To want to wear make up and high heels

[WheresTheCat]

Harumph. Have just skimmed through Julie Birchill's article in the weekend papers (I know - I'm running behind!) Apparently women only wear heels and make up as we are slaves to men.

I am so fed up with all the judgements about what women wear. Surely we should wear what we want as long as we're happy. For me it's high heels and make up, for my BF it's trainers and jeans. It doesn't matter.

And, Julie Birchill, it doesn't make me a bad person/anti-feminist/unintelligent if I choose to dress the way I do.

YANBU I am an unapologetic card carrying feminist. However, I wear high heels sometimes and flat shoes sometimes, it depends what I am doing. I also wear make up.

I do understand Entropys point. Mind you, this epidemic of women (and some men) wanting plastic surgery is monstrous. However, women have been wearing make up for years and years but the plastic surgery thing is fairly new at the current level (meaning the last 20 years). I think it is more to do with the objectification of women and the 'stardom' of specimens like Katie Price, Cheryl Cole etc who are just there for their looks and not necessarily any talent. It amazes me that the magazines which are a waste of paper (Heat, OK etc etc) that I only get to see when I have my hair done are full of pressure on women in the form of showing them who has half starved themselves to lose weight or had surgery etc. I happened to pick up a copy of Woman and Home, expecting it to be full of boring stuff but it had loads of articles about inspiring women like Annie Lennox, what a nice refreshing change. Sorry I am diverting again!!! Just to say, IMO those crap magazines have more to do with women feeling negative about themselves than wearing a bit of makeup.

Sorry to go on but it makes my blood boil!!

Well so Kan tell me what colours I should try? (pink face, orange hair, and erm I think my eyes are grey/blue but I might be misremembering that.)

Bored too...

Im sorry entro- but do you look like a clown, thats the picture you paint of yourself . If you do not have the desire to put make upon, don't. I refuse to do squats or whatever we are supposed to do to get a Western ideal of beauty and body shape.

I do understand what you mean, but i don't think that it applies to everyone, as doesn't any statement made.

I consider myself a feminist and I love make up and high heels. In fact, the worst thing about being on mat leave is having to live in flat shoes (or slippers!) all the bloody time.

No one 'makes' me wear either. In fact, were I to try and dress to please men, I'd have to wear flat shoes, as Dh is about an inch smaller than me when i wear heels.

I wear make up because it's fun and because I look rough as fuck with a toddler and baby and I've never quite lost the excitement at opening a make-up drawer.

Well you need a cool toned foundation (I can't recommend one without knowing your skin type - ie oily/dry/ sensitive/ acne prone etc) or what coverage you would want.

I would imagine light so if
Your skin was not too oily maybe a tinted
Moisturiser as opposed to full on foundation.

I would go for a natural look at first. Highlight under the brow and inner corner of your eye with a matte white or skin toned eyeshadow as this can make you look more awake (very handy for early morning starts)

can talk forever

mrsclown I am glad that not everyone thinks I am a total idiot :)

But I think that disconnecting make up and surgery on the basis of the age of make up as a concept is misleading. We have only been technically capable of cosmetic surgery at an affordable price and high enough (?!!?) safety level recently. Surgery may have followed make up immediately if it was not for that.

I still dont get how so many people cant join the dots between wearing make up for themselves, so that they feel better and are more confident, and the peer pressure / cosmetic industry that perpetuates the idea that better looking equals more confident/happier in the first place.

Taken in a vacuum, (a world without mirrors or other people) there is no possible way that a layer of orangey(!) paste on your face will affect your confidence or happiness. It is only in the context of massively looks oriented culture that such a thing would be considered plausible.

Do I feel different in make up? Yes. I feel greasier, slightly smellier (again maybe foundation doesnt smell weird these days) somewhat itchy and like I should avoid crying or sweating or drinking at all costs.

I feel more confident and happier when things in my life are going well.

birds I look like a clown? :(

Maybe circus freak is more my look....it certainly would be if I made with the make up :)

But you could say that about so many things!

'My reading on the bus puts
Pressure on the not academically or literate to read and feel bad about themselves'

Etc

I can see your point but I'm not responsible for every person / female on the planet because I enjoy makeup and colour

kan how do I know what skin type I have? I have never poked anyone elses skin to compare? (even if I did there would be at LEAST a 99% chance they were already wearing make up ;) )

It feels like...skin? Some bits are softer/oilier than others?

kan yes of course you could say it about anything. That's why MN posts about 'It's my personal choice so fuck off everyone else' annoy me so much.

It just isnt true.

I have just started wearing light make up most days now I'm in my mid-thirties. This is mostly down to having finally got some clothes which really fit and suit me and they make me feel a bit like I'm dressing up so why not just add some make up.

DD and DS both watch me put make up on, and occasionally put some on themselves- they can paint their nails and generally play dressing up with it, as that is all it is from my POV - something to play with. Does it help that DH sometimes wear make up too?

Oh god, Julie Birchill is she still actually being paid to trot out her dross. I conclude only as an antidote to Mad Liz.

Make up. Personally love it, it's my grown up equivalent of spending hours playing with crayons, pens and pencils as a kid. I reckon I have used it now for 30 years without even thinking about surgery. An afternoon on the Clinique counter getting a makeover is wonderfully relaxing.

Heels. Love them, but that adoration extends to all shoes having been an 11 year old with size 8 feet and having to wear the most fugly shoes. They were so heavy I used to have cuts on my ankles where I would smack against them when I ran.

I don't believe either of these pastimes impacts even a fraction on my feminist principles.

However I agree totally with the previous poster who said the current obsession with surgery and weight is obscene. Glorifying this by studying celebrities in morbid detail must end.

God I love high heels and makeup. I also love clothes and other myriad accessories. If you don't want to wear heels and make up, then don't

Well if you have flaky skin etc that suggests it may be dry or sensitive. If you are oily you may be shiny towards the end of the day.

You may be have normal/ combination skin where you are in the middle.

You may have an oily T- zone only (forehead, down nose and often chin).

I am very oily and as such wear my foundation but also use a
Powder on top, otherwise by the end of a work day I look like I have overactive sweat glands and have just had a vindaloo

We are part of society...our choices are what makes up societal opinion and societal opinion informs our choices.

So by all means wear make up and high heeled shoes, or smack your kids, or breast feed, or turn up late everyday for school, or dress your baby girl in pink frilly shit but do NOT think for a moment that your choices don't affect everyone around you........

Well, personally I think that the individuals who have the body image issues need to get help for the way they see themselves rather than ask the nation not to wear make up and high heels just in case it upsets them! That isnt dealing with the issue is it, it is just glossing over it!

If someone has serious issues with the way they see themselves then obviously there are more deep rooted problems. So, the whole world stops wearing make up, what are they gonna fixate on next - there is bound to be something!

kan hmm I am starting to think this make up lark may be more complicated than mobile phone contracts (another area of life that I genuinely cant be arsed with). I only have a reasonably resourced brain, if I fill it up with all this info then I might just forget how to do my job.

Oh, entropy, in terms of societal opinion, high heels and slap are small beer. I wonder sometimes whether the focus on these piddly issues detracts from the considerable equality issues that should be the focus of debate.

betty but it isnt just people who hate themselves so much they will have surgery to change themselves...it's millions of women getting up every morning thinking they look sufficiently shit in the mirror that they had better paint over it all.

You are all amazing as you are...and every body looks shit some days....so what?

YABU to wear heels because of the annoying racket they make (DD calls them 'clip cloppers') but YANBU in every other way.

I have my 'work mode' (I work with computers)

And play mode - surely it's not any different to having any other hobby.
Knowledge wise anyway?

I can put makeup on for work in the car and still do a damn good job in the office

missbee again I can't think of too many more important equality issues than teenage girls hating themselves in the light of our looks oriented society. All the important things they could actually be valuing about themselves and they are into make up, celebrity and cosmetic surgery.

Entropy, I could be way off the mark here, but reading your posts it seems to me that you want to try make-up, but are lacking in self confidence to wear it, and you feel you would be compromising your own beliefs and letting yourself down if you did wear it, and also feel angry with yourself if you found that once you wore it, and did feel more confidant, you would be buying into what you see as something that society is forcing upon you.

Makeup does not have to go own like warpaint, inches thick, fake eyelashes, and reminiscent of a drag queen (a la the TOWIE lot and almost every other z lister in a magazine).

Make up can be part of your style (think Goths, Punks), or it can just be a light covering to brighten you up and stop you looking knackered and washed out.

Even men wear tinted moisturiser now!

If you havent worn it for years, that is how I would have a go, Benefit do an excellent tinted moisturiser that also has sun protection in it too. It just evens up your skin tone, and gives you a healthier look rather than a pale, in need of a good nights sleep look...

We all brush our hair to make us look a bit more presentable, so there is nothing at all wrong in putting on a bit of make up to do the same.