[jariel]

Quote:

Twenty-year-old Annie Garau hasn’t worn makeup in over 200 days. The Indiana University student kicked off her experiment on January 1st, after realizing just how much time she and her friends spent talking about their appearance—specifically, what they didn’t like about it. Garau’s always been interested in women’s rights, and firmly believes the world would be a better place if its women were more confident, and empowered, so she decided to start at home.

It wasn’t easy at first. Garau writes in Kentucky’s Lexington Herald-Leader that she felt “uncomfortable, undesirable, and embarrassed.” Of course, you can see Garau above, and your first reaction is probably well, if I looked like her I wouldn’t need makeup either. That’s the whole point, says Garau. “It’s so funny because every girl, no matter what she looks like, does not believe comments like that. We all have huge insecurities, but we’re the only ones who see those negative things,” she says. “I’m getting so many compliments from this project, and it’s great and it’s nice, but the point is that no matter what a girl looks like, they’re typically not happy with their appearance.”

If you’ve read any of the oft-discussed think pieces on women and empowerment over the past couple of years, from Lean In to The Atlantic’s The Confidence Gap, you know there’s a chasm between what women can do and what they think they can do; it’s the same with appearance, only too many women spend a lot more time talking about the way they look with their friends—time that could be spent doing something else. “I’m not against makeup,” Garau says. “It’s a trivial thing in itself, so I’m not going to say I’ll never wear it again, I just hope people’s mindset will change. Are you putting it on because you hate the way you look? Or are you putting it on to express yourself? There’s a huge difference there.”

One thing that could help change the current mindset is the participation of someone in the public eye. If a Midwestern college student can make waves, imagine what would happen if a national news anchor or major celebrity went without makeup? And not just for a gimmick. Garau says that when stars do go without makeup or retouching (and she both cites and appreciates Colbie Caillat’s recent music video), they do it when it’s convenient or they want to make a statement. “[What about] doing a normal music video without wearing makeup, but just not talking about it?” she says. Or going on the air without makeup, and not spending 20 minutes talking about how you’re not wearing makeup. We’re so inspired by Garau’s project that the Yahoo Beauty team’s pledged to go without makeup for one week, starting Monday. We’ll report back with our experience, from our 21-year-old intern to our 57-year-old Editor-in-Chief, the week after next.

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/would-you-g...12109.html

[L M McCoy]

[scorpion]

It's hilarious how many women are genuinely convinced that makeup is some oppressive invention of the patriarchy. The idea that women are competing amongst themselves for male attention is furiously denied by the hamster. I have pointed out to several girls I've dated how makeup is basically just a female arms race. None of them could understand what I was saying. They all thought it was unfair that women "had to" wear makeup. I told them that no one was making them wear makeup, they were freely making the choice themselves. But they were making that choice because they weren't about to be the only woman who wasn't taking advantage of a relatively easy way to raise her appearance 1-2 points. That would make her look much worse in comparison, obviously, and no woman wants to be the odd one out.

So the idea that women will go makeup-free en masse is simply laughable. It will never happen because women are competing with each other, and they know this even if they cannot admit it to themselves. If twenty women are all wearing makeup, the natural hierarchy of beauty will be pretty much the same as if none of them were. The overall effect will simply be to have raised the average appearance score 1-2 points. However, if 19 of the girls are not wearing makeup but one is, only the makeup wearer gets the benefit, and as a result attracts a better man than she "should" be able to based on her natural looks. This simply cannot be allowed by the sisterhood, and so the next day those 19 other girls will all be wearing makeup, and it's back to square one. Either they will all be wearing makeup, or none of them will.

Makeup is not a consequence of the patriarchy. It's a consequence of women fucking hating each other and being in a constant state of competition for male attention their entire lives.

[2Wycked]

Hmm, don't judge a book by its cover but what the book looks like influences how the book feels about itself?

Interesting, as a man, I need to judge the contents of a woman's character over her appearance and I'm supposed to find insecurity about her appearance attractive? Wait, I'm supposed to dig past that low-esteem and find the true worth hidden there? Low self-esteem never overrides high esteem, unless you are in Shine's world.

Judging by the comments, I forgot every woman used to be insecure about her appearance, but now at 54 she realized her true worth. Looks like some women found that out at 29, 37 and 42. Looks like thousands of women found empowerment and gave up caring about what others think of their looks. Looks like a cacophony of women praising a newly-minted 20-something for not wearing makeup when she herself is attractive. Makeup or not, guy will always want to bang young, hot trim. Fact.

All these empowered middle-aged women reading and commenting on this article is revealing. Like a former law professor used to say at least once every class, "Interesting, all this is very interesting."

[Conscious Pirate]

" only too many women spend a lot more time talking about the way they look with their friends—time that could be spent doing something else."

so let's "start a conversation" about all this...

[Glaucon]

And it is men's fault, because if men would like a women no matter how fat/bitchy/ugly she is, women would not have to feel anxiety about how they look.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

(07-28-2014 02:25 AM)scorpion Wrote:  

..
Makeup is not a consequence of the patriarchy. It's a consequence of women fucking hating each other and being in a constant state of competition for male attention their entire lives.

Exactly - similar to the often quoted saying by women, that they don't dress up for men. They dress up for themselves and other women!

Yeah right - they dress up in competition to women, when the price is the attention of men! That is the translation from Hamsterese.

Otherwise they would be all dolled up at home sitting in front of the TV or putting on maximum makeup when her two best friends come over for pizza-night. If no men were around on some island, then almost all of heterosexual women would care shit about their appearance. This behavior is ingrained in women like an instinct. They want to look pretty in front of men, because that is how we survived and you cannot really go against species-ingrained-instincts.

Best Hamster-quotes from the article:

Quote:

I firmly believe that the clothes women wear and the makeup then apply is for other women because - and trust me here, guys don't care.

- hehe - yeah right - guys don't care if you are hot and pretty, but if you are ugly and after your prime and your competition are 18-year-old natural beauties....

Quote:

I'll be 61 soon and I don't wear make up for most of the reasons already expressed

no one cares what 61-year-old women do makeup-wise

[Suits]

Not wearing make-up for a year doesn't qualify as an experiment. It's daily life for 99% of Chinese women.

Without researching the history, I'd guess that make-up didn't become a daily addition for the vast majority of Western women until feminism kicked off it's women's sexual revolution.

My best guess would be that prior to the 1960's, your typical woman neither wore make-up nor did men expect them to. In fact, I'd be willing to gamble a little money on the notion that it wasn't that long ago that the gaudy level of make-up that many women wear nowadays used to be purely the territory of prostitutes.

Sorry, ladies, but you can't blame the patriarchy for this one. This one rests fully on the shoulders of your inability to not constantly compete with each other for status and high value men.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

(07-28-2014 03:04 AM)Suits Wrote:  

Not wearing make-up for a year doesn't qualify as an experiment. It's daily life for 99% of Chinese women.

Without researching the history, I'd guess that make-up didn't become a daily addition for the vast majority of Western women until feminism kicked off it's women's sexual revolution.

My best guess would be that prior to the 1960's, your typical woman neither wore make-up nor did men expect them to. In fact, I'd be willing to gamble a little money on the notion that it wasn't that long ago that the gaudy level of make-up that many women wear nowadays used to be purely the territory of prostitutes.

Sorry, ladies, but you can't blame the patriarchy for this one. This one rests fully on the shoulders of your inability to not constantly compete with each other for status and high value men.

Mekeup is ancient - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cosmetics.

In some cultures and at certain times even men were wearing it - Renaissance in Europe for example.

Women always wanted to look prettier and will always do so in the future.

Oh - and let the chick do the same experiment when she is 30, single and unmarried. We will see how she feels then.

[RawGod]

8.5/10 WB

[Suits]

(07-28-2014 03:13 AM)Zelcorpion Wrote:  

(07-28-2014 03:04 AM)Suits Wrote:  

Not wearing make-up for a year doesn't qualify as an experiment. It's daily life for 99% of Chinese women.

Without researching the history, I'd guess that make-up didn't become a daily addition for the vast majority of Western women until feminism kicked off it's women's sexual revolution.

My best guess would be that prior to the 1960's, your typical woman neither wore make-up nor did men expect them to. In fact, I'd be willing to gamble a little money on the notion that it wasn't that long ago that the gaudy level of make-up that many women wear nowadays used to be purely the territory of prostitutes.

Sorry, ladies, but you can't blame the patriarchy for this one. This one rests fully on the shoulders of your inability to not constantly compete with each other for status and high value men.

Mekeup is ancient - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cosmetics.

In some cultures and at certain times even men were wearing it - Renaissance in Europe for example.

Women always wanted to look prettier and will always do so in the future.

Did anyone other the extremely rich women who had nothing better to do than compete over rich men actually wear make up historically?

Probably not, because daily survival was more pressing.

I'm not talking about invention, I'm talking about wide scale use, in particular, within the last 100 years in Western society.

[weambulance]

@ Zelcorpion

They want to look pretty for men they don't have their hooks into. I was staying at a friend's house for a while recently, and his girl always dressed down to frumpy comfortable stuff as soon as she got home so she never, ever looked nice when he would see her. When he was out of town a few times all the sudden she's wearing dresses and skirts and stuff when I'm the only one to see. Funnily enough, I bluntly told her in the past several times that she should be wearing skirts and dresses, not jeans, because jeans made her look fat. It's just her build, she's smoking hot in boy shorts and a tank top but jeans are not flattering at all, she's too short and curvy.

Now, I know she's attracted to me, it's pretty obvious, especially when she's drinking and lets her guard down. There's also no way I'm hooking up with her, and she has to know that. But still, I'm the one she wants to look good for, not her betamax boyfriend who's paying her way through life.

... Not that I'm saying anything we all don't know. Just thought I'd clarify the point.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

(07-28-2014 03:16 AM)Suits Wrote:  

Did anyone other the extremely rich women who had nothing better to do than compete over rich men actually wear make up historically?

Probably not, because daily survival was more pressing.

I'm not talking about invention, I'm talking about wide scale use, in particular, within the last 100 years in Western society.

You are right on that one - most women in history married or got pregnant very young and were more concerned about survival.

But as soon as more luxury entered and some free time also for the general population then women wished to have a social life and some beautification on their side. Only the extremely poverty-ridden cultures are the ones where women stay away from makeup. Give them some money, some free time and you will see women dolling up. Unless you have some kind of religious or social perception that makeup is whorish etc.

[Foolsgo1d]

This girl has the advantage of being good looking in a natural way before any makeup is applied.

Its certainly not that way for a lot of girls out to get shitfaced on a fri/saturday.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

Twenty-year-old Annie Garau hasn’t worn makeup in over 200 days. The Indiana University student kicked off her experiment on January 1st, after realizing just how much time she and her friends spent talking about their appearance—specifically, what they didn’t like about it.

So she promotes herself in the news by writing an article that then gets picked up as a news story and spread everywhere? The resulting attention means she and her friends are going to spend 100 percent more time talking about beauty -- as will other women who might have been, you know, reading or something.

Garau’s always been interested in women’s rights, and firmly believes the world would be a better place if its women were more confident, and empowered, so she decided to start at home.

Wrong. The problem with women isn't too little self-esteem, but too much (Roissy, 2010). The culmination of which is promoting yourself with a self-involved article.

“I’m not against makeup,” Garau says. “It’s a trivial thing in itself, so I’m not going to say I’ll never wear it again, I just hope people’s mindset will change. Are you putting it on because you hate the way you look? Or are you putting it on to express yourself? There’s a huge difference there.”

Does the same go for tattoos? Why not do a campaign about them since they're permanent. You can always wash off the makeup.

"It wasn’t easy at first. Garau writes in Kentucky’s Lexington Herald-Leader..."

Girl stops wearing makeup. Newspaper lets her write article about it. This, in a nutshell, is indicative of mainstream media today. This could never have gotten published 20 years ago. The feminisation of mass media seems to get worse every year. What next? Front page: "Woman gets run in stocking! News at 11!!"

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

That Roissy article was truly prophetic. 2Wycked had later contributed a lot with his essays on narcissism, but the idea expressed there - that the main problem of modern society is women suffering from excess self-confidence - represents the foundation for me.

[No Habit]

I always imagine how they'd look like without make up anyway.
Make up is just manipulation of men.

[Oz.]

WB

[The Beast1]

Ugh girls with crescent moon eyes kill me. Too cute.

For the record:

[Sonsowey]

One of the strangest things I see are obese women who go out with their hair, nails and makeup all flawleslly done up. Women who probably took 2 hours to get ready to leave the house trying to look good who are 100 lbs overweight. Clearly they care about their looks, yet they are completely missing the point.

I amsure the cosmetics industry loves the obesity epidemic, because women are told to be satisfied with their bodies, yet still mysteriously feel they are not pretty enough. Therefore, time to splurge on makeup!

[Jukes]

WB and I approve. I like makeup here and there, but make-up provide only shortcuts. Getting moderate amount of sleep makes eye bags vanish away. Eating right and drinking water to avoid ances and bumps with facial cream as backup. Bam! At the most, foundation and lip gloss. Anything else is clownish.

[DavidMI]

Usually, some shit to make their eyelashes long and dark and then some shit to clean up their complexion (unless they're 20 year-olds with flawless skin) is all I care for. I used to always tell girls not to waste so much time applying make-up back in my beta days, but they'd always tell me that they put it on because they wanted to feel pretty for their own sake.

lol. I hate to admit it, but I wasn't too far removed form this White Knight failure:

[Lucky]

(07-28-2014 02:25 AM)scorpion Wrote:  

It's hilarious how many women are genuinely convinced that makeup is some oppressive invention of the patriarchy. The idea that women are competing amongst themselves for male attention is furiously denied by the hamster. I have pointed out to several girls I've dated how makeup is basically just a female arms race. None of them could understand what I was saying. They all thought it was unfair that women "had to" wear makeup. I told them that no one was making them wear makeup, they were freely making the choice themselves. But they were making that choice because they weren't about to be the only woman who wasn't taking advantage of a relatively easy way to raise her appearance 1-2 points. That would make her look much worse in comparison, obviously, and no woman wants to be the odd one out.

So the idea that women will go makeup-free en masse is simply laughable. It will never happen because women are competing with each other, and they know this even if they cannot admit it to themselves. If twenty women are all wearing makeup, the natural hierarchy of beauty will be pretty much the same as if none of them were. The overall effect will simply be to have raised the average appearance score 1-2 points. However, if 19 of the girls are not wearing makeup but one is, only the makeup wearer gets the benefit, and as a result attracts a better man than she "should" be able to based on her natural looks. This simply cannot be allowed by the sisterhood, and so the next day those 19 other girls will all be wearing makeup, and it's back to square one. Either they will all be wearing makeup, or none of them will.

Makeup is not a consequence of the patriarchy. It's a consequence of women fucking hating each other and being in a constant state of competition for male attention their entire lives.

Game theory to analyze women's make-up behavior? Awesome!

The Last Psychiatrist wrote about this last year. It's a brilliant article worth going through.

"Let me offer a contrary position, unpalatable but worth considering: the only appropriate time to wear make up is to look attractive to men. Or women, depending on which genitals you want to lick, hopefully it's both. "Ugh, women are not objects." Then why are you painting them? I'm not saying you have to look good for men, I'm saying that if wearing makeup not for men makes you feel better about yourself, you don't have a strong self, and no, yelling won't change this. Everyone knows you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, now you're saying the cover of the book influences how the book feels about itself?"

"The reason the makeup debate is insoluble is that it's not yours to solute. The choice to wear makeup is no choice at all, I know you think you came to it on your own but you live in America, you don't make free choices here, freedom is a brand. Makeup is an $8B/yr industry, that's face makeup alone, no way is it going to allow you to make a choice that doesn't involve a credit card, fine, if you don't like makeup here's a remover for $30, just remember that you're not doing it for men, you're doing it for yourself."

[Sonsowey]

Girl thinks she wastes time thinking about looks.

Has article written about her looks.

Hmm attention whoring well done young lady. Plenty of women dont wear makeup and dont even get writeups done about it!

[soup]

I don't like this whole war on attractiveness that is being waged. I think both men and women should try to present themselves in the best possible way when they can. It just seems overly cynical to me to not.

I wouldn't expect a chick to take me seriously if my game was off, and women should not expect men to find them attractive if they don't stay in shape or style themselves in a way that shows off their best attributes.

There's this fantasy of personality and style being separate. The opposite is true: they way you carry yourself- from how you walk to the types of clothing you wear are just as much an expression of you are as the words your write or speak, or the ideas that you believe in.