Sometimes when I’m bored (or procrastinating) I go to Sephora’s website to browse different beauty and makeup products. Doing so brings me so much joy, in a way that only makeup aficionados can understand, even though most of the time I don’t intend to purchase anything.
For our senior capstone project, my friend and I are designing a makeup app that will help women of color navigate the different products and brands.
Most days, I wear some kind of makeup — whether it’s just under-eye concealer or foundation with a bright magenta lipstick.
I think it’s fair to say that makeup constitutes a significant part of my self-care routine, along with being one of my main interests — just like millions of other women.
Nonetheless, for a long time, I felt guilty about liking makeup so much. I always tried to make it a point to force myself not to wear makeup on certain days — just so I wouldn’t be dependent on it, I used to tell myself.
That’s because, being a feminist, I used to believe that wearing makeup meant I was giving in to the beauty norms perpetuated by society — the idea that a woman has to wear makeup to look good. I was torn between my desire to express my creativity through makeup and wanting to be free from stereotypical female expectations.
It took reading many articles written by makeup-loving feminists, as well as countless discussions with friends, for me to reach the conclusion that makeup and feminism aren’t actually at odds.
By believing that feminists can’t wear makeup, I was disregarding one of the core principles of feminism — body autonomy. As Melissa Fabello writes for the online publication “Everyday Feminism”, “there’s nothing that goes against feminist values more than questioning whether or not what a person adorns their body with is ‘appropriate.’”
Feminism promotes empowering women’s choices. The latter could very well be subscribing to stereotypically feminine ideals, as long as it is the woman’s own choice and she is not acting as a result of societal pressure.
To cite my own example, I did not start wearing makeup on anyone’s behest, or, as many like to think about women who wear makeup, to appear more attractive to the opposite sex. Makeup was just something I stumbled upon and grew to love.
I was wrong in thinking that being a feminist meant distancing myself as much as I could from “feminine” characteristics — in fact, thinking in this manner is an example of implicit misogyny. The idea that traditionally feminine behavior is somehow less worthy than traditionally male ones is an extension of sexism, and I was guilty of that.
In reality, feminism advocates for people of all genders being given the right to choose whichever way they want to lead their life without being pigeonholed or dismissed — whether that means being a male-identifying homemaker or a female shopping in the men’s section.
The one downside that this realization has brought me? Sephora and Ulta have taken over my bank account and I now own four different lipsticks with the same shade — and counting.