My whole problem with the “I do makeup for ME! I’m EMPOWERED when I put on makeup!” discourse is that it completely erases the fact that women aren’t actually given the ability to MAKE that choice.
Because adult women are actually petulant children who can't make their own decisions? My god this is so patronizing and misogynistic.
Whether you enjoy the process or not, you will be taken less seriously as a woman, valued less, respected less, considered ‘unprofessional’ at work, etc. if you choose not to wear makeup.
Femininity so fragile. In all seriousness though, I've never heard of a man who places so much importance on a woman wearing or not wearing makeup. I have plenty of female friends who don't wear makeup, and they've never had problems getting dates, keeping jobs, going to school, etc.
If you enjoy doing makeup that’s great, that’s fine, and you should keep it up! But wearing makeup in the first place wasn’t ever your choice. We don’t GET a choice.
That's right, because there was a law passed recently that stipulated that any woman, age 16 and above, will promptly be arrested and put in jail for 5 years if she doesn't wear makeup.
I hate people saying “oh you don’t have to wear it! If you don’t like makeup don’t put it on!” As if I’m expected to just be cool with the way the world will treat me if I don’t conform to modern beauty standards!
Yeah, I do agree that it's shitty how mean people can be to people who don't conform to beauty standards. I've been told my arms are too skinny, my nose is too big, I have a pizza face, etc. But everyone, male and female, are held to beauty standards. I've seen girls turn down guys for not being tall enough, guys turn down girls for having too small breasts, rude people exist, get used to it.
If you’re worrying about your eyebrows or lip plumpness or skin tone evenness that’s not you making a free willed cool decision to feel insecure and concerned about facial features that men never have to think twice about.
How do you know what men think about? Plenty of my male friends worry about their bicep size, height, stomach fat, shoulder width, and the dreaded penis size. Believe it or not, men can be insecure and worry about their appearance.
Final thoughts: If you want to wear makeup, go for it, if not, cool too, because most people don't give a shit about what you do, you're not the center of the universe.