I watched a lot of wildlife documentaries when I was younger, and I think there’s a case to be made for drawing a line between my childhood fascination at male birds’ brightly coloured mating displays and my current pattern of screaming in joy while watching drag shows….
Makeup feels empowering and exciting for me on an individual level, but I can still recognize that the overall beauty industry harms women as a class. There are many women who don’t enjoy makeup at all, whether that’s due to ideology or personal taste or anything else. And as feminists, we have real reasons to object to a popular cultural narrative around beauty that tends to frame makeup in a vacuum, without recognizing who profits off of the view that it’s natural and unproblematic for women to want to change our appearances.
Alex Verman Green 