to think female newsreaders and presenters shouldn't wear make up

[orangeleavesinautumn]

|I am absolutely sick of seeing men on TV with normal, natural looking faces, and the women sitting next to them with their faces smeared with gunk. Why can't women show normal, natural looking faces on TV too? What a horrendous disgusting message we are passing on to young girls. "You need to waste time and money smearing gunk on your face to be allowed to be seen in public"

"Smearing gunk" reminds me of my headmistress at high school who basically called teenage girls tarts for wearing eyeshadow to school. Tbf it was the 80s so there was blue eyeshadow maybe it just looked awful 😄

I like wearing make up its their choice. Don't wear it of you don't want to yourself I can't get angry about other people's choices

Is this the example to try prove your point? Their makeups are all natural and applied really well, both the males and females!! Jog on will ya! 🙄

I used to work with a twit (male FWIW) who used to comment on natural looking women who looked so much better without makeup.

Dipstick didn't realise that most of them were wearing make up.

Nothing wrong with make up. No one is forced to wear it. What an odd thing to get upset about OP.

I would suggest channeling that energy into one of many more important issues.

Don't you understand that whilst there is nothing wrong with make up there is something wrong in a society where makeup wearing is expected and promoted for one sex only ?

@PureLife89

im sure you're just being a GF.

but... why should I care if YOU think I look 'rough'

Epic fail in proving your point.

@orangeleavesinautumn How do you feel about hair colouring and styling then?

I actually agree totally op, and it is a great shame - no a disaster - that the old ideas of feminism, women’s liberation and equality have been so corrupted that others cannot now see we are back in the same trap. Women are once again valued only for their appearances, and at the same time are being constantly manipulated to feed an industry making money for those at the top out of themselves, just as they were by Bernays and bloody Roosevelt.

The aim was to drive the right for women to work again and have economic worth and choices from ability and skills. To recognise that female skills have the same value as men’s skills, both when equivalent and also when different. Not to cheapen themselves and sell sex and sexuality to men.

I wish the punk movement would come back, quite honestly. Women need to question this idea that only their looks bring them any sense of feeling good about themselves. They won’t though. The capacity for thought seems to be gone.

I do think it’s sad when you see women who feel they can’t not wear makeup. You know, those people who say they can’t leave the house without it.

My mums boss collapsed in the hospital toilets after she’d had a hysterectomy because she was trying to put on her makeup.

Similarly I knew someone whose dh had never seen her without makeup. Ever. She even wore it to bed.

So while I do think that makeup is absolutely a personal choice, I do think that we need to distinguish between those who wear makeup just because a bit of foundation or lipstick looks nice on them, and those who wear makeup because they are so lacking in self esteem that they feel they need to change their look. These are also often the same people who then go down the road of Botox etc.

This is bitchy, misogynistic and not progressive at all. Make sure when you're recruited as a news reader you have a natural face otherwise let others live and do better Op.

Yes - as others have said, of course the men are wearing make-up! Studio lights are incredibly hot and they often need a touch up of a bit of powder - I've heard them talking about it and seen the make-up artists working on them in between 'takes'.

If you've ever seen a TV person popping out for a pint of milk, you wouldn't recognise them! They look like us: tired, pale, lank haired and stressed! Quite cheering, really.

I wear a bit of subtle (it really is...I'm often told I should wear make-up!!!!😀) make-up every day because that's how I want to present myself to the world. It really is only my business. Others can judge me as they think fit: slightly insecure? A bit annoyed that I wasn't born looking like a film star? Maybe. But my personal belief is that people who make an effort with their appearance are making the world a more pleasant place for everyone in a very small way and it's always worth doing. It's not about the male gaze - I want my friends to think I look good!

I see your point, OP. We have quite a diverse range of newsreaders in the UK so the issue escapes scrutiny but take a look at Fox News or Australian newsreaders and you'll be agog.

I worked in TV for a long time. Male presenters wear foundation and powder and if they're on for a period of time, then specialist make up staff will come round and retouch the powder, mainly to stop the skin from being shiny.You can see it off screen as it's often quite heavy due to the lighting.

But females had the whole shebang....heavy eyeshadow in particular and strong blush. It looked fine on screen but when the presenters went straight from work to a bar they looked like they were trying too hard as the make up looked garish and too strong in a normal setting.

It was one of the main reasons I stayed in production rather than presenting, the foundation plus powder was so heavy and caked, and was retouched multiple times so it was layers upon layers. I hated it.

My male presenter has a story he tells from about 20 years ago. He went into town straight after his shift for a quick bit of shopping before going home. His wife had asked him to get her some tights in John Lewis. He didn't know what to get so asked for help and then realised the staff were suppressing giggles because he was a man wearing heavy make up wanting Hosiery. He had to explain that he was a TV presenter, hence the make up, but he didn't think he was believed.

There is an irony in women being judged for wearing make up, it feels like we still don't really have choices, our decisions and what we do is only accepted by some if they're what they deem to be the right one. Being controlled by society and men is one thing, being controlled by other women and their judgements is another but still sad. I actually think a lot have fairly natural looking make up on the news, not sure what channels you're watching. It's always the things that are mainly associated with women that are lesser isn't it.

Make up is quite normal for television. It is worn regardless of gender to prevent people appearing washed out by the lighting.

Agree with this so much. It isn't the makeup they don't want, it's women having the choice to portray themselves in a glamorous way. It's the age old misconception that if something bothers you, removing it entirely is the resolution. Actually, we should all focus on ourselves individually and let other people do what they want.

Not really. The obsession with appearance in women is a sign of lack of economic power and lack of choice. It tells us that once again women’s only natural option in life is to sell their appearance to a male to ensure they make a good catch.

Who only associates make up with women and why is that the case? Why do men not need to sell their appearance? Why are men not only not judged, but actually valued, for a lack of emphasis on appearance, and for grey hairs?

Claiming that it’s disliked because women do it is very circular.

Oh yes, we have a presenter on STV who dresses and looks like she's made up for a night out.
Only her though, the others on the team look much more natural.

I have no problem with women wearing makeup for any reason. I think it's sad when women feel that their faces don't look acceptable without it, though.

I don't think that trying to insist that women do not wear makeup is any better than insisting that they must. You have also chosen a ludicrous example, OP, because TV presenting is one of the few examples of makeup being necessary.

I was invited to a job interview once, and as part of the invite it stated that “candidates will be required to wear smart dress, and women will be required to wear makeup.”

Actually hasn’t one of the clothing retailers recently been in the news because of it being mandatory for their female staff to wear makeup?

There's an obvious difference made between the sexes when it comes to TV make-up; I'm not sure why people are protesting that there isn't. Women as a rule wear a full face of coloured cosmetics including eyeshadows and lip colours, whereas men typically just wear a base.

The word 'choice' is predictably being mentioned quite a lot on this thread. But real choice is a bit subtler than merely someone making open demands as to how females should or shouldn't present their faces. Women may well not have been 'ordered' to pile on the slap - they may well be under an impression that it is purely personal choice or it might even be so. But if there's a culture of it in the workplace - if women become obsolete in front of the cameras unless they keep up the pretence of youth and beauty for as long as possible - and that even their careers are staked on this, then they're going to keep up appearances for as long as possible for the sake of their career. And who can blame them?

Sky were particularly bad for this - we cancelled ages ago so don't know if it was still the same - but their female presenters were done up like painted dolls. The sports presenters had a particularly lean time of it - I well recall the casual sexism so often demonstrated toward Georgie Thomas, for example, as opposed to her male peers. Not least the sexist shit the racing driver Vicki Butler-Henderson took on Top Gear at the hands of the odious Jeremy Clarkson.

As a young receptionist in my first job, I was taken aside by a senior PA and 'spoken to' about not wearing the appropriate office dress (by this she meant heeled shoes) or cosmetics. I had a mile-long walk to work, and didn't want to wear cosmetics. I responded that I was neatly presented and well turned out, that as far as I was aware I was doing my job efficiently unless she had any specific issues she wanted to raise. She didn't, so I responded that since that was so, I'd continue dressing just the way I pleased if it was all the same to her.

This was a difficult stance to make as someone in her late teens who took her professionalism seriously, but it's one I felt it important to make.

So if women are conforming because patriarchy demands it, then there's a clear delineation between the sexes which is broadened all the more because of the still-present pay gap.

TLDR: OP might have a point.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4852563-to-think-female-newsreaders-and-presenters-shouldnt-wear-make-up?page=6#:~:text=This%20morning%20for%20example%2C%20on%20BBC%20breakfast%20Sally%20Nugent%20looked%20like%20she%20was%20dressed%20for%20a%20hot%20date%20%2D%20I%20was%20all%20a%20bit%20a%20bit%20too%20page%203%20for%20me%20tbh%20and%20I%20thought%20we%E2%80%99d%20moved%20on%20from%20that.

NO she didn't. She had a very nice pink dress on, with long sleeves and high neckline and which went to her knees. Is this Taliban Breakfast News now?

I don’t wear make up daily but I do for high days and holidays and I look much younger. I can apply it so it looks very natural though I’m wearing quite a bit.

Make up itself and techniques online with tutorials have changed make up a lot since I was young.

I used to work in a male dominated environment one of my colleagues did not like make up at all because it can hide so much and he used to say it infringed trading standards. Just like those bodysuits tuck everything in, it’s an illusion.

The post is poorly worded but it’s interesting to see the vehemence that the op is treated with. It’s actually far more complicated than just I feel better about myself. @RosaGallica Is along the correct lines, great post.