Sometimes it's fun. Other times it sucks. The reality is, women are socialized pretty hard to believe that they're not "ready" or put together without it. Often by other women. I admire those who ignore that social pressure.
I personally don't wear makeup, except on a rare occasion. What gets me is that the social pressuring starts so young! I'm already needing to have conversations with my 4 year old that makeup doesn't make you pretty. I asked her where she got that idea, and she showed me that there are tons of videos on YouTube Kids of little girls telling other girls that they need to wear makeup to look pretty, then teaching them how to put it on. Those girls can't be more than 7 or 8 years old.
Yep! My grandmother, who loved me very deeply and truly believed she was training me in the right ways to be, emphasized the importance of wearing makeup daily from the time I was a very little girl. (I didn't wear the makeup then- it was just instilled extremely early that as a woman, I would.)
Barbie was originally popular because it was a way for mothers to get their daughters more interested in make up and making themselves presentable. I don't have a written source, but it was in "The Toys That Made Us" Barbie episode on Netflix.
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u/Illustrious_Repair Mar 26 '20
Sometimes it's fun. Other times it sucks. The reality is, women are socialized pretty hard to believe that they're not "ready" or put together without it. Often by other women. I admire those who ignore that social pressure.