make up is misogynistic oppression

[sixtyandsomething]

I hate make up, because of the devastating damage it does to the lives of women and girls

Obviously I don't wear any, so it doesn't damage my life.

But I am a teacher, and see its devastating impact on the lives of literally thousands of girls

It is ridiculous to think it makes women look "beautiful". Women without make up are beautiful. Women with make up look like they have a load of chemical crap smeared on their face to cover up their natural features. Which is what they do.

Thinking this looks "better" than a face without make up is just misogynistic programming and conditioning.

Girls are literally taught and programmed and schooled and conditioned to believe they can't go out without their faces covered. I speak to girls who tell me they will kill themselves if they have to take it off. They are surrounded by media images of women smeared in the crap, and are conditioned to think this is what a normal female face looks like.

It is expensive, time consuming and bad for your skin, but worst of all it is oppressive.

Just look at this picture and compare the natural look of the men, who just have the minimum make up required for the lighting, and the massively overexaggerated, false, completely covered up look of the women, who apparently need to cover their lips with an unnatural colour, paint extra circles around their eyes, change their eyelashes and eyebrows, and cake all the skin on their face in gunk in order to be fit to be seen.

And if you look at this picture and think "what is she on about - those women just look normal" then PLEASE stop for a moment and ask yourself WHY you think gunk-smeared to the point that no natural skin can be seen is "normal" for a woman!

I am not expecting much agreement, as I think so many women are so tightly in the grip of the (mostly male run) cosmetics industry, that they can't even see how brainwashed they are

But please think twice before passing this oppression on to your daughters.

Wouldn't it be amazing if the next generation of female BBC news readers grow up in a society where they feel free to show their actual natural faces in public.

I think they look better without, but beyond that, I think they give a better impression of themselves without. They don't look like victims of brainwashing and conditioning, they look like they are more confident and independent. They look like they can think for themselves

This statement was fine up until "but beyond that" and it's clear this is your real motivation. Whenever anyone uses a "but", what comes after the but reveals their true motivation. Your words after the "but" are steeped in hatred, misogyny and revulsion towards your own gender and that is really, really sad and actually very influenced by patriarchal stance. What an absolute shame that you cannot pose a genuine question or provoke a discussion in a respectful and civil manner without degrading members of your own gender.

You should be ashamed. Your words are no less hateful than men who tell women they should look a certain way.

I'm not sure how make up damages teen girls.
Unless they use excessive make up that eventually ruins their skin. Such as my late MIL who as someone of her generation wore a lot of face powder that caused her skin to dry.
I do not wear make up - or do I?
I may not wear make up, but I use moisteriser, and some spot cover (if appropriate).
So, I guess you first have to define makeup.
MAybe you mean you dislike exaggerated makeup that many wear - bright red lip stick, etc? A 'natural' look of makeup can look really nice.
Personally, unless someone looks really beautiful, or really awful, I really do not notice other people's makeup, as I have better things to do.

The truth is, few people look better without a bit of make-up on. You don't have to be either bare-faced or completely covered in slap. There is an in between!

I have found my skin feels more uncomfortable without makeup.

Like it feels bare and parched.

Speak for yourself OP- makeup has been excellent for my skin. I use makeup with a high spf as I am very pale so more at risk of skin cancer and now in my 40s I have zero wrinkles. My friends who basked in the sun without any protection or makeup now have very leathery skin and one recently had to have a pre cancerous lesion removed. So your idea that natural "with no chemicals" is best is all very well until you have to get a dodgy mole or bits cut out of your face.

Same. Pale blue Celt, so I melt in the sun and to an extent have to live like a vampire!

I relate to this lol When I was younger I used to get teased a lot about why I wouldnt lie in the sun and fry (I dont bloody tan anyway so what's the point?) they arent laughing now though- and several of them have said to me me they wish they hadn't done it. I prefer makeup with spf as it doesnt leave a greasy white sheen on your face like non tinted spf.

I already commented to say that I agreed with your main points OP but wanted to add that as I grew older and more confident I decided to get rid of:

-high heel shoes
-under-wired bras
-the idea that I must consider what men find attractive when dressing myself
-the concept that my face and bodies are full of defects that need to be 'fixed' and that I need to buy a endless supply of products or even have cosmetic surgery for that to happen
-the bizarre idea that you need to shave your public hair to be 'hygienic'.

I still wear light make-up but very rarely now and I do colour my hair myself.

I wear clothes that reflect my personality and lifestyle and finding my own style rather than is deemed fashionable. I also don't want to contribute to endless consumerism and waste by adding yet another pile of clothes in a landfill somewhere....

I am much, much happier in myself and I finally like the face and body that I see in the mirror.

I do think that standards of 'beauty' peddled by magazines, TV and films are ludicrous and contribute to women and girls struggling with self-esteem.

If people don't find me attractive, so what? all that matters is that I am happy with myself and healthy.

I dont think you're being unreasonable about women wearing too much make-up, especially young girls who "need" it even less.

But you are unreasonable to class it as misogynistic-oppression. That implies it's being done to women, or because somehow men hate women.

Women may have been conditioned into it, but not by men. I don't think that men have generally demanded that women wear more make-up. Almost all my male friends prefer less than more, and find it bizarre that a girl on a checkout is made up as though they're going out for the evening, and then some.

I think social media and picture filters have made it worse by giving the impression that everyone else looks fantastic - but that's people doing it to themselves and participating in the delusion. Advertising does it too, but that's a small part compared to peer pressure.

Schools used to enforce make-up bans. It let everyone see each other for what they really looked like and normalised that it was ok.

I don’t want to be responsible for scaring all the kids at school drop off so I wear it. The last thing I need is crying, terrified kids.

Very interesting post actually.

I've worn makeup size about aged 13. I'm now in my 30s.

I used to CAKE It on in my teens and early twenties and it was totally a mask because I deeply lacked a lot of self worth. Would have rather chewed off my own arm than be seen without it.

I would say now i wear natural looking makeup to "boost" rather than cover. However I do think deep down I wish I didn't feel so naked without it.

I would love to feel beautiful without it. But .... truth is I rarely do.

I feel like I enjoy putting it on but I am aware that could just be the addiction / relief of feeling/ looking acceptable rather than truly actually enjoying it.

Hmmm lots to think about. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

I can't think of any 'devastating damage' that has been done to me through wearing makeup- sorry OP... I don't agree.

the idea that I must consider what men find attractive when dressing myself

I wear makeup and dont give a toss what men think- men may not even like my makeup and I dont care, I do it for me because I like the way it looks- it projects who I feel inside, it really has nothing whatsoever to do with men's opinions. I've actually had men tell me they prefer a natural look and I tell them thats fine but they can jog on then because I dress for me, and I am not changing the way I look for any man.

Almost all my male friends prefer less than more

Exactly- where is this parallel universe where men are demanding women wear inch thick makeup?, it's the opposite I've found- many men hate makeup and far prefer a natural look.

Oh jesus. Look because you don't like it, doesn't mean women are oppressed. I wear it because I want to.

I like to dress up because I want to.

I like to wear nice lingerie because I want to.

I like to straighten my hair because I want to.

I'm not programmed to think, I have to look a certain way for men. I want to do what makes ME feel good.

My daughter doesn't wear make up, shave etc because she doesn't bloody want too. It's a very simple concept and the more you teach your children to do what makes them happy the better but don't make board assumptions about men making women wear make up etc. How shallow do you think women are?

Luck doesn't come into it.

Well, I wear a 50 plus sunscreen, tin-tenter moisterioser and a slap of blusher. The first is for protection from skin cancer which I have had and was adbused to wear by a doctor, the blusher makes me look a tad healthier, or people ask me if I am ill! No one is forcing me, my DH does notice and in any case surely it is an individual thing. I agree that loads of make up is unattractive and possibly suggests insecurity and poor self esteem. But misogynistic? I don’t think so?

Growing up in the 70s, I didn't like the makeup then. It was always so clumpy, thick, and blurgh I never wore it. Lipgloss was it for me.

When I turned 40, I started taking an interest again. Children growing up and teens. Also, having a female teen. Thank goodness she is like me and has never been a big makeup user.

I started experimenting then in my 40s. My main regime is my skin lotion and potions, which I spend a lot of time and effort on.

I wear a little light makeup now because I like to. Not every day.

The stage of where the clown looks of heavy, thick makeup isn't good.

I wasn't going to stop my daughter's interest, so we did it together as I giry thing. Trying to stop her would not have worked. We used to talk about it and why we would use it etc

What do I mean by light make up. A primer, eyeliner, mascara, and a pastal cream shadow and the lip gloss, of course.

Less is more! Use it to enhance. Not for anything else

I agree OP, that's one thing I took away from wearing a mask during covid. I didn't wear makeup then, and I didn't for a long time afterwards either. It's slowly creeping back into my daily routine though, getting older I think 🤔

I got told it was lazy to not go out with makeup... I don't wear makeup. I just don't like it on me. I also have 4 kids and no time for it...

Women have the right to wear whatever they want. I only ever see/hear women commenting negatively to each others attire.

Well I definitely look better with the little bit I wear. I would have hardly any eyebrows without pencil and invisible eyelashes without mascara. I don't wear it for others, I wear it for me as feel horrible without it.

There isn't one! Men couldn't give a shit. But, people like the OP with their ingrained misandry believe that everything negative on earth is the result of every man. Women like OP are worse than misogynistic men in my opinion because, despite telling us she's a teacher, she seems to have the inability to understand that women, can pick and choose for themselves whether they wear make-up and not because the evil penis-havers tell us we should. I mean, my friends a lesbian and wears loads of make-up, she's a goth, who is OP going to blame that on?

What's your opinion on this OP? Should this lady not be able to do this? Even if it makes her feel better

www.facebook.com/share/r/tPz1utU3nstgEjRW/?mibextid=UalRPS

I can only imagine your surprise when you learn that both men and women wore make up like several thousend years before year zero when "Christ was born".
You can simply visit any of free museum in UK ans see men centuries ago plastered in make up.

But no, you decided to die on a hill made up by lack of education.
Pathetic.

You sound like the most damaged one on here tbh OP ….

Makeup to some people is a career, a hobby, an interest, art, progressive (since now makeup is much more inclusive to men with the likes of Mitchell Halliday, Wayne Goss, Mario Dedivanovic, James Charles etc.).

If you’re so concerned about the devastating damage it does to the lives of women and girls why don’t you actually do something productive with your students to tackle this? Instead of starting pathetic goady threads on Mumsnet.