It's no secret that the makeup industry is a huge part of American culture. According to statista.com, the cosmetics market in the U.S. is the biggest in the world. Its total revenue is estimated to exceed $62 billon by 2016. With this in mind, many critics have claimed over the years that the makeup industry is exploiting women's and girls' self image for profit. While this is immensely true in society's perception and expectation of women, as well as in the way many makeup brands are advertised, it is not always true of the wearers themselves. Many people who wear makeup claim it empowers them, that it makes them feel as though they have control.
To first understand the impact of makeup, we must dig at the roots of it. The use of cosmetics can be traced as far back as 6000 years ago, and has been used in almost every society on earth according to Wikipedia. Countries such as Egypt, Japan, the Middle East, China, Europe, the Americas and Australia have all had a rich history of makeup. During the 1900s only very rich women or "ladies of the night" wore any makeup; most women went without it. By the 1910s, however, it grew more popular in the United States and Europe. Theatre and movie stars played a huge impact on this. The use of makeup, to put it simply, continued to grow drastically throughout the United States and the rest of the world over time. Now, it is a normal, even sometimes required part of every day life.
What do I mean by required? Well, this is where the word "demeaning" comes into play. Many women are required or strongly encouraged to wear makeup at their jobs, as though the use of cosmetics is a needed piece in completing their work tasks. While it may be true that makeup has the ability to hide bags under someone's eyes and in general make someone look less tired, it has no right being a required or even strongly encouraged part of a woman's job. Women or girls who don't indulge in the makeup industry and prefer to go bare-faced are susceptible to being seen as lazy or undesirable because they prefer to leave their faces as they are. This in itself is, of course, a very clear example of the unrealistic expectations placed on women for how they should look. Along with this toxic idea is the way in which makeup is usually advertised. More often than not it is marketed primarily to skinny, white women. Women of color are less marketed to than white woman, and women who are curvier? Forget it. There is very little marketing there as well. This is an example of the normalcy in society of white women of a certain size, and the lack of attention for women of color and of different sizes. This is an example of society treating the skinny, white women as the most desirable, the most beautiful. Anything else is somehow less than, which is so wrong it would take me a whole new article to explain. In short, the women who choose not to wear makeup, women of color, and women who are not thin are undervalued and underrepresented in our society and in the makeup industry.
On the other hand, there is also the idea that women who do wear makeup on a regular or day-to-day basis are vain, arrogant, or "deceiving men." This is a seemingly extreme accusation, yet it is something that so many women hear again and again. The idea that women are somehow seeking to deceive men by wearing makeup because it makes them "look different" is entirely absurd. According to the Huffington Post, a study that was conducted on behalf of the Renfrew Center Foundation (a foundation researching eating disorders) concluded that 44% of women feel unattractive without makeup. That is nearly half of all women, which is most definitely due to the expectations placed on them. However, there are also many women who claim the main reason they wear makeup is because, simply put, they enjoy it. They like the act of getting to put it on and enhance certain features. For many, it is like an art to them, a skill they now have access to learn thanks to the internet. I know personally that I as well wear makeup for me and ONLY me. The common misconception that women only wear makeup to impress men or "for" men is completely untrue. So many women today have stated that they simply love wearing makeup for the sake of wearing it, because it makes them feel good. For many, it is empowering. That is something we should be encouraging in girls. They should have the power to choose whether makeup is for them or not, and not feel pressured one way or the other.
And while we're on the topic, the makeup industry also unfortunately caters to pretty much only women. Cosmetics are simply not marketed to boys or men, which is a shame. No product should have a gender on it unless its specific function is to serve a certain purpose that is specifically gender-based (i.e. feminine products). Otherwise, a product should not be gendered. Of course the main reason makeup is made utterly unmarketable to men is due to the pressure and expectations for men to be masculine, and makeup is seen as a feminine practice. This is a problem as well, and we should stop gendering products that should be available to serve all people, if they so choose.
What's the moral here? To stop judging people for whether or not they choose to wear makeup, and to stop basing certain ideals around whether or not a person (mainly a woman) should be wearing it. We should also take a stand for more representation in the makeup industry so that all people can feel as though they have a right to wear what they want. In more simple terms, no woman is a prude for not wearing makeup, dressing a certain way, or acting a certain way. No woman is a slut for wearing makeup, dressing a certain way, or acting a certain way, either. It's time to stop. It's time to listen to what we've been telling you all along.
