Beauty Mythos
"Very few of us look good or normal with absolutely no makeup on at all"
This little gem came from an article linked off of aol's opening page today. Let me draw your attention to the word "normal" up there, because its a perfect example of what Michael Warner argues in "The Trouble With Normal," wherein the word has a double function to indicate both statistical average and normative. However, in this case, the article is probably accurate in both senses of the word - not only is it normative and socially required for women to wear makeup, it is likely also statistically average for most women to do so However, "normal" also attaches to systems of argument based upon a state of nature - and an ethics derived from the ability to make claims about how people should *naturally* act/look. It is in this last sense that the phrase is so deeply, perversely flawed.
Wearing no makeup is completely "normal"! I'm so caught and horrified by the way that phrase sets up women's natural appearance as the grotesque "other" to "normal women."
The coerciveness is quite striking. I've no problem with the idea that women (and men) may enjoy wearing makeup - that it can feel pleasantly flirty and provocative - but that women should *have to* shell out massive amounts of money (and absorb massive amounts of carcinogens through their skin) just to look socially acceptable and "normal" - I have enormous problems with that, and such an incredible amount of pressure really undermines that ability to freely choose makeup for reasons of personal pleasure.
On very rare occasions I apply a little mascara and blot a little concealer, but in the main I do not wear makeup. My grotesquely abnormal natural woman's face can be seen on any given day in public, and it doesn't just look normal, it looks lovely.
This little gem came from an article linked off of aol's opening page today. Let me draw your attention to the word "normal" up there, because its a perfect example of what Michael Warner argues in "The Trouble With Normal," wherein the word has a double function to indicate both statistical average and normative. However, in this case, the article is probably accurate in both senses of the word - not only is it normative and socially required for women to wear makeup, it is likely also statistically average for most women to do so However, "normal" also attaches to systems of argument based upon a state of nature - and an ethics derived from the ability to make claims about how people should *naturally* act/look. It is in this last sense that the phrase is so deeply, perversely flawed.
Wearing no makeup is completely "normal"! I'm so caught and horrified by the way that phrase sets up women's natural appearance as the grotesque "other" to "normal women."
The coerciveness is quite striking. I've no problem with the idea that women (and men) may enjoy wearing makeup - that it can feel pleasantly flirty and provocative - but that women should *have to* shell out massive amounts of money (and absorb massive amounts of carcinogens through their skin) just to look socially acceptable and "normal" - I have enormous problems with that, and such an incredible amount of pressure really undermines that ability to freely choose makeup for reasons of personal pleasure.
On very rare occasions I apply a little mascara and blot a little concealer, but in the main I do not wear makeup. My grotesquely abnormal natural woman's face can be seen on any given day in public, and it doesn't just look normal, it looks lovely.