I am a social libertarian. Therefore, I couldn’t care any less how women choose to present themselves in public or make fools of themselves on social media.
But I have one abiding pet peeve: women who rely on “transformative” beauty tricks to make themselves feel good, impress other women, or attract shallow men.
Here, for example, is how I expressed my social consciousness in this regard in “PSA: Unmask Your Woman Before You Tell Her She’s Beautiful,” October 16, 2013.
_________________
Every few months, one tabloid or another publishes images of celebrity women ‘caught’ in public without their makeup.
The implied notion is that a woman walking around without makeup provides as much fodder for ridicule and shame as one walking around with a trail of toilet paper hanging from her panties. And, regrettably, the mocking crowd (of mostly liberated women deriving guilty pleasure) who buy these tabloids never fail to affirm this notion.
Is this what the feminist tome, Our Bodies, Ourselves, has wrought…?
After all, who would’ve thought the liberation inherent in the sexual revolution and feminist movement would devolve into a self-abnegating farce, where women themselves consider it a “brave decision” to go out in public without makeup.
For only this farce explains why even a naturally beautiful woman like Carmen Electra would think nothing of making the pathetic and pitiable confession on national TV that she’d rather be caught naked in public than without makeup…
Perhaps the time has come for truly liberated women to lead a new revolution for women under the banner ‘Our Faces, Ourselves,’ calling on women not to burn their bras but to ditch their makeup.
Men could be good foot soldiers in this new revolution by encouraging every woman they know to wear a little less makeup each day – until the image they see in the mirror right after their morning shower imbues them with far more pride and self-esteem than the one they (used to) see after painting on their daily mask.
And those of you still in the dating game can do even more by asking your date to take off all of her makeup (along with her spanx and fake hair) before you make love for the first time.
__________________
This is why I was so dismayed by a May 27 story in the Huffington Post, which it endorsed under the headline “Viral Video of South Korean Woman Removing Her Makeup Highlights The Power Of Cosmetics.” Not least because its founder and editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington, professes to be a born-again feminist who intends to use her media influence to empower women.
What do you think was the point of running this story – the essence of which read as follows:
There have been countless makeup transformations that have left our editors speechless because of the artist’s ability to literally morph into a celebrity or animal with the right amount of foundation and eyeshadow. Yet, we can’t stop talking after watching a recent viral video of a South Korean woman removing her makeup…
Whether you think this is just another example of makeup sorcery or appreciate the woman’s artistry, you can’t deny the power of makeup.
Color me old-fashioned, but I believe good makeup is that which merely enhances a woman’s natural beauty. Unfortunately, according to the fashion trend these days, good makeup is that which completely morphs a woman into a creature that looks nothing like her “true, authentic self.”
But frankly, after reading this story, my pity for this woman was surpassed only by my disgust at the Huffington Post for extolling (and exploiting) her blithe self-loathing and racial abnegation.
I readily concede that I don’t know much about notions of beauty, or what constitutes sex appeal, in Korean culture. But I suspect even a South Korean man would feel betrayed if he went to bed with a woman looking like a hakujin Geisha, but woke up to her looking like an escapee from a North Korean labor camp.
NOTE: Asian women claim they have eyelid surgery not to look more like white women, but to look more “alert” (to white people…?). Sadly, this makes about as much sense as white women claiming they have butt implants not to look more like black women, but to look more fertile (to black men…?).
Related commentaries:
Unmask your woman…