A Femi-WHAT?

“Maybe she’s born with it!”  “Get the London look!” “Because you’re worth it!”  No doubt you’re heard these makeup slogans.  Makeup and beauty is, like, a thing right?  Anymore young women aren’t going through those awkward stages of glittered eye-shadow, blue mascara and foundation 1000 times too dark for your skin!  Hell, Toddlers in Tiaras is like a huge competitive thing!!  That’s a rant for another day, but the point is….makeup is everywhere nowadays, right?  It’s something that’s just normal, right?  If you wear makeup, cool! If you don’t, cool!  No judgement!    Weeeeellllllll…..this isn’t entirely true!  I mean, you’ve probably stumbled across these guys or gals in your life, right?

…yeah….we’ve heard it before!  But wait!  Haven’t we heard this too?!?

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME SOCIETY?!?!?!?!?!?

This is so confusing, right?  If we wear makeup, we’re fake.  If we don’t wear makeup we’re ugly and lazy and obviously don’t care about our appearance.  A lot of young men will tell their girl-friends that they don’t need makeup–that they’re beautiful just the way they are–but these are the same guys oogling pictures of women in the media who have been airbrushed, photoshopped, touched and re-touched.

So should we wear makeup or shouldn’t we?!?  This answer is simple…do what makes you feel good and f**k the rest!

‘But I don’t need makeup to feel good about myself!’

‘Girls who feel like they have to wear makeup are insecure and superficial!’

Ummm…hold up!! Breaks on for a minute, here!  If YOU don’t need makeup to feel good about yourself that’s AWESOME!!  Some people are not so lucky, though. Some men and women ((Yes, I said men!)) wear makeup because it does make them feel better about themselves and their appearance.  I’m not saying this is necessarily, ok.  Society makes them feel that way. Society makes them feel like they are not good enough just the way they are.  If we weren’t pushed images of that ever unattainable “ideal” that is the medias message, we wouldn’t feel negatively about our bodies or our appearances!  Where do these feelings of inadequacy come from, anyway?  They aren’t natural!  We don’t wake up one day and say, ‘I think i’ll hate my body today!’ NO!  The media and our overly visual culture puts these ideas in our heads like an evil virus, bug thing!  If we were born with feelings of disgust for our bodies there wouldn’t be any babies smiling and laughing at that awesome thing in the mirror, now would there? No!  Babies LOVE themselves!  Why does that feeling of self-love ever have to go away?

Speaking of self-love, here’s my makeup story!

I used to have those rectangle forehead bangs and a bowl cut when I was younger!  I know right? So fashionable!  I would’ve grown my bangs out like everyone else in my class but I didn’t like my forehead.  I thought it was an ugly forehead.  Not to mention it was covered in gnarly pimples from being hidden under my greasy, dirty blonde hair all the time!   Anyway, my mother never liked my bangs getting too long because they’d get in my eyes.  She didn’t like not being able to ‘see my pretty face!’  *Sigh,*Mothers!  So when they got too long she took me to go get them cut.  Weeelllll….have you ever had a bad haircut experience?  Well, take that experience and multiply it by 1000 and thats what this haircut experience was like for me!  They were too short, crooked and all around AWEFUL!!  I was old enough to know that hair grows back and that life would go on but somehow all of that knowledge escaped me when I looked in the mirror!  I cried!  Like, a lot!!!  I remember feeling so hideous a creature that I didn’t even want to go back to school the next day!  I wanted to DIE!!!  To make matters worse, the butt-face-hair-jacker-upper-lady was LAUGHING at me for crying!  It was like my whole world had ended and I was the ugliest sad sack on the planet!  So my mother, being my mother, hated seeing me so distraught!  “It’s ok, baby” I remember her saying.  “Hair grows back and it’ll all be ok!”  THE HELL IT WILL!  IM SO UGLY!! IM SO UGLY!! “No, baby, you’re beautiful!  But if it’d make you feel better, we can go home and put some makeup on!  You wanna do that?”  Tears instantly gone, hope rising, thoughts turning and then I knew everything would be ok and I’d be pretty again with makeup on my hideous face!  And thats how it all started!  Thats the day I started wearing makeup!  I was 13 years old!

My makeup story is important because, back then, I wore makeup because I felt bad about myself.  I WAS insecure. I WAS self-conscious! I WAS afraid of leaving the house without it.  But now, I wear makeup because I feel good about myself!  I wear makeup when I’m feeling like the most beautiful person in the world!  Nowadays, if I feel bad about myself or my body I won’t shower, I won’t get dressed, I won’t wear makeup, I’ll sit in solitude and hate myself all day because of whatever reason keeping me from feeling worthy!

Another short story, quickly, before I wrap this thing up….

I had been in a depression spell–a rut!  No makeup, dirty hair, sweatpants, all that jazz, until one day I felt really good about myself and decided to get dolled-up!!  I went to church looking absolutely fantastic and a friend of mine hugged me and whispered in my ear, “I see you’re wearing makeup today!  I’m so proud of you, I know how hard that is to do when you’re feeling sad!  I’m glad you are happier today!”  I almost fell-over in shock at her comments! Never in my life had someone understood me so well! Never in my life had someone taken the time to point out my courage for getting out of bed and feeling brave enough to face the day!  It made me realize something….

We are all warriors!  We all face the day with bravery! No one knows whats coming and yet we go out and enjoy life anyway–with or without makeup–And thats OK!!!!  Thats enough of this hating on women who wear lots of makeup!! Thats enough of hating on women who never wear makeup!  Thats enough of hating on women who wear makeup something in-between!  The amount of makeup you wear doesn’t define you!  Last time I checked, women are not fake–they are actually very REAL THINGS, with FEELINGS!!!!!!!!!  So lets all be nice to each other, K!  Wear makeup if you want to, wear ALL the makeup in the world!!!!  Don’t wear makeup if its not your thing, but don’t hate on people who do wear it, thats not fair!  Do whatever feels right in your soul!  Let it come from inside you!  Don’t let society tell you you’re not worthy if you don’t wear makeup!  Don’t let society call you fake for wearing a lot of makeup!!!  You do you!!  By the philosophical words of Roxette, ‘Listen to your Heart!!’

Now, GO FORTH AND BE AMAZING!!!! 🙂

XOXO

P.S. This applies to boys too!!!  Cause, you know, no one said makeup was just for girls!

P.S Again!  Leave me the story of how you started wearing makeup in the comments!  Do you still wear it?  Why or why not?