INteresting article on appearance

[solidgoldbrass]

here. I've always hated the natural look myself.

Interesting. I agree I think that the fake look can be equalising- under the tan the dye and the eyelashes could be anything! And also interesting that we look down in those that don't get the natural look quite right, and on those that are actually natural, ie wearing no make up at all. I think there might be a class issue in there too.

Although I embrace the natural asin no make up and a bit of lipsalve most of the time!

With you on that one, sgb!

Marking place for later

I had never thought of the 'natural look' like that before. Very interesting.

However, it will take a couple of reads before I properly understand/digest it.

I probably won't have anything interesting to add but thanks for linking.

I particularly enjoyed this -

'The ultimate purpose of the project seems to be to assure women that, if only they'd present themselves nicely, some anonymous men on the street might be generous enough to marry them. Which, as we all know, is every girl's dream.'

It actually made me 'lol'.

Yes. "For heaven's sake, don't draw attention to yourself. It's unbecoming. Melt into the background. Conform. It's what's expected of you." Okay, so I'm being a bit provocative, but it's just a more extreme version of an onslaught that I have faced at various times in my life. Not always to do with how I look, but also to do with being 'too garish' in my personality, my speech, my beliefs. No more!

Conflugen: Oh yeah, me too. Spent most of my life being advised to 'tone it down a bit' or 'be more like other people'. Billions of 'I'd love to give you a makeover' chats. I don't want to look Like Other People. I don't care if my clothes are unfashionable or do not sufficiently conceal the fact that I am Not Thin.
I have always thought that 'natural look' make up is ridiculous, why spend time and money and effort putting on make up to look like you're not wearing any? Now I know - its' to remind you that you are flawed and must try hard to be a decent unobtrusive but visually pleasing woman.

Or women could just not wear makeup and forget about how they look.

Unthinkable! Let's trowel on the makeup!

Here's to being unashamedly ourselves - warts, crimson lippy and all! :)

Excellent article. And very true.

Women are supposed to use cosmetics and wardrobe to conform. When they use them to meet an individual or different aesthetic they are met with scorn, ridicule, disgust etc

The point about women with the "jordan" look going really far and revelling in the fakiness of it all. It's definitely an extension of the same thing. Women are supposed to look a certain way, but it's also supposed to be effortless. If you look like you've made an effort, then you have automatically failed before you've even started. The commentators (whoever they may be from passers-by to the media) don't give a passing thought to the possibility that whatever the woman under scrutiny is doing she might be doing because actually that's the way she likes it. That idea quite literally never seems to occur.

Both on here and in real life today I've noticed women commenting on how they are told they "look tired" when they don't wear make up.

It made me wonder if that is what the compulsory cosmetics we wear is really about. We conceal our tiredness with make up - evening our skin tone, concealing shadows, brightening our cheeks and lips. Without cosmetics, the strain on mothers would show.

I look natural, naturally tired! Don't much care either. Last year I wore make up 7 times (cos sometimes I quite like to!). Have never understood why looking tired is considered to be so bad. I'm sure I could look a lot "nicer" everyday but can never really be bothered. So I quite embrace a genuinely natural look, eye bags and all.

I like the natural look. But I like it to be true. Natural is not blemish free in my book. So whilst I agree with some of the articles anger I think it misses that some of us (perhaps only a very small group) are happy neither pretending to be natural or going for artifice. I don't own any cosmetics any more, and the only times I have ever enjoyed make up was acting in school plays.

I've told my dd that I'm not anti make up for fun, just for every day. Because she is beautiful, but playing with wacky colours is fun too.

I am sorry to sort of hijack this thread...

But I have been having a hard time with the word natural recently. This article has just made me think. People put such emphasis on natural and I thought the article was very interesting how the article linked natural with 'good' and how anything other is often seen as fake and bad...

What has got me thinking is how this word
Is applied to other areas of a woman's life. I watched 'how
To be a good mother' yesterday and (you know what I'm going to talk about now right? ) One woman was so obsessed with 'natural' birth that she said some shockingly appalling things about csections. Now this is where I took issue with the way people respond to the word natural.

Surely just as the 'natural' make up is helped along by tools (make up, brushes) etc, csections are helped with tools (knives etc)

But does that make it any less 'natural' if a woman 'chooses' a csection she is choosing the worse of 2 options? I just feel that by linking the word natural to 'good' or 'better' it's just another thing to bash woman about their choices with iyswim, and it applies to other parts of life not just cosmetics...

Did that make sense?

If I'm wearing makeup I want it to be obvious that I'm wearing makeup. I just spent time putting colour on my eyelids and my nails so I want yo to see the colour.

It makes sense Kayano - and is key to all kinds of heated debate on here: formula feeding, WOHM, vaccinations etc.

It also ties in with the Evolutionary Psychology drivel, and the notions people have about women being naturally less good at maths etc.