to think putting on your make-up in public isn't rude or anti-social?

[MomentLostToTheSky]

A thread I just read reminded me of an incident a couple of weeks ago.

I was on a really long flight and was waiting for my connection flight. The first flight had been overnight and I hadn't slept.

Was sat in departures, extremely bored and looking like a hot mess and decided to retouch my make-up. It wasn't busy and still a few people were staring at me.

A few people on the thread said that doing your make-up in public is rude and anti-social. I really just don't get how it's rude, it's just make-up which doesn't have a smell to it and as for anti-social - I wasn't planning on making conversation with the strangers sat opposite me.

I agree that in a certain situation such as in the middle of a job interview then yes it's rude.

But overall I really don't see the problem.

[IslaValargeone]

Quick aside here, but I don't find public application of make up anywhere near as annoying/rude as turning up to work with wet hair. It annoys the crap out of me.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I do think it is fascinating how what's private (or 'intimate') changes across times and cultures - I was thinking how my granny would have thought it was terribly bad manners to eat in public (except in a restaurant), so she would never do it. She would feel the same way about that as some people here feel about makeup. It reminds me of the bit in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase where Silvia is worrying that she mustn't eat in the train carriage because there is someone who might see her, but she might faint otherwise.

[Bunbaker]

I don't think it is rude or antisocial. I just think it a bit odd and impractical. Why didn't you go to the ladies where there would have been large mirrors/better lighting?

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

The things people get worked up about!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

ivy - sorry, cross posted, and sorry to miss the point. What was it?

The point I was trying to make was that there's no obvious reason I can see why applying stuff to your face is 'intimate', whereas nudity is something that has a fairly strong and consistent association with intimacy, isn't it? So they are rather different?

Likewise faces and bollocks are not quite the same in terms of intimacy/appropriateness to display in public.

[IslaValargeone]

We were brought up never to eat in the street and if you smoked in the street as a woman..Oh dear lord!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, gosh yes - one of my gran's friends once told me that a lady never smokes in public, and if she does, a well-mannered gentleman should always turn and put out his own cigarette to indicate her indelicacy to her.

It really is a different generation.

[elfycat]

Isla you'd have hated to be my colleague then. I had very long hair and I never dried it. Mind you it was in a bun quite a lot. I could still have wet hair after 24 hours if it had been in a bun.

[crashdoll]

LRD, my grandma tells me all the time that it's very bad manners to eat in public unless in an eaterie.

[IslaValargeone]

If it's in a bun I might let you off elfie

[LadyFlumpalot]

Gosh, I hope none of you dislikers get my train in the morning, not only do I do makeup, but I put my contacts in as well! I would think twice about doing it if someone was day next to me, it's not a busy train though so that hardly ever happens.

[ILikeBirds]

"For me to wear make-up it isn't about being vain, I'm just a very self-conscious person"

Self-conscious people would not put makeup on in public surely?

I think that's what I find strange about it, that someone who feels makeup is important to how they look is happily to apply it in front of loads of strangers.

[LadyFlumpalot]

Sat* not say.

[ivykaty44]

It wasn't the nudity itself

You are trying to compare nakedness with applying make up

It is the undressing that you need to compare with applying make up, they are intimate

[IslaValargeone]

elfy even

[HollyBerryBush]

I have a list a yard long of things people do in public that somehow are deemed appropriate these days sounding more like granny every day

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, I've got to say, I have to look away from people putting their contacts in. I'm squeamish about eyeballs. I'm not judging, I just don't want to look!

[EnjoyResponsibly]

I consider a train journey as time-wasted. So I have no issue with applying make up, particularly if it means time extra in bed.

[elfycat]

I've put contacts in in public too. Oh dear I am the pits aren't I!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

ivy - no, I follow the parallel, that to you both putting on makeup and getting undressed are intimate. What I'm saying is, I don't follow why both are intimate. It seems to me there's a good reason why getting undressed is intimate, because of our attitudes towards nudity. I don't follow why putting on makeup is, because there's nothing I can think of about faces that is inherently intimate?

I'm not trying to take issue, just curious that it is something you and others obviously feel very strongly.

[flowery]

Reapplying lipstick or touching up a shiny nose with a powder compact fine.

Otherwise no. IMO.

[valiumredhead]

Half of London commuters put on their make up on the way to work on the tube,train or bus.

I always watch as I'm interested in the before and after and what products people use

[BrandyAlexander]

I couldn't give a crap what the stranger on the train at 8.45am thinks of my appearance. At 9.00am when I am pitching for new business in a meeting, I really care that I look my best.

[moondog]

That preposterous interior decorator, Nicky Haslam once said (in defence of his own facelift and somewhat bizarre decision to go all 'street' at the age of 60) that the vain selfish ones were those who did not take care of their appearance, choosing instead to inflict their naked natural and unlovely state on others.

He had a point I think.

[crashdoll]

I see applying make-up as part of grooming. I wouldn't do any other type of grooming on the train, so why do make-up?