In the course I teach on Body Image at UNC-Charlotte, I often hear my students marvel at Jennifer Aniston¹s perfect skin and reveal that their poor body image keeps them from speaking up, going out and trying out for things. If I am not made-up, I can't go anywhere, several have confessed. Truth be told, my students too often surrender from life because of how they feel they look.
That's a heartbreaking reality for vibrant college students, yet it echoes a Dove Campaign for Real Beauty finding where 66 percent of women globally said they had avoided an activity due to feeling badly about the way they looked. Moreover, I've seen un-airbrushed pictures of Jennifer Aniston and know that her skin is just like ours, a little bit sun-spotted, a smidge wrinkled and completely reflective of living life with joy, pain, and passion. While many of us intellectually know that, we don't always live like we do. Too often, we live like the only way to go through life is with a literal façade.
So I issued a challenge: Let's go all-natural. No enhancements for a day because our skin is neither perfect nor bad, and showing it in its natural form can be refreshing. They stared back as if they'd misheard. I wasn't sure who'd take the challenge of using no makeup, hair product, or perfume, but on February 25th, every student walked into class without enhancements. They were absolutely breathtaking, and they began to realize it, too.
As we processed the experience, they shared these observations:
I did not feel like myself without makeup. I was really anxious, but I honestly don't think I look that bad without it. I don't always need makeup to feel beautiful.
Everyone is beautiful in his or her own way, and we don't need materialistic things to be happy or for someone to think we're beautiful.
I don't think people really notice makeup or hair products as much as we think they do.
No one really cares if I'm wearing makeup. They have their own problems. My face is fine the way it is, and I'll save money and time by not trying to "fix" it.
As for me, I don't believe makeup is bad. I wear it a few days a week. But I worry about using makeup as a crutch or our having a distorted sense of what skin looks like because we are so used to seeing it enhanced. Too many women allow their hair or makeup to inform their choices. Makeup can be fun, and it can be empowering. But I don't want people to be paralyzed by feeling they need a certain made-up look in order to enjoy their lives. What we need to enjoy our lives, actually, is the desire to enjoy it and the belief that we deserve to do just that.
Reflection Questions:
1. What was your reaction when you first heard about this challenge?
2. How many enhancement products or items do you normally use when you get ready and what are they?
3. Did you forgo all of your products today? If not, why not? If so, how did you feel going without?
4. What was the hardest thing to go without?
5. What was the easiest thing to go without?
6. What did you think when you got ready to leave this morning?
7. How have other people reacted? Were you surprised by that?
8. What have you learned after doing this?
Did you embrace today's All Natural challenge? How did it go for you? What was the hardest part? What did you learn?
This post originally appeared on Rosie Molinary's blog.
Rosie Molinary is the author of "Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical
Self-Acceptance" and "Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina."
Follow Rosie Molinary on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Rosie Molinary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rosiemolinary
In my home we weren't allowed to date or wear makeup until we were 16.
Well I ran away from home at 15 and got married on my 16th birthday.
And of course the joke was on me! That marriage didn't last until I was 18!
But I never did go home again. I just learned to make my way on my own when the marriage fizzled!
And I never picked up the makeup habit. Just think of all the money I've saved over the decades! :)
Going without makeup is very liberating. People have to take you as you are. Until I see the CEO of my company with some lipstick or mascara, why should I? I'm supposed to emulate him, right?
My office is also lax in terms of dress because it's just so damned hot outside most days. Other women in my office only put on makeup if they have a big meeting to head out to. I remember coming in with a full face of makeup 'just because' and the other women actually questioned me why I did it! Gotta love it.
My husband also asks me why I bother with makeup because he likes how I look without it. He does admit that wearing it highlights certain features, but sees me a beautiful without it and that is enough for me.
Honestly, the only sex that really bashes on women for not wearing makeup is other women. Women, despite all we've tried for women's rights, still bash on other women, and hard core.
I don't understand why women feel the need to bash on other women all the time.
I once watched a video of a woman who spent the day made up and coiffed and the kind of service she received; then on another day she was casually dressed and au natural. She was given free items, was hustled through shorter lines and was treated better all around on the makeup day than she was on the causal day. I think everyone has had the experience of being treated better by those around them when made up and dressed stylishly. Whether it was something internal with the person's attitude or how the external world was treating her, it was hard to tell. But I too have had the experience of getting better treatment when I'm dressed up and made up than when I'm pony-tail and denim.