys' faces are the excuses people make for a woman’s decision to go makeup-free, including one by The Slate.
They write that women who go out without makeup are not being brave; instead, they’re being lazy or careless. Can you believe that many of the media outlets have the audacity to call it laziness? I might not put makeup on to go to the grocery store because I’m lazy. But a woman in a position like Alicia Keys does not go to an award show like the VMAs and just forget to put on makeup because she’s feeling lazy.
Why does a woman have to have a reason for not wearing makeup other than the fact that they didn’t want to wear it?
Why does what a woman does or does not do to get ready in the morning have to be discussed on every single news outlet as if it is a big feat in their day? Shouldn’t their accomplishments or discussions be more important than their face? Wouldn’t report on Alicia Key’s speech in the middle of the VMAs have been more beneficial than commenting on her appearance?
Our current media focus needs to be changed. We need to stop focusing on appearances and more on the issues. Alicia Keys is not the first person that this has happened too, and unfortunately, she will not be the last.
So to all media outlets that posted articles about Alicia Keys and her makeup-free face, I urge you to write an article about her speech. I dare you to write an article about something that really matters. And while you’re at it, you can stop writing articles about a woman’s appearance in general. It’s really none of your business.