Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Makeup Politics

Whenever makeup and feminism collide, it seems to turn into an ugly battle of wills; you are accused of either caving to the patriarchy's demands upon you as a woman, or you are eschewing the patriarchy by shaking your fist at the makeup gods (who have a mountain much more colorful than Mount Olympus, or so I am told).  Being on the side of the fence that is often accused of caving to the pressure of the patriarchy, I am often defensive of my use (some may believe it to be overuse, but who asked them, anyway?) of makeup and it is something I have struggled with myself.

I was married for 5 years to a man who thought that a woman had to be "done" to leave the house and it was not a choice, it was What Was Done.  I ended my marriage the day he told me I needed to put on makeup to be presentable to go grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping.  That's the short version, but I have struggled with my consumption and use of makeup in the manner that I do because of the pressure that was put on me to use it and to fit the image that was hammered out for me.  Conversely, being someone who does present herself in bright colors and sparkle for every day wear and tear, I have had to fight the preconceptions that come along with that as well.  I could not possibly be intelligent or witty or empowered, because I spend a half-hour doing my makeup in the morning; empowered women hit snooze and use that extra half-hour to sleep.  Right?

Bouncing around on the internet this morning, I found this well-done photo gallery of 58 female porn stars both before and after makeup.  I also read some commentary in some different corners of the internet, and the dichotomy I discussed earlier made an almost-immediate appearance. Men who like women who look like that are this, women who want to look like this are that, I would rather sleep in the morning, real women don't wear their makeup like that.

There are two things makeup-wise that I noticed that visibly separate the makeup I do on a daily basis to the makeup done on the porn stars: there is extensive contouring and extremely exaggerated filled brows.  And false lashes, which I don't use, but a lot of people do, so I did not count those.  To me, in looking at this gallery, what really made the difference to the smiling women in the before photos, whose looks ranged from stereotypically "beautiful" to "plain" to even on the more stereotypically unattractive side, was the entire way they presented themselves in the after photos.  They aren't giving their best DMV photo smile in the after pictures, but they are giving bedroom eyes and blow job pouts, and they are holding themselves as something to be conquered, a trophy to win.  There is a lot of objectification in porn, and I am not judging the choices of these women, because banking in on objectification that is going to happen anyway could be, arguably, a form of empowerment.  There are plenty of mainstream makeup brands that gained leverage in porn before they ever became household names.  My point is that when I really looked at the photos, it was not about the makeup at all.  The transformation into porn star involved a lot more than a very skilled makeup artist, it involved a purposeful stepping into character on the part of the women featured.

Real women do wear their makeup like that.  I wear mine similarly, and I have never been accused of being a porn star (I was accused of being a prostitute yesterday while wearing eye glitter from Lit Cosmetics, and it wasn't as funny as the commenter thought it was).  I carry myself in a completely different way and if people are going to make assumptions based on what they see on my face in either direction, there is a certain shallowness they are embodying that has more to do with the patriarchy than my makeup does. My makeup is a personal statement of who I am - I am bright colors and sparkle and shine and I give off a certain light and goddamn, I smell good too.  I love to laugh and make people laugh, and I like to discuss Latin American politics and the Spanish language and these are all things you would not assume by looking at a still photo of me.  The use of makeup may have originated with the patriarchy, but with the knowledge that it did, I think it has been taken back in a lot of ways by women and used against that very force.

This entry is in no way cohesive as to all of my thoughts, but it is a muddled, extensive area that I can in no way address all my thoughts on in one blog entry.  Some food for thought, anyway.

Stay beautiful, party people.

1 comment:

  1. PREEEEEACH!!! God, the looks and comments I get from friends and coworkers because I decide to spend time on myself each morning. Can't even tell you. I get asked, "Where you going?" a lot by a friend. I answer, "To work." Or the, "I only wear make-up to go out." Why???? You leave the house everyday, right? Athena, why'd you get me started? LOL I can be here alllll day. XOXO

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