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 don't wear makeup usually but occasionally I do, because it makes me feel better. I don't judge others on their makeup choices though. What an awful, judgemental post!

You must have gone to some funny circuses as a child.

I've had terrible acne which has flared up at various points throughout my life. If I didn't wear foundation / concealer I'd be really self conscious. And when I go somewhere nice i like to dress up and put on some make up. I consider myself a feminist but honestly, me wearing make up has got sod all to do with oppression by men.

I paint a big red clown grin on so the men will think I'm still smiling at them, even if I'm a bit sad about ironing their pants and the gender pay gap.

I like make up. It's fun.

Stop being so silly.

I get your point completely and see the issue is with the male gaze in general, ramped up now on social media with filters and glamorizing and normalising exploitative sexualised plastic surgery. Ridiculous women like The Kardashians being seen as role models hasn't helped this generation as everything is about public validation via 'likes'. The constant judgement through phones I'd awful but ultimately I think everyone should be free to choose what they wear. The demise of stereotyping would be good and banning filters.

ever heard of the phrase you do you …. I love wearing make up, I love buying it applying it, and how I look when it’s on. Rest assured the young people who’s oxygen levels you are worrying about sure there blood supply will continue to supply it.
if you go into Liverpool and Manchester makeup shops you will see men wearing makeup too beautifully made up eyes and contoured skin. You really are out of touch.
I don’t drink but I wouldn’t say anyone who does should stop because I don’t like what it does to people

I love wearing make up. I am good at applying it. I do it for nobody but myself. I'm single by choice and have nobody to impress. I just like it.

So women should stop wearing make up because most men don’t like it.

You and the OP are seriously lacking in emotional intelligence.

I have the opposite view to you. I was so glad as a teen that as a girl I had the option of make up. Especially as I had quite bad teenage hormonal acne and would have felt even more self conscious than I already did had I not been able to cover it up. I used to look at the boys and feel sorry for them that they didn’t have the option as it was socially unacceptable for them to wear makeup.

I love wearing makeup, my partner always tells me I'm beautiful so he'd probably prefer if I didn't wear it but I like how extra I can look with makeup rather than doing it for men. When I was single I'd wear it sometimes if I wasn't leaving the house because it was fun to put on, then other times when I went out I wouldn't bother. I think it's only a sign of self misogyny when women feel uncomfortable leaving the house without it and I feel bad for women who don't love themselves enough with a natural face to show it off to the world.

This.
As a teacher it appals me that even the Year 7s are caked with foundation ridiculous lashes and nails…and I am in an independent coed school.

You must have hated the New Romantics period. (I'm surprised all those men have recovered from the "devastating damage" wearing makeup causes.)

I’m interested to know what subject you teach, OP ? I don’t agree with the tone and reasoning of your argument although I dislike the heavy makeup that some young teenagers wear. However I am more concerned about their underlying confidence. As a teacher you have a fantastic position to support young women to grow in confidence and to develop a critical understanding of the power of big business, as well as the function of the social influencers that they use as their agents. This kind of discussion is often better done in schools than at home. I hope you care deeply enough about your students that you support them respectfully to understand the complexities around the power of big businesses, social media, and self image.
The origins of make up on women are rooted in creating a representation of youth and sex signalling. But as others have pointed out men have also been subject to fashions in make up over hundreds of years, at least (see Georgian fashion for example). And the role of make up in other cultures- exaggeration of war-like faces, for instance - is also worth consideration. My children have had some amazing secondary school teachers who have seemed to genuinely like their students and enjoy helping them understand the world around them and their part in it. The tone of your message doesn’t convey a tone of appreciation for the young people you work with, but I hope you do actually like and enjoy being with them and use your teaching role to help them develop critical thinking.

Where did I say I feel worse about myself without makeup on, or find my own features inadequate? 😆. I don't.

I consider wearing makeup in the same vein as wearing clothes that fit well and feel good, ensuring my hair is clean and neatly styled, having good hygiene etc. makes me feel better about myself overall. I feel zero pressure from anyone or anywhere to put on makeup, and don't have an issue going out barefaced (I do most days). When I do wear makeup, I do it for me and no-one else. It's possible to enjoy looking good without this being an admission of personal inadequacy or seeing some patriarchal oppressive conspiracy.

As with the OP, you're definitely overthinking this.

I don’t live in the U.K., so perhaps have a different take on makeup. I live in Spain and the teenage girls wear very little. You don’t see the contouring, eyelashes etc that you fo more commonly in the U.K. I think the heat plays a big factor here, as well as having a tan during much of the year. My teenage daughter has makeup, which she sometimes uses and sometimes doesn’t. If she is going out, she usually does, but a very light covering. It’s not something her or her friends are reliant on or wear habitually. Wearing makeup to go out is no different than styling your hair and dressing up, so in that sense I don’t see anything wrong with makeup. If vast swathes of girls in the U.K. are terrified for people to see their natural faces and are as you describe, that sounds more like a societal problem than a makeup problem. I have more of an issue with unnecessary aesthetic procedures at a young age and the constant filtering of photos, so everyone is trying to present an unachievable/fake beauty standard than makeup.

Where did I say I feel worse about myself without makeup on, or find my own features inadequate?

Where you said "I feel better about myself when I wear makeup", @OneWildBiscuit.

Well I for one have never "absorbed" that message at all in my life. I don't wear make-up, haven't done for decades, and rarely did before then. However, when I did it was solely because other women wore it - and some of them do judge those who don't. I couldn't care less who wears it or why.

However, women are allowed to decide for themselves whether to wear make-up or not. Who do you think you are to police it?

You might find life a lot less stressful if you didn't feel the need to crusade on behalf of millions of women who don't actually want you to!

But that doesn't equate with feeling bad about myself without it. I feel great with or without makeup. And I repeat, where did I say I feel worse when not wearing makeup?

Doing something nice for yourself that you enjoy and makes you feel good (whether that is having a soak in a bubble bath, treating yourself to a fancy coffee, doing a hobby you enjoy, spending time with friends, or indeed wearing makeup) doesn't mean you're miserable and lacking when you aren't doing these things.

Well, maybe you used the wrong words when you wrote your post. If you feel better with something, you feel worse without it. But this isn't a thread for vocabulary lessons.

That's a rather ridiculous statement. You seem very angry for someone I assume is a pure natural beauty.

I agree that the fashion among young women to wear thick orange make-up, slug eyebrows, ridiculous false eyelashes and big pouty lips is not particularly attractive. However, it is perfectly normal for young people to experiment with ugly fashions and - apart from being embarrassed about old photos in years to come - it does them no harm.

In my opinion, properly applied make-up enhances the appearance of most women. It doesn't have to be heavy or clown-like.

Maybe you should try it OP. I'm sure even your perfect features and peachy complexion might benefit.

I don't think make-up does anything for men though.

Not at all... I think it all depends on the reasoning behind makeup.

If it is a societal pressure to look good, then society needs to change. If it's just a psychological 'confidence-booster', like how I might de-fur my shirt before I go out (cats), then great, but if it's to look good for men, then I'm saying that it's most likely excessive as (and I can't speak for all men), many don't care.

I wear makeup to cover up the fact that I’m permanently knackered. Hope this is ok with you.

it’s for me nobody else

This is all based on your opinion and is subjective; you cannot decide on how a person feels. I very rarely wear make-up, but when I do, I look better. It's not because men think I look better, it's because I actually do. I have eyes that work, so I know this!

Young girls do not need make-up, but they use it due to marketing strategies and celebrities/influencers. It's a shame, but it's the way the world works, unfortunately!

I say live and let live!

I like doing my make up. It’s relaxing. I have good skin, nice eyebrows and big eyes already though, so I like emphasising features, rather than masking them.

I do watch some Insta reels in shock when make up artists entirely change their face shape with dark stripes and shading. Must be really surprising if someone goes to bed with one person and they wake up looking entirely different 😂