Artist and BSL/English Interpreter
Some Feminism 🙂
I’m a feminist. I wear makeup (until this month). I was going to try and write about how I feel with regard to feminism and makeup but I found this blog post from Autumn Whitefield-Madrano and it’s so well written in my opinion, i’d just like to sign post you there. 🙂
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/08/01/living-with-contradiction-beauty-work-and-feminism/
or text MMFM £1 to 70070
(Out for Mothers Day today)
A bit about eyebrows!
I tint my eyebrows. Yep I’m admitting it. With a home henna paste for eyebrows. I only do it every 2 months or so, and often forget. My eyebrows are not as pale as my lashes, they have colour (similar to the colour they are now) but it’s patchy. So I like to define them more by tinting them to be a unified colour. I tried pencil or shadows when I was younger but this would generally give strange impressions of scary wonky eyebrows that would rub off halfway through the day or night!
I also have them threaded. Which I did yesterday. Have you ever had your eyebrows threaded? I’m a huge fan. No chemicals, just a woman with her twisted thread pulling out my eyebrow hair to shape the brows. I generally walk away with bright red face and watery eyes (always attractive) and it costs about £4.
I’m sure some women can do without this too. I’m sure I could. However I have one brow that grows lots of hair, the other not so much. The hair seems to try and grow half way up my forehead on one side and down to my lash line on the other with the attempt at a monobrow between. As much as I would love to embrace this look…. Nope, I’m lying, I don’t want to embrace this. Id like big but symmetrical brows please!
After threading the shape makes a huge difference. I noticed this so much more yesterday without makeup. My eyes seemed much more open and I felt less in need of makeup for my evening out than I’ve ever felt!
When I was younger I plucked ridiculously and often lost half an eyebrow from losing concentration, resulting in tiny stubby brows or very skinny ones. Over the years I have embraced the bigger brow, all the better for raising at the children.
If you would like to donate to Macmillan Cancer Support please do so via my Just giving page or via text as described below. xxxxxx http://www.justgiving.com/Susan-Merrick
or text MMFM £1 to 70070
Ok, I’ve realised that I’m not as calm about being makeup free as I thought. I have a few events coming up including tonight. I feel fine generally about not having makeup on, but I still feel less confident (a lot) about how I look!
Over the past week I’ve had a few conversations about what I’m doing. One of these led to my osteopath telling me that at 16, at her first job interview she was told she needed to wear makeup if she got the job. Really!
Now I think about it I’ve grown up with this idea too, that somehow to look professional I need to wear makeup. Was I told to? To be honest, I can’t remember. Surely not. But I’ve still grown up believing it of myself.
Strangely I don’t see it in others. I don’t judge my friends professionalism based on their makeup or lack of. But actually that’s not completely true. Although it doesn’t affect my judgement, when I meet new people professionally I am always aware if they have a lot of makeup on. I think somewhere in my lift I have absorbed information, perhaps even at school when learning about interviews that ‘a little makeup’ is right. Too much, is not professional and consequently none is also unprofessional? Was I really taught this at school or did someone give me this message?
I guess the main culprits for perpetuating this message are women like me… Bollocks. I LIKE makeup. I don’t want to feel guilty for wearing it. I just don’t want to feel like I HAVE to wear it.
It’s like my attitude to clothes. I wear a mix of styles. Sometimes look like a hippy earth mother, other times I will be more vintage, I’m not afraid to get out the track suit bottoms and my jeans and jumpers for comfort. I have work clothes, arty clothes, evening out clothes….. And I just want to be able to do the same with my makeup. Whilst also not worrying about what I’m putting on my skin!
This month without makeup is for me about raising a few questions and issues about cosmetics and why we or at least I use them. It’s also to see if I can change my habits and possibly my products.
As I already said I’ve had a mini panic about still being without makeup. So this weeks aim is to figure out hair and clothing that I do feel good in, so can worry less about the face. Also perhaps to look at some other oils/natural creams and balms that can make my skin feel good.
I have been recommended a brand called SUTI and was given a lovely little tester of facial oil. I will check the ingredients first, but they seem to just be oil based. I shall report back and photo the results! Today’s photo is of me ready to go out, trying to feel ‘done up’ without putting makeup on.
If you would like to donate to Macmillan Cancer Support please do so via my Just giving page or via text as described below. xxxxxx http://www.justgiving.com/Susan-Merrick
or text MMFM £1 to 70070
Wearing makeup or painting faces and bodies is by no means a new idea. In fact we have been doing it for centuries. How it’s applied, where it’s applied and what is used has changed over the centuries and decades, but the fact that we do it has not. I decided to look briefly into whether the reasons for wearing it have changed.
In the current western world many of us use makeup to ‘hide’ elements of ourselves, to ‘enhance’ our features, to create a different look.
An interesting article I found describes cosmetic use in prehistoric, biblical and Egyptian records/findings. It’s fascinating to see that according to the article evidence of the use of coloured dyes and pigments is seen in the earliest findings of civilisation that we have. Initially used for ritual, religious or healing purposes, cosmetics and oils also always played a part in hygiene, grooming, sun protection, insect repelling, hiding ageing and hiding disfigurements or unwanted features as well as becoming a way to simply enhance features! Some early eye makeup, kohl and coloured pastes were actually used to repel flies that caused eye infections.
In the biblical references within this article there is also mention of a women’s duty to ‘beautify herself in order to appear pleasing to her husband’. This, and the attitude of hiding ageing is what strikes me (and saddens me) the most. That we have been concerned for so long about what is considered beautiful, that to ‘keep a man’ has for so long been a woman’s duty, and that what is deemed as beautiful has remained the same for centuries. Youthfulness. In our society so true. And in our society of lunchtime cosmetic procedures, so evident. I would love to have some links to other societies/eras where older women are revered and where cosmetics or lack of are linked to or separate from women’s power? Paganism surely has some more positive elements of women and power. Is their evidence, discussion if cosmetics/painting within pagan history?
http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/v051.htm
Another Article by Professor Joann Fletcher of York University also mentions the use of eye makeup in Egyptian times as to reduce the flare of the sun, repel flies and also that it looked good. Professor Fletcher does discuss Egyptian society as ‘a complete duality of male and female’. So perhaps it is within her research that we can see more about female power and cosmetics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/women_01.shtml
So it seems there has been a link between cosmetics and beauty for centuries. As times and fashions have changed so has the use of cosmetics. Most often cosmetics is looked at with relation to women, but use of cosmetics is also recorded in relation to men through the centuries too.
In Egyptian times men used many oils, ointments and creams on their skin as well as kohl and eyeshadows.
Through the years men have also joined women in using cosmetics to lighten skin and rouge lips and cheeks. Interestingly to note many if the early cosmetic practices proved dangerous! For example Using lead to lighten skin leading to lead poisoning.
http://m.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-history-of-makeup-wearing.htm
The history of cosmetics is pretty huge and I’ve not even touched on the use of cosmetics in other cultures, for tribal rituals or differentiation.
What I would like to look more at is the older natural ways of enhancing features.
My hubby and I watch a great series called Revolution and they mentioned women staining their lips with beetroot. This instantly intrigued me although I can imagine the result if I tried it myself being a little frightening! It might be quite interesting to look up some other natural stains (nothing harmful mind!) and see what the result is.
Alongside this I would also like to start to explore the issues of cosmetics, power and feminism. Good job I’ve got 3 weeks left!
So have the reasons for wearing makeup changed? It’s seems not so much. Perhaps initially, from practical, religious and ritual to disguising and enhancing, but these also seem to have been reasons that have crossed centuries. I would be very interested in any further links/books/references that you come across!
If you would like to donate to Macmillan Cancer Support please do so via my Just giving page or via text as described below. xxxxxx http://www.justgiving.com/Susan-Merrick
or text MMFM £1 to 70070
Today I’m still recovering from ‘the bug’ but it gives me chance to write a little more about why I started wearing makeup.
I started wearing makeup at quite a young age, I was 13/14. I think I’d ‘played’ with it before then, but at this age I started to wear it more often for school, dance shows, parties.
Growing up I was surrounded by women who wore makeup everyday. My mum didn’t wear loads but she always wore some. My extended family too. My grandma owned a hairdressers and from teenagers my mum and her sisters were encouraged to dress up and wear makeup to model for her. My mum has continued to wear small amounts of makeup everyday since. Even though she actually spent a large part of her adult life mucking out horses rather than ‘partying’!
My mum, one of my aunts and myself are all red heads. My mum has always been proud to be a red head but growing up with red hair can be quite difficult. Even as an adult I have still had taunts and jibes about it. I have fair skin which freckles easily and pale eyelashes. Initially I wore makeup because my friends did, so I copied their style. Early 90’s it was lots of kohl eyeliner and too much pale foundation. I thought I was disguising my freckles and enhancing my eyes. In photos I’ve seen often I was simply making my complexion sickly and my eyes have permanent black smudges around them!
As I grew older I added eyeshadows and adapted my shades and styles of base. As an adult I became more aware of what suited me and the magic of blushers and bronzers. The thing with makeup I found was that the more I wore it, the more I felt I needed it. Especially as I became better at applying it. I could make myself look more awake, tanned, have larger eyes, it was really fun! That element of makeup I do still really enjoy. I enjoy playing a part with makeup.
I’ve more recently been attracted to vintage makeup in the 1940s styles. Red lips and false eyelashes. However this is just for evenings out, I’ve always had much simpler makeup during the day. As an artist too I find it fun to play with how I look and what I can do with makeup.
I am still aware however that when I put makeup on everyday, that’s generally not for fun. It’s because I feel I need it. Because I still feel my pale skin and fair eyes doesn’t look ‘right’.
Growing up being taunted makes you very self conscious about yourself and I’m still affected by it. As an adult I have had comments made to me and towards my children which have been so hurtful. Generally people don’t mean to be unkind. They just don’t realise that what they are saying makes you feel strange/ weird/ugly. I am stronger for my children, and if comments are made in front of them then I turn them into positive ones.
‘Ooh H is looking very ginger today’ said with slightly mock horror face….. And I reply with a smile ‘yes she is isn’t she, it’s very beautiful isn’t it’.
Funnily I am very aware of how beautiful my children’s skin is too. My daughter has pale lashes but her eyes don’t look small they are giant eyes and she has pale and creamy skin, beautiful. My sons skin is like is more like mine with a few freckles and he is gorgeous. I wish I could have embraced my natural skin when I was younger!
As an adult I have dyed my hair many times and again this is something I like to play with. Initially it was to disguise the red, but before I married I wanted to be natural again and had my long red hair natural again for 6 years- which I really enjoyed. After this I realised I was ready for a change and not because I wanted to disguise it, just because I wanted to play and have fun with it.
This last week without makeup has made me start to look at my skin and eyes in a different way. I’m not looking and thinking, ‘I need some makeup on’, instead I’m looking for the positives. My skin feels freer, fresher and my wrinkles are less pronounced than when I have makeup on. My eyes do look different but they don’t look as ‘bad’ as I always thought they did.
I’m quite excited that I may be learning to love my skin and face without makeup. I still want to play with makeup for events, but to not use it everyday would be incredibly freeing.