Welcome to my second blog post on Project EQUAL, a feminism project that aims to help bring equality to the sexes by calling out sexism in today's society.
Today I'm talking about makeup and feminism.... (on a feminist's blog? No way)
I am here to discuss how females tend to attract more attention from men than those who walk around bare-faced - which I am not judging, by the way. Wear what makes you happy, not what makes others feel less uncomfortable.
I did some research on this topic before I wrote this blog post, and after typing 'do women get more attention wearing makeup' into Google, multiple sites came up about men liking women bare-faced, females appearing "more trustworthy" when wearing makeup, and a few about men and their experiences of wearing makeup.
(Since this is a post about females, I'm only focusing on the women side of those searches, but that doesn't mean I'm against men wearing makeup. You do you, and slay it)
I started wearing makeup because I wanted to feel grown up (ahh, twelve year olds) and because I wanted to hide the spots that had started to crop up on my skin. I wanted to feel good when I walked down the street and not feel self-conscious about my pores or the weird little burst vein on my nose (now conveniently covered by glasses). I didn't want to be judged.
Now, I understand that I go around saying love yourself and be you and don't care what others think, and that I may come across as a bit of a hypocrite by writing that I wore makeup to fit in. But that was then, and in the years after being twelve years old and extremely self-conscious, I've stopped wearing makeup for the sake of pleasing others. If I'm being completely honest, I often can't be bothered to put on concealer because that means I'll have to powder it and apply blush just so I don't look cakey and fake (because then I'll be judged. I'm such a hypocrite, oh my gosh), and most days I. Cannot. Be. Bothered.
I only have a drawer in my vanity table in my room, and my collection of makeup is sort of sparse. I only own three different lipsticks - one being the "essential" red lipstick - two mascaras, two clear lip glosses and multiple lip balms, alongside concealer, blusher and powder (I crushed my bronzer by accident, oops).
I should probably get to the point....
Well, I wore red lipstick for the first. time. ever about six months ago; I'm only a teenager. I was on holiday/vacation and we were walking to dinner, and I felt confident. I had these cute stripy culottes and a red bodysuit that matched my lipstick, and I felt great. I don't say that in a light way, either: I'm incredibly self conscious when it comes to my appearance and people judging me. But I felt good about myself, for once.
I don't know if this was a coincidence or not, I'll never know either.
But when I was walking up to the restaurant, I was getting a lot of looks from men in the surrounding restaurants or cars, and that was the first time that had happened. We had gone for dinner only two nights before - me being basically barefaced except for the concealer and powder I wore - and I hadn't got that much attention then.
It made me uncomfortable, all the attention, which was silly. I was with my family, in a hotel area, with old people in bathing suits only a couple hundred yards down the road. I wasn't in a position to be harmed, but I still felt... wrong?
I don't know if it was the red lipstick I wore, or the bodysuit, or even the cute stripy trousers. But from the previous time I'd gone out barefaced and received no attention, I was inclined to believe it was because of the lipstick that I got a few more stares.
Us women are expected to wear makeup. In my research for this blog post, I found multiple websites with the title 'Women appear more professional wearing makeup than without'... or something similar to that. We look like we've put some effort in if we dab on some concealer, wave a mascara wand near our eyelashes. I fill in my eyebrows and keep them looking vaguely okay for fear of looking 'straggly' or 'I've-just-woken-up'.
Do we wear makeup for us? Or is it for others? You tell me.
And that's the end to my second blog post....