How a Woman Wears Makeup

“... You couldn’t say the man didn’t wear makeup in the sense that you could say a woman didn’t wear makeup” (553). 

In class, I talked about how the idea presented here was something I only agreed with to a certain extent. This was because I thought that gender norms were shifting in such a way that, someday, saying a man didn’t wear makeup won’t be so strange or useless to mention. Even in some communities today, saying something like this wouldn’t be so outlandish. However, that would enforce the idea that it’s still not normal even more. That’s what I’ve come to realize after Friday’s discussion. Branching away from that discussion, though, I wanted to talk about what the latter part of this quote means–and I’m talking about how makeup relates to women.

These comments are made about me as well. I usually don’t wear makeup, so I thought that this choice of mine would have made me something like an unmarked person, but really, it does mark me, too. Especially in my workplace, I stick out like a sore thumb because of it. I feel unrefined and awkward almost every time I notice it. It’s made me want to learn how to do my own makeup without messing up as many times as I do. I never really cared about it that much before, but now that I can’t ignore it anymore, I really don’t feel like I live up to what I am– a female. I don’t feel feminine enough, and when I think of it that way, it feels like an insult. It marks me in the ugliest way possible. 

Wanting to be more feminine isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, of course. But if it’s being forced upon a person, it becomes toxic and merely a chore.