Kiss and Make-up
September 22nd 2006 02:23
Make-up. Is it about masking who you are or drawing attention to your best bits? Is it about sexual power or sexual abuse? Magazine's are beauty products best advertisement. Women are inundated with masses of "attractive" (as society currently constructs its meaning) people and on the next page there is something that promises to help you look like the beauty you were just admiring. Make-up is said to be a way of creating the illusion of youth and beauty, however makeup also, to an extent, simulates the effects of sexual arousal. Wide eyes, flushed cheeks, and red lips can all be indicators of arousal. This is a form of objectification through make-up; potentially attributing it's wearer with sexual power. Whist on the other hand, some feminist discourses claim that make-up is a patriarchal restraint on woman, depicting them as beaten. Dark eye make-up (e.g. mascara) imitates a black eye, blush is equated with bruised cheek-bones and lipstick, bloody lips. Women have been wearing make-up since ancient times, have we been suffering because of this? With every wipe of foundation, every dap of gloss, we are covering ourselves up, why don’t men? Magazines tell us to, and how to cover our "trouble" features and emphasise our others, and either way we are covering up… Should we put on our make-up or make-up with ourselves?
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen
At the same time, though, by rebelling against a perceived identity, they are also falling into their OWN stereotype by saying that "normal" non feminist lesbians shouldn't wear lipstick.
I have found from my female friends that makeup wearing doesn't necessarily mean being objectified by men. Some girls wear it to look good, some wear it to look prettier than their friends.
Men are also subject to advertising. Guys, to get bodies like Brad Pitt or Orlando or whoever else is in Hollywood, we need to invest a SHITLOAD amount of money on gym, on diets, on gel, on product, on proper clothing, on magazines, etc.
Some also claim that because of the media, women have to act and look a certain way. Let's not forget, so do men. If women are stereotyped to be soft, housewives, caregivers, etc, then men are stereotyped to be mascuiline, strong, sporty, unemotional, and they have to work for the family. So if a male does not fit into any of these characteristics, then he isn't a "man."
White men can't jump. Chinese people eat rice. Africans are good at dancing. Girls should wear makeup. Guys should be strong. There are stereotypes all over, and I think the solution to it is to ignore it all, and just be ourselves... if we still can.
Comment by Anonymous
Yes, maybe media and society has something to do with the obsession women have with creating the illusion of longer eye-lashes or reder lips. But I think it is more complicated than pressures from the envrionment around us. I think it is an issue that starts from within each person. You could ask three different women why they wear make-up and I am sure that you will get different responses. So bascially, its hard to generalise..