Anti Beauty Culture - Tumblr Posts
Thinkin' about how I was gifted one of those toy makeup sets when I was like 7-8 years old. I looked up "toy makeup playset" to try to find one similar to what I had.
Is it not viscerally disturbing that girls are marketed toys that perpetuate beauty industry propaganda when they're barely out of diapers? We're conditioned from day one to associate girlhood with cosmetics/makeup.
And yet, so many girls still want to pretend that their decision to wear makeup is definitely an empowering personal choice and not at all influenced by outside factors. :(
"hating hyperfemininity is misogynistic" only if you think femininity is inherent to womanhood (which is actually misogynistic).
"being hyperfeminine can be empowering!" nothing about participating in beauty rituals created by men to handicap women and make them hyper aware of how they look/market themselves is nowhere near empowering. get your head out of the sand asap
Things that are not self care:
1) doing your makeup
2) shaving
3) plucking your eyebrows
4) over the top and expensive skin care routines
5) any activity that is actually just Beauty Maintenance expected of you
Things that are self care:
1) meditation and practicing mindfulness
2) clipping and buffing your nails
3) keeping up with regular hygiene
4) trying new kinds of tea
5) any activity centered around making you feel whole and healthy
People are always hating on Pinterest girls, saying that it creates unrealistic expectations for how to live your life. I say it's a great thing. It's a great way for you to imagine the life you want to have. It's an amazing way to get inspiration. I don't think having image-based moodboards dedicated to the life you want to live is NECESSARILY a bad thing!!!
"so when you as a girl or woman express disdain at femininity, it is not because you think "feminine" women are beneath you. it is because you know femininity is beneath every woman and yourself."
it's normal to be insulted by femininity as a girl or woman and it's really simple why.
the core philosophy of patriarchy is that men and women are not defined by their sex but by their sexual roles in the male sexual hierarchy (a naturalistic fallacy). the philosophy of patriarchy cannot allow for equality at any given point, because a man ceases to be a man if he is not dominant and a woman seizes to be a woman if she is not submissive. keep this in mind.
so a woman as defined by patriarchy is a complementary thing (non-human, like animals or "nature") to a man's estate. the woman identity, as construed by patriarchy, exists solely for male pleasure and estate. that means the woman is only a woman if (it/she) is an asset to a male's estate. so it/she must be a wife, a concubine, a tradeable daughter (this is opportunity for wealth), a prostitute or mother. please note, in all these roles, a woman is always meant to be subordinate or she/it is not a woman.
now remember, this is only patriarchal philosophy, but this philosophy/worldview needs to become an ideology and way of life. so patriarchs, in order to justify their made-up bullshit about the sexes and their right to exploit without consequences, must naturalize this worldview. they can create patriarchal religions (for whichever has the power over life and death defines the value and purpose of a soul) and language (whoever defines the world controls how it is perceived).
but CLOTHES are an expression of both. clothes, aside from simply being utilitarian (even in ancient times), were visual symbols denoting things like class, age, sex, nationality, and beliefs. NOW UNDERSTAND, the first class distinction in human societies was between men and women. men were higher humans hence were to be treated as a distinct upper class, and women were lower-class.
class distinction via sex was the first kind of class distinction. so it became increasingly important to the patriarchal state that women and men had to dress according to their class (the Old Testament of the Bible shows that this was indeed important to early patriarchal states in the ANE via verses like Deuteronomy 22:5 which reads, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.”) In short, clothes do not have sex (no garment can chan he your chromosomes), but they do have sex-class (which is gender).
in the development of patriarchy, the veil in the ancient near east, became a symbol of women's sexual status, publicly announcing them as married, concubines, virgins, etc. (i encourage you to read The Beginning of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner for more in-depth information on all this). clothes then, and today, have always been about determining women as a sexual class and what role they performed in that sexual class (modest, up for sale, married, low-value, lesbian/deviant).
because men get to define what women are, they get to define what our clothes mean. they get to decide if something is modest or if a woman is "asking for it."
what does this have to do with femininity?
patriarchal belief= a woman is a thing, defined explicitly by her inequality to man, that exists purely for the pleasure and purpose of the man. this means a woman can only be a sexual slave (whether as a mother/wife or a whore) and cannot live or exist outside of this male-defined sexuality (temptress/justified sexualization of underage girls) without becoming something other than a woman (a monster, a witch, ungodly, mentally ill). since it was made for man, it cannot pursue interests outside of pleasing him and still be a natural, healthy thing.
enter gender.
femininity (and gender) is how women are regulated by the patriarchal state. it is a costume, a uniform, that signifies an obedient subordinate, but it is also a performance that is constantly tested and scored. women with low scores get re-educated or removed from society (via death or ostracization). femininity is how women are policed. all you have to do is to look at the traits of femininity and it's rules.
the natural female face/body should always be palatable, pleasing and presentable to the man and what he specifically finds attractive (so it doesn't matter that you're from a different culture or of a different class, if you're dressing "modestly" or "promiscuously"--this is the only primary rule: that you please men and that you are tasteful to the man who fancies you)
this means that the woman's health is secondary and her body should be editable, adaptable, picked apart and put back together on a whim, on any and every level to appeal to any man who wants her (cosmetic surgery, corsets, trends)
nurture is paramount to the character of a woman (because a woman is meant to be an excellent breeder)
softness and smallness (signals submissiveness, passiveness, defeat, weakness--all of which are proper womanly behaviour)
martyrdom (a woman exists for the preservation of the man and his estate)
silence (this communicates mental submission which is important, women should not voice their experiences, grievances, frustrations, desires, stories because she is showing agency and none of these qualities aid her identity as a sexual servant)
i want you to look at and analyze, even within your own cultures, what femininity is defined as wherever it exists, and then see if you can find any connection to how it enforces the idea of the patriarchal woman-thing. the entire performance, clothing and behaviour, is enforced in order to justify the fictional woman-thing in patriarchal imagination.
but you are a human being.
you have always been able to think, feel, disagree, feel anger . . . because you are a person with a sense of dignity, history and purpose outside male-defined sexuality. so when you as a girl or woman express disdain at femininity, it is not because you think "feminine" women are beneath you. it is because you know femininity is beneath every woman and yourself.
the capitalistically driven insecurity market that pushes women to seek out the security of male validation is beneath all of us. the performance is beneath all of us. we were human before we were mothers, wives, sex workers. we were beautiful and wonderful before makeup. we were human before men looked at us and called us fuckable. we were powerful and divine before men told us we were demonic and simply angelic, servants of gods rather than goddesses ourselves. we had the capacity to create and invent the world before men told us we didn't have heads for learning.
we have always been human and always will be.
femininity is a patriarchal polemic against our humanity. it's fundamental philosophy disagrees with the reality of us. that's why there's so much anger and fear around this culture.
some of us, as girls, resented the fact that our mothers asked us to swallow the fact that they accepted (as right) their humiliation and ours. that they wanted us to show men and boys that we accepted that we were made to be humiliated. of course we got angry. of course we felt confused. didn't our mothers, sisters, aunts, friends care that this performance was never-ending humiliation as we were forced to parade ourselves in order to compete for male approval? in front of the eyes of men and boys we knew mocked us for everything? so we said, we're not like other girls. other girls want to keep up with this. maybe they like humiliation? but we can't live this way. something must be wrong with us, or with them. they're sheep, or we're disgusting lesbians. but the truth is that we're all just in a world of pain and desperation.
your (feminine) clothes are not made with you in mind, but they are also made to keep you minding yourself. checking yourself. making sure your bra doesn't show. your underwear doesn't slip. your belly isn't too prominent. it keeps you eager to perform your role. to win against a race you can't even define because you haven't ever questioned if it ends. you get approval from the state because you are trained to self-regulate, and you have been trained well. the relief you feel at the approval of other girls or boys is that they are giving you a high score. which means you are safe. you are beautiful, you are a good performer. you will be picked and not left behind.
you may say you dress for the girls, but that's part of the problem, still. you and the girls are. you are still agreeing with the political philosophy of patriarchy when you uncritically wear the uniform of the woman-thing. you think of yourself as the woman-thing. you think of your face and body as infinitely editable. delete the breasts, delete the pores, enlarge the eyes like you're a doll on a Wii avatar creator. and so other girls are scared of being themselves because you all know there's something here to fear. there's rejection and punishment waiting for pretty ladies who don't comply.
but you're a living, complete human being, darling. you are an ecosystem with mysteries as old as the universe in you. you are a person that deserves to be here fully and freely. this is your world, too. our world.
so you see why gender cannot be reclaimed by us in a meaningful sense? it is a performance that is invented, re-invented and validated by the philosophy of our dehumanization. it will never be independent of it in this system.
you are worth the freedom and strength you can give yourself. you are worth the fight out of this.
hey quick question, what do radical feminism has to say about heels and makeup? I know historically men used to wear heels and then women did too, but I don’t know if wearing heels has somehow been twisted by the patriarchy. I also want to know the same thing about makeup, and all the things that are associated with femininity. I also maybe understood that radical feminism doesn’t believe in concepts like femininity and masculinity, could you explain why? Thank you.
Okay reasons off the top of my head to say no to heels and makeup and femininity in general as advised to me by radical feminism:
expensive
stupid
men aren't socially expected to do these things
waste of time
signals to other women you think of yourself as a human being
gives you more room to be human
can rub your eyes
feet don't hurt
no long lasting health problems
makes you more attractive to men
There is a book called the Beauty Myth that you might be interested in reading. I haven't read it myself nor know if it's strictly radical feminism or just critical of the beauty industry in general, but it's been quoted on radblr and well reviewed.
I think I know what you're talking about with regards to rf not believing in concepts like femininity. Femininity and masculinity are gender roles, and as such they are not innate. This also means they change over time and place. You can see this in your example. It was once part of the male gender role to wear heels and now it's almost strictly part of the female gender role. So, yes, femininity and masculinity DO unfortunately exist, but they are not innate, as evidenced to us by masculine women and feminine men.
words fail to describe the second hand embarrassment i feel in my body when i see a feminist criticize something like sex work, makeup, cosmetic surgery, etc and someone comes up and says “isn’t feminism supposed to be about women’s choices :((” or something adjacent to that, and then we have to remind everyone that no, feminism is about FEMALE LIBERATION and not what makes YOU feel comfortable as an individual. with the rise of liberal feminism we’ve forgotten that feminism is a political movement and it’s not meant to be fun. it’s supposed to question and tear apart what’s seen as the status quo for women. if you can’t handle even the smallest criticism of things that you as a woman enjoy and take part in then feminism simply isn’t for you
it’s kind of exhausting and depressing to be in the era of feminism where it’s watered down to just supporting women for being compliant with the patriarchy. will it hurt women to think critically about makeup, body image, heterosexual relationships, pornography, etc.? You can’t be a real feminist these days without so called feminists side eying you for bringing up the reality of being a woman. what’s that quote that says something along the lines of women ignoring their oppression because the truth is agonizing ? yeah, that’s what feminism is right now but it’s only getting worse
watching the olympics, it's always frustrating to me that the women are still tryna be so "pretty." like male swimmers will have black swimming caps and black goggles--just neutral shit--but female swimmers will have to make their accessories pink and "girly" all complete with some patriotic fake nails. the beach volleyball females have swimming bottoms riding up their crack like g-strings, men winking and cracking jokes about why they love watching it. female runners with contoured faces, perfect liquid eyeliner flicks and lip liner to suit. hell, you'll be watching female weightlifting and they'll have fake lashes on. like "yeah i know i'm doing something super unattractive to men rn like daring to be stronger and more athletic than them, but look! the pink! the glitter! the false lashes! i'm still fuckable! don't put me in the ugly category!" so tired of women surrendering their power to men lmao
Can we stop with the type of feminism that tells women aspects of their bodies are “beautiful flaws” and start teaching them that it’s their natural female body?
Calling it a “beautiful flaw” “gorgeous imperfection” sounds nice until you realize it’s still something viewed as “wrong” with your body. A flaw is a mistake, something not intended. That bit of fat on your lower lower belly isn’t an “imperfection,” it’s protection for your uterus. Your cellulite isn’t a “flaw” it’s a secondary sex characteristic. Your body hair isn’t unhygienic or gross it’s natural, and your pubic hair not only helps prevent STIs better, but also yeast infections.
Stop calling a natural female body flawed. It’s not fucking flawed.
if hearing a girl criticize consumerism and beauty/makeup/anti-body hair culture or even just saying they don't like wearing makeup or shaving or performing femininity immediately makes you label them a pick-me maybe that's your own conscience or internalised guilt projecting just sayin'. maybe she isn't the one who thinks you're anti-feminist for wearing makeup (let's face it she most probably doesn't because most people fucking wear makeup) but your visceral defensiveness at someone just existing outside conventional beauty standards says more about you than it probably does about them