#IVE BEEN TEMPTED TO LEARN HOW TO DO MAKEUP NOW THAT THERE ISNT A PRESSURE TO BE GOOD AT IT JKHDSFDSJFHDF

[llatimeria]

ok but seriously this is getting to me. if we want to consider makeup as Art and Personal Expression. THAT ACTUALLY MAKES SO MUCH OF MAKEUP CULTURE WAY WORSE IT DOESN’T EXCUSE IT AT ALL WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT OH MY GOD

let’s just pretend for a moment that we lived in a bizarre alternate universe where the norm was something like “if you don’t know how to paint you’re a total weirdo. Spend an hour making a watercolor portrait every day before work or you’re fired. if you don’t do this everyone will hate you and think you’re ugly and weird”. 

1. The Obvious Point Everyone Has Made: The Fact That Some People Enjoy Painting Does Not Make This Less Fucked Up. people can do painting on their own time whenever they want and it’d still be bad to make people do this or act like their ability to paint dictates their worth and attractiveness as a person. some people would be totally fine with doing an entire portrait every day before work! in fact that sounds pretty relaxing to me as someone who likes watercolors! but we can’t just act like Making Everyone Do It would Just Be Fine because SOME people like it?? a lot of people would Tolerate this too, because "It’s just a painting i guess.... i’ll just do it because it’s easier than dealing with the backlash if I don’t :/”. but just because it’s not LITERAL TORTURE doesn’t mean it’s just. FINE???? 2. Would that watercolor portrait have like.. any soul to it? where’s the Emotion??? is art under duress honest art?? how much of your internal artistic personal soul can you really express when you’re being made to do it, especially if you’re doing it every... single... day... before you leave for work or school or just existing generally in the world and nobody is paying you to do it and if you don’t do it everyone will think you’re weird? it’s not IMPOSSIBLE to pull off something meaningful under those conditions but it sure is Difficult. 

3. What happens if doing it The Wrong Way would get you in trouble too? i guess the parallel in this metaphor is like. what if you didn’t want to paint with watercolors and liked acrylics more? what if you got sick of portraits and decided to do a still life, or something completely abstract? what if you wanted to get even funkier and make a SCULPTURE instead, doing something COMPLETELY outside of this system? what if you just... didn’t want to do anything at all and just go to work without this extra step in your morning routine? 

idk i guess what im saying is You Can’t Honestly Express Yourself when you’re being chained to one specific style, especially one that you CANNOT possibly choose. you can’t act like you’re Bearing Your Soul every time you wear makeup if you would get socially punished for Not Doing It/Doing It Wrong unless your soul just happens to be exactly what your society currently likes in a person, which is approximately 0 people on planet earth.

makeup can be really fun for a lot of people! a lot of people like how it makes them look or enjoy the routine and process! a lot of people like doing makeup for costumes, whether that be just for a cosplay photoshoot or a professional production of some kind! people have been putting pigment on their face and going “oh hell yeah” since the moment some brilliant prehistoric people realized some kinds of dirt have funny colors. Makeup CAN 100% be used to express ourselves. the problem is that you can’t take an act of self-expression and use it to enforce conformity and have it still be self-expression. Either people can Choose not to wear makeup without fear of repercussion OR it’s not self-expression. Either people can Choose what styles of makeup they want to wear without fear of repercussion OR it’s not self-expression. This isn’t a thing where we can have both!! If we want people to be able to express themselves thru makeup, we HAVE to abolish the idea that people NEED to wear makeup in order to be worthy.