You cannot not communicate, the societal notion as to which is “good looks” for women is strongly sexualized and children are exposed to these notions from an early age. Also the subtle or less subtle social pressure plays a big role in it. A friend of mine moved from a “posh” city to mine. She said she didn’t dare going out without putting on makeup for two hours because she would get bad looks in the street otherwise and it took her a long time to unlearn that.
So while it isn’t women wearing make up because they want to fuck, the social construction that makes them feel less confident and less comfortable without make up is revolving around that and it is part of the problem. It is not that women just feel more confident with make up. It is that they feel less confident without it, because they are pressured to feel so.
Sure, but that doesn’t explain things like elaborately decorated nails. Women aren’t doing that to attract men. They’re doing it because they like the way it looks and they feel like it’s a way of expressing themselves.
Two things can be true. Makeup can be a healthy form of self-expression for people who use it AND a brick in the overall wall that is gendered oppression.
I wish we could just make makeup illegal. It’s bad for humans, it’s bad for the animals we test it on, it’s probably bad for the environment, it’s expensive, and takes a lot of time every day to apply. And as far I’m concerned it doesn’t even obtain the ostensible goal of making people more attractive. It fills no function other than to feed insecurity and fill the pockets of shareholders.
Even some men wear makeup. Every actor wears makeup. It’s been a part of human art for millenia, and only recently has developed into daily sexist expectations.
I’d be very careful about banning anything that lets people express themselves, even if most people are doing it in a way I don’t like. The external costs (pollution, animals) can be addressed with pigouvian taxes not specific to these products.
Sure, I realize it’s not realistic. Maybe we could at least change the attitude people have towards it, from “you need it to be accepted as a human being” to “it’s weird, but if you think it’s fun go for it”.
You cannot not communicate, the societal notion as to which is “good looks” for women is strongly sexualized and children are exposed to these notions from an early age. Also the subtle or less subtle social pressure plays a big role in it. A friend of mine moved from a “posh” city to mine. She said she didn’t dare going out without putting on makeup for two hours because she would get bad looks in the street otherwise and it took her a long time to unlearn that.
So while it isn’t women wearing make up because they want to fuck, the social construction that makes them feel less confident and less comfortable without make up is revolving around that and it is part of the problem. It is not that women just feel more confident with make up. It is that they feel less confident without it, because they are pressured to feel so.
Sure, but that doesn’t explain things like elaborately decorated nails. Women aren’t doing that to attract men. They’re doing it because they like the way it looks and they feel like it’s a way of expressing themselves.
Two things can be true. Makeup can be a healthy form of self-expression for people who use it AND a brick in the overall wall that is gendered oppression.
I wish we could just make makeup illegal. It’s bad for humans, it’s bad for the animals we test it on, it’s probably bad for the environment, it’s expensive, and takes a lot of time every day to apply. And as far I’m concerned it doesn’t even obtain the ostensible goal of making people more attractive. It fills no function other than to feed insecurity and fill the pockets of shareholders.
Even some men wear makeup. Every actor wears makeup. It’s been a part of human art for millenia, and only recently has developed into daily sexist expectations.
I’d be very careful about banning anything that lets people express themselves, even if most people are doing it in a way I don’t like. The external costs (pollution, animals) can be addressed with pigouvian taxes not specific to these products.
Sure, I realize it’s not realistic. Maybe we could at least change the attitude people have towards it, from “you need it to be accepted as a human being” to “it’s weird, but if you think it’s fun go for it”.
And because long nails have historically been a status symbol. People who do physical labor can’t usually have nice long nails.