By How Much Make-Up they Wear?
Most of us turn on the TV on a daily basis to be faced with ‘proper’ news from around the world. We pick up newspapers and scroll through news feeds hoping to be informed about events that may affect our daily lives. But more often than not, it seems our ‘news’ feeds are being hijacked by the most ridiculous stories. Who are these journalists that believe we put so much stock in the mundane lives of others that their front pages are plastered with the faces of celebrities getting divorced rather than the faces of those struggling to survive?
No other day has this been so apparent than the day I picked up a paper to find the face of a fresh faced young woman plastered across it with the shocking headline that she had dared to be seen on television ‘without make-up’.
Shock horror!! Woman appears on TV with “barely a scrap of make-up”
How can this ‘woman’ be identified as such, when she pays such little regard for her appearance, especially in public!
Oh… no, sorry, wait… are we still living in the 1950s?
In the 1950s, make-up was encouraged to help women “make the most of themselves… in order to snag a husband.”
Wearing make-up was simply part of a woman’s routine and an essential part of being feminine
The woman, who dared appear on morning TV not fully ‘made up’ was in fact actress, Michelle Keegan. It made the National Press. The article explains that she only had time for a bit of powder and lipstick.
“I literally came in through the door two minutes ago without a scrap of make-up on, I had five people putting powder, a bit of lippie on, so I’m alright now…”
Thank goodness. I thought she had dared to appear without any make-up at all!
However, this does highlight a bigger issue. The whole cosmetic industry and the idea that we need these products. Make-up is expected of women, particularly those in the public eye. It is the modern-day war paint, it represents the ‘face’ of a well-kept, put together woman.
Has much changed since the ‘50’s? According to research, just one in 14 women would go without make-up with most women wearing make-up for almost 60 years of their lives.
I personally don’t wear make-up daily. To be completely honest I am a bit scared of it. I’m not great at applying it and I don’t know what suits me. I feel a bit like a cross between a drag queen and a child playing with their mum’s make-up when I put any on. Yet, I know this is far from the norm.
I know many women would argue they like to wear it, it makes them feel good about themselves, that they don’t do it for anyone else but themselves. I accept this, and good for them, but I still can’t help but feel this is a behaviour created by the society we live in and the messages we receive daily.
If the opposite were true and just 1 in 14 women applied make-up on a daily basis, would so many feel the need to wear it?
The fact that a young woman appearing on the TV without make-up can make a national tabloid says a lot about society’s views and expectations of the role of women, and how we believe women need to present themselves.
In my opinion, make-up is a way of saying that we aren’t good enough without it, that we must look better if we are going to be in public view.
I think to be feminine is not to paint ourselves to look flawless or like better versions of ourselves, but to accept that women, like men, aren’t flawless and that’s okay. We don’t have to hide behind a mask, we are good enough as we are, without any make-up, thank you!
In this, a more liberal and accepting time… the ‘21st century’; in a time when we are expected to be ‘the perfect mother’ the ‘perfect wife’ and now the ‘perfect woman’, will we ever be able to just wake up in the morning and believe we live in world that will accept us as we are?
When a man can roll out of bed and be accepted by society simply because he breathes… will we ever find ourselves living in a world where we are not constantly fighting to live up to the expectations of others? I fear not. And that in itself is a sad and sorry state of affairs.
