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genericfangirlnumber4:
hailmaryfullofgrace55675:
not to be like a fucking hippie or whatever but… makeup will never “improve” or “fix” someone’s face bc there’s nothing wrong with an un-altered human face in the first place. makeup changes how people look, and sometimes that can be fun or directly beneficial (e.g. fulfilling societal expectations of femininity) but it’s not… an inherent improvement on unadorned humanity.
A lot of people use makeup to “fix” things on their faces though. And many of those things are altered from their natural face. When I use makeup, it’s often to cover skin issues and scars–Unwanted alterations to my face. My makeup free face is no less “unaltered” than my face is with makeup. It’s just me choosing the alterations for myself.
I understand that a lot of people feel that when they cover up or otherwise alter aspects of their faces that they find undesirable or that they think or know other people will find undesirable, they feel that they’re “fixing” those things. the idea that makeup, and more broadly, cosmetics, “fix” something bad and ugly and unacceptable about you is the dominant narrative in American culture and I’m sure in many others.
the point of this post is actually that those things – scars, acne, variation in skin tone, shape of features – can’t be fixed, because the idea of fixing something implies there was something wrong or broken about it, and the way that someone looks is not wrong or broken.
as someone who has a lot of acne and a not-insignificant amount of acne scarring, I feel that those things are my natural face. theyre the face I have, when I step out of the shower. they’re how I look, they’re what my body does - not what my body has always done, and not necessarily what it will always do, but what it’s doing now. and you know what? I’m not broken for it, and I don’t need to be fixed.
I encourage you to do whatever makes you most happy and most comfortable, and if that’s wearing makeup, I wish you all the best. however, I also implore you to take at least a moment to consider the emotionally charges of the language you use when you talk about “fixing” scars or skin “issues” because what fixing and issues both imply is “these features are bad and wrong and should be repaired”. many other people have the same skin features that you do, and they, like you, are not broken, wrong, ugly, bad, or unnacceptable without makeup. they, and you, deserve to hear that far more than you deserve to hear more reinforcement of the “your face is wrong and makeup fixes it” narrative.
genericfangirlnumber4:
hailmaryfullofgrace55675:
not to be like a fucking hippie or whatever but… makeup will never “improve” or “fix” someone’s face bc there’s nothing wrong with an un-altered human face in the first place. makeup changes how people look, and sometimes that can be fun or directly beneficial (e.g. fulfilling societal expectations of femininity) but it’s not… an inherent improvement on unadorned humanity.
A lot of people use makeup to “fix” things on their faces though. And many of those things are altered from their natural face. When I use makeup, it’s often to cover skin issues and scars–Unwanted alterations to my face. My makeup free face is no less “unaltered” than my face is with makeup. It’s just me choosing the alterations for myself.
I understand that a lot of people feel that when they cover up or otherwise alter aspects of their faces that they find undesirable or that they think or know other people will find undesirable, they feel that they’re “fixing” those things. the idea that makeup, and more broadly, cosmetics, “fix” something bad and ugly and unacceptable about you is the dominant narrative in American culture and I’m sure in many others.
the point of this post is actually that those things – scars, acne, variation in skin tone, shape of features – can’t be fixed, because the idea of fixing something implies there was something wrong or broken about it, and the way that someone looks is not wrong or broken.
as someone who has a lot of acne and a not-insignificant amount of acne scarring, I feel that those things are my natural face. theyre the face I have, when I step out of the shower. they’re how I look, they’re what my body does - not what my body has always done, and not necessarily what it will always do, but what it’s doing now. and you know what? I’m not broken for it, and I don’t need to be fixed.
I encourage you to do whatever makes you most happy and most comfortable, and if that’s wearing makeup, I wish you all the best. however, I also implore you to take at least a moment to consider the emotionally charges of the language you use when you talk about “fixing” scars or skin “issues” because what fixing and issues both imply is “these features are bad and wrong and should be repaired”. many other people have the same skin features that you do, and they, like you, are not broken, wrong, ugly, bad, or unnacceptable without makeup. they, and you, deserve to hear that far more than you deserve to hear more reinforcement of the “your face is wrong and makeup fixes it” narrative.
