Being a feminist; one question which is constantly recurring is that ‘why do you wear make – up?’. Considering I go against other social norms such as not shaving my legs (*expects comments about how it’s gross*) so why do I follow this particular social convention?
Don’t get me wrong, as a child I have always been exposed to make-up. However, my mum wasn’t the type to wear heavily make – up. Actually she’s never really wore foundation unless it was a rare occasion such as a wedding. But when it came down to it, she only really wore eye-shadow and mascara and eventually that’s where I started.
I remember it now, being 11 putting bright pink eye-shadow on the lids looking awful because I read in some magazine like ‘girl code’ or something like that telling me that the pink would make my eyes pop. I wasn’t alone in this transformation; I swear most girls wore bad colour eye-shadow at the age of 11/12.
In all honesty, my mum wouldn’t me wear foundation because of how bad it was for your skin. But what happens at the age of 12? You start to spot and all you want to do is cover it. School girls and boys could be mean and taking the mic out of spots then; well at the time it hurt. I mean now it’s laughable.
It’s extremely frustrating now when you see 13-year-old girls being able to do make-up better than you. Remember when you wore foundations 5 shades darker than you needed too and paying about £3 for a squeeze tube? Yes, me too, I remember buying my first foundation and being excited because I could finally cover my spots!
And that was it, make-up started being about hiding my imperfections instead of it being about the beauty that was already there but just being enhanced. I really wasn’t comfortable with walking around natural.
Once again, don’t get me wrong I still had days where I didn’t wear make- up I didn’t feel confident without my ‘warrior mask’ on so I was able to face the outside world.
But a month ago something changed…
I m p e t i g o
As you can see by the photos, having these marks on my face is definitely not pleasing to look at. Hand on heart, I could say that I’d rather have 6 huge spots on the end of nose than having Impetigo again. But it was a learning curve. The amount of people who asked me ‘What was wrong with my face?’ taught me it really wasn’t the worse thing in the world people looking at my face with no make - up on. Don’t get me wrong these we’re hideous and I had a lot of negative comments.
Actually, when I was out before I made a speech about how I had impetigo on my face and that’s what it was. I answered questions for them before they even asked:
‘Before you ask what’s on my face, I have impetigo. It’s an infection but no it’s not an STI. It is contagious but now I started antibiotics so you won’t get it, but it’s probably best to avoid skin to skin contact. No, this doesn’t mean I have poor hygiene I just didn’t clean out my wound properly. This doesn’t mean I do not shower… Are there any questions? No, OK. Good.’
But one of my friends came later and eventually asked me what was on my face, meaning no harm but after a few drinks, I do become emotional and then ranted about how I wish people would stop asking me what it was…
Now you make look at my face there and think ‘Why didn’t you just use make – up?’ to cover it up. But putting foundation/powder on would have made it spread over my face even more. I even had to chuck my real technique foundation brush out (Sob). And not being able to wear foundation or powder made me feel lazy about doing things such as my eyebrows and my eye make-up.
I can’t explain why, but for some reason I just didn’t care. I actually got use to people asking me what was on my face, no-one said anything about my eyebrows being fuller or my face looking fat or ask me why I don’t wear eyeliner.
In reality, no-one gave a shit about the fact that my face being make-up less. ‘Why would they?’. The only thing people really cared about was the thing on my face. So, not wearing make-up became such a routine. That when it first cleared up, I didn’t even put any on.
So, to answer people’s question ‘for being such a feminist, why do you wear make – up?’ One) Being a feminist really doesn’t mean that I have to go against every social convention ever… Two) because I bloody well want too – as sad as it sounds, it’s actually quite therapeutic putting on make-up, it is sometimes really satisfying when you completed your eyeliner or draw your eyebrows on like you’ve achieved something. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that society was the reason I started wearing make – up but why I continue now is for my own personal enjoyment not because of ‘social pressures’.
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