When I was seven years old, after I cut my hair giving myself some particularly uneven bangs, I sneaked into my mother’s makeup drawer to scribble red lipstick on nearly half of my face.
I wanted to be a big girl. At seven, I clearly hadn’t mastered the concept of coloring in between the lines (or keeping lipstick on the lips) yet I knew it was intended to make me look “prettier.”
We live in an extremely fast-paced world where people are judged by a quick glance or even just a swipe through one’s Instagram feed—physical beauty is heavily applauded thus it is understandable why women and girls of all ages feel compelled to improve their appearance with makeup.
Yet, however fast-paced and appearance-oriented society today may be, the idea of making up our face is no new philosophy.
In 4000 BC, women in Egypt used to apply different forms of copper and minerals to color and define their faces.
The reason we wear make up is to edge closer to what we, as a race, define as “beauty.”
Obviously, the details of how we define this ominous word vary between cultures and time periods, however several attributes remain constant in almost every known definition of beauty.
We are programmed to be attracted to physical characteristics that suggest reproductive health or health in general. This is the psychological reasoning as to why we are attracted to those who portray youthfulness, physical fitness, and symmetry.
For instance, younger people generally appear to have bigger eyes in correlation with their face.
This is why makeup products meant to emphasize our eyes including eye shadow, eye liner and mascara are assumed to make people more attractive; the purpose of eye make up is to draw attention to your eyes, make them appear larger and more vibrant—demonstrating youth.
According to a study done by the Renfrew Center Foundation, an organization that is meant to aid those with eating disorders, 44 percent of women feel unattractive without makeup. Makeup has become something that many women and girls feel dependent on.
The ideals women are collectively trying to impart upon young girls as well as the greater realm of society is that beauty comes from within; the idea of natural beauty is supposed to empower women.
Yet, we are constantly advertising the thousands of products and treatments out there meant to help women alter, hide, or accentuate things about themselves in order to attain what they believe to be beautiful.
Ironically, we even go so far as to strive to have our makeup look natural.
A full face of make up has become the norm so much so that celebrities are pointed out and praised for daring to go out in public bare-faced.
Often girls or women say they wear make up for themselves—because it makes them feel better. For instance, a Laguna upper school girl said she wears make up “because it makes [her] feel more put together.”
Most people would agree with this idea—when you look good, you feel good. However, when wearing makeup becomes a necessity to go out in public without feeling embarrassed or self-conscious is when it can actually lower our self esteem.
When I asked another Laguna high schooler why she wore makeup I was met with the response, “because I feel ugly without it.”
Something that is intended to make us feel more confident in our appearance in turn can actually lower our self-esteem because we develop a dependence or even a mere habit of wearing makeup, so when all of the artificial products are gone, girls now feel not “pretty” enough to go out in the world.
Although I think I am slightly better at applying make up these days than I was at age seven, I am only beginning to understand this conflicting phenomenon of painting our faces full of makeup and then encouraging “natural beauty.”