Are Cosmetics and Makeup a Symbol of Female Oppression?

Think about it:

A billion dollar industry - cosmetics. Stuff you apply to your face when you go outside.

What? A woman has to feel like she has to put on makeup to leave her house?

That is a form of control. A system of indirect oppression. To not feel pretty enough without makeup? And then apply makeup before going outside?

I’d love to see a day when all women refuse to buy any more makeup/cosmetics. To see the look on these big cosmetic companies faces when they lose ALL revenue!

Makeup is oppression. It is propaganda used to control a woman’s thoughts.

 

Yea that’d be kind of the point… bring everything back down to regular reality, eliminate the fantasy stuff…. Then there could be a new normal, where maybe instead of trying to look pretty by applying cosmetics, fake nails, and all that stuff, people could look good by being healthy, both mentally and physically

I’ve worked at retail store before and the amount of overweight women buying fake nails, eyelashes, and cosmetics was unbelievable. If they’d just use that time/money for the gym, that’d be a much better alternative

 

As a woman myself, I definitely agree.

I wish makeup just never would have existed, however, I don't blame modern women for using it, because it's not their fault the world is the way it is right now, and I don't think it's fair to put it all on each individual's shoulders to radically change everything. It's hard to choose not to wear makeup when everyone around you is wearing it, especially because it makes you feel a lot less attractive than people you might actually be more attractive than, because they are wearing makeup and you aren't.

So yeah, I don't expect women to all band together and boycott makeup and change the world. I just wish it never would have been like this in the first place.

I have similar feelings about shaving. As someone with major skin sensitivity issues and a chronic skin condition that makes me severely itchy all the time, it's sooooo annoying that it's considered weird and gross for women to have body hair. It's completely unfair and ridiculous that women feel the need to shave their armpits and entire legs all the time, just to remove hair that naturally grows and it completely normal.

I wish that all these beauty standards didn't exist. I do, personally, ignore them most of the time, by not shaving and not wearing makeup. But it's not really because I'm trying to make a point or change the world.

Most of the time, I don't shave my legs, and that is because of my skin condition. Really the only person I care about is my husband, so I've asked him if he cares if I shave my legs, especially when we have intimate time together, and he said that he enjoys my legs being shaved but he also doesn't really care and doesn't want me to do it if it makes me uncomfortable all the time. So 99% of the time, I don't shave. Although I am also blonde and have pretty thin leg hair that isn't super noticeable, so if that wasn't the case, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable going out without shaving. I also do wear pants or long skirts a lot of the time, if I'm going out and don't want to shave.

When it comes to makeup, one reason why I stopped wearing it regularly is because I didn't like the fact that I felt so much less attractive without it. As a Christian, I felt a bit sad that I felt the need to "improve" God's creation, because I didn't feel nearly as pretty without makeup. I also didn't like the fact that my face without any makeup wasn't the norm. Like, if I looked in the mirror when I wasn't wearing makeup, it felt less like looking at myself than when I was. I wanted to flip that around.

Another reason is actually because i do have some friends who pretty much never wear makeup, and I think they are so beautiful. And because I never see them with makeup, they don't look strange without it. They look normal, because that's what they always look like. But for me, when I would see myself in the mirror without makeup, I felt like I looked a little strange or not like myself, because it wasn't normal for me to look like that.

A few other reasons were time consumption, money consumption, and skin care/skin sensitivity. I really dislike the feeling of taking makeup off, especially off of my eyelashes. I've always worn non-waterproof mascara, because I hate having my makeup be really hard to remove and linger on my skin. Especially now that I have urticaria. I also dislike spending so much money and time on makeup, even though for myself personally, I really didn't spend much of either of those. I've never been someone who wears a ton of makeup, or cares about buying really expensive brands. But still, it's a little bit of a money and time that's not necessary to spend.

So because of all of those things, I decided to stop wearing makeup regularly. I still wear it on occasion, but very rarely. And now that's the time when I look in the mirror and feel like I look out of the ordinary and not quite like myself. Although I also feel like I look super pretty when I have makeup on. lol but still, I've retrained my brain to see my makeup-free face as the norm.

Funnily enough, a lot of this change actually happened because of time. For a while a few years ago, I was pretty dang busy and doing a whole lot of stuff, basically running two businesses at once. So in the morning, because work, I would think "Do you want to spend the next 20 minutes writing or putting on makeup?" I pretty much always chose writing. Or in the evenings, if we were going to go out somewhere but I had some time before hand, I would ask myself "Do you want to spend the next hour watching TV and relaxing, or doing your hair and makeup?" Since I was so busy and didn't have a lot of downtime, doing my hair and makeup just didn't take prioroty anymore.

So yeah, that's kind of where I'm at not with my makeup journey. Most of the time, when I think about maybe doing my makeup, I think about how annoying my eyelashes are going to feel later, how bad it probably is for my skin, and how I could be doing something more fun with my time. So 9 times out of 10, I decide not to. I've even been able to be comfortable going online, like in YT or TT videos, without makeup, which has been really freeing. Because I used to get stressed out about making YT videos, because I would have to do my hair and makeup first, so I couldn't really do daily vlogs or anything without doing my hair and makeup every single day, which was a huge time sink. Now, I just don't care. Which probably shows in my videos. lol but whatevs.

 

See, this is what I have a problem with though...

People say they dislike women wearing makeup, but then insult their appearance when they don't. You can't have it both ways. I mean, you can, but it's a little hypocritical to expect women not to wear makeup if they know you're going to say they look like hell the minute they take it off.

 

Also, I'm not sure what pics people are talking about, but most of the celebrity women I'm seeing in these pictures without makeup look perfectly fine... they don't look like hell. They look normal.

 

Yea makeup is a strange thing. Makeup, false eyelashes, false nails, shaving all body hair, curling hair, straightening hair

I do admit I think a girl wearing makeup looks attractive. That is the problem with makeup, it does do something unfortunately, I don’t know why. Why would a woman with makeup be more attractive than one without makeup? Idk what causes the shift in perspective

But yea I pretty much wrote this post because sometimes I despise materialistic culture and thought if all women in the world quit buying makeup it would be pretty awesome haha

 

Yeah, theoretically I agree.

I'm sure there are lots of biological reasons for this. There seems to be some sort of universal ideas of beauty and health, and a lot of makeup enhances those things. Clear skin, thick lashes, flushed cheeks, brightened lips, etc.

 

Do you think the feminist movement has been infiltrated by “less radical” agents in order to keep big changes like cosmetics boycotts out of the conversation?

It’s funny how I never hear about women’s rights in regards to fashion, cosmetics, and things like this. Anything that would threaten the capitalistic structure of society. I bet this is on purpose. The powers at be let “rebellion” run its course as long as it stays within certain preset guidelines.

The same can be said for men and sports though. Why would a man watch another man play a sports game? What benefit does it bring him? I would laugh if all men stopped watching professional sports. I’d even be more joyful about that than the cosmetics industry going down


Also, why talk about makeup and biology? I’d venture to say we think women wearing makeup is attractive because it may be a step towards how we would have been if there was no fall of Adam and Eve. If we were a more perfect body than we currently are

 

Eh, idk. I'm not sure I'm on board with that conspiracy. I think it's more like a bunch of women have been brainwashed into believing that makeup is empowering.

Although to be fair, personally I do believe it can be somewhat empowering. I also do fully believe that a lot of women enjoy makeup as a form of creative expression, just like fashion or having different hair styles or cuts, or even as a form of art. Some people act like people are just lying when they say that's why they do makeup, but I disagree. I don't think they are lying at all. My sister really likes playing with makeup and doing different things, and she's happily married, doesn't really post on social media at all, and doesn't go out much. So she is obviously doing it for her own enjoyment, not to get male attention or something.

Which, by the way, is another thing I think is silly to say. Lol most men these days tell women they hate the type of makeup that is popular right now, and women still do it. So no, it's definitely not for male attention. If anything, the biggest compliment a woman could get regarding her makeup would be from another woman who also loves makeup. It's just a fun expressive thing they do, and sometimes they meet other people who have a similar interest and appreciate their work, sort of like an artist in a way.

In general, I think the world would be a better place if makeup never existed. But that's a hypothetical thought, not something that could be implemented now and have the same effect.

That's an interesting thought, and I certainly wouldn't put it past "the powers that be" to do that. But I'm not sure that's accurate.

Like I said, I think a lot of women find makeup empowering. Which, by the way, could very well be brainwashing from the media and the way cosmetics are presented in media and advertising.

Another thing is that, in my experience, a lot of feminists I have encountered are big proponents of the mindset of supporting all women, no matter what. So it has actually become rather taboo, in those certain feminist communities, to ever tell a woman she should change or do something different. So the idea of telling women they should stop wearing makeup or shaving or whatever, is actually anti-feminist, to people with that kind of mindset.

The ironic hypocrisy of that, though, is that their mindset of "support all women no matter what" will not allow them to support a woman who is telling other women they are wrong and should do something different. There are also a number of other things they don't support women in, like being pro-life or fighting for the rights of biological women in sports, etc. So the really don't support all women. They support the ones who idealogicially agree with them, which really isn't saying much, since pretty much everyone on the planet supports people who ideologically agree with them. It's not hard to do.

But when it comes to seemingly superficial issues, like whether or not women should wear makeup or shave, etc, the idea of a lot of feminists is that women should have the choice and freedom to do what they want with their life. Which, personally, is one thing I definitely agree with feminists about, so long as a woman's personal freedom of choice doesn't go against God.