Some thoughts because this thread has actually made me kind of angry.
First, yes, women are pressured into makeup. That's absolutely true and it's the number one reason I didn't ever want to wear makeup - until recently. I do not like conforming.
Second, as someone who has had gender identity issues their entire life, I choose what I wear. No one else. I've only recently worn more "feminine" clothing and it's still feminine lite. I hated the idea of conforming (still do tbh) and I also have issues with texture (I'm autistic). I am extremely picky about what I wear (both clothing and makeup).
I like playing around with makeup but I also enjoy not wearing any. When I wear it I feel limited in what I can do (especially because I very often touch my face). But if I'm wearing it it's because I want to and I think it looks pretty. I absolutely do not care for the comment in this thread about contouring because I feel it's not true. But then I've seen many tutorials for contouring different facial structures, created by POC. I also barely contour myself because I lack the skill but I just play around with contouring my face how I want it. Like maybe my nose looks funny to some but I like it so I just make the natural lines more defined. I would prefer my face to be less round through the cheeks and forehead so I do what I can with contouring. Just because the contouring I do happens to fall in the "how society wants me to look" kind of thing doesn't mean I give two shits about ads telling me how to look. I just personally feel that I don't 100% care for how round my face is.
I'm not saying I'm immune to societal pressure and ads but I have mostly not cared about what they say. Tbh for a long time I was confused about why people felt pressured by ads because I just always felt ads were lies and generally stupid and vapid so I just didn't take them seriously. I get it now of course but I'm just saying that I personally just don't take many of them seriously myself.
Idk I'm new to wearing makeup (I actually rarely wear it and it's often just at home for myself) and I'm getting inundated with bullshit from two sides and it's pissing me off. On one hand I see all this pissing and moaning like, "This is the current trend! Anything else is outdated and ugly!" which I think is so fucking stupid. Tbh I could never respect someone who mindlessly follows every trend but I get why they do it. On the other hand I hear more pissing and moaning that, "You shouldn't wear makeup! It's bad! You're only wearing it due to societal pressure! It's not what you really want!" which in some ways pisses me off more than the other side because I am so very nonconformist when it comes to my gender identity and I was 100% anti-feminine for a long time. I hate the idea that women need to wear certain things because of society. I am the one who challenges anyone who says negative things about women who don't conform.
I feel disrespected, invalidated and that I'm being condescended to by both sides.
Then I find people who try to take a "middle" ground that's actually more anti-choice than anything.
I totally agree with some sentiments expressed here but I wanted to share my feelings about the other nonsense.
Also I unsub from beauty bloggers who are into white feminism and other such bullshit. I totally get the criticism of such people and ideology and agree that there's too much European centric bs in beauty. That I agree with.
But I am also having fun playing with makeup for the first time in my 25 years of life so I'm gonna keep doing that. For myself and not because anyone told me to. :) In fact some people probably hate it because I'm not skilled so I probably look like shit but I like how I look so fuck everyone else's opinions lol