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The Rise of Feminist Makeup Culture: Women Reclaiming Cosmetics

Discuss and analyse the rise of makeup culture, particularly among millennials and within the past decade, through a feminist lens. Women at this time can be daring or unconventional with their cosmetics or embrace a natural, "no makeup" look, but both fall under a new movement of body positivity. This new makeup culture rejects the idea of covering up in favor of flattering the wearer and experimenting with standards of beauty. Have women reclaimed cosmetics that were designed to make them "look more beautiful" and re-positioned the industry to celebrate their ability to manipulate beauty and the ways in which society perceives them?

  • I think something you should absolutely mention is the insane popularity and mass amounts of "beauty gurus" on YouTube, and how that effects how makeup is almost idolized and thought of as a necessity-- a bare face is seen as negative and these companies benefit. – madistyle94 9 years ago
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  • Additionally, there are add campaigns that sell make-up that ironically, is suppose to make you look like you are not wearing make-up. These predatory industries will use whatever tactic they can to sell their chemicals. This could be another avenue to include in the article. – Venus Echos 9 years ago
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  • Something else to consider is the psychological effect the makeup fads, advertising, and the pressure from social media has on girls, young ladies, and women. How often do we check our reflections? What standards are we trying to live up to? Who set those standards? You could also compare and contrast the "I need makeup to make me look beautiful" vs. "I use makeup as a form of self-expression" mentalities. – Megan Finsel 9 years ago
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  • It would probably be worth it to mention the movements push back from people with opposing viewpoints. Also, if going in the YouTube beauty guru direction, mention the hate/bullying comments that some of those channels receive. – Austin Bender 9 years ago
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  • There's an Instagram star Essene O'Neill (age 20) who blasted social media for making her appearance-obsessed and shut down her IG despite it making her thousands every month. This development is recent (past week or so). Her Instagram is gone, but there have been many news stories on the subject. Also, there's a trend of celebrities going "bare faced." Demi Lovato did a cover of Vanity Fair recently. Personally, I found that depressing rather than liberating. Lovato is young and has flawless skin. – cleopold 9 years ago
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