Modern Feminism: Radical, Reformist, or Both?
Good feminists do not care about appearances. They know fairy tales are sexist because they perpetuate the idea that women need to be saved and that dieting is bad because it subjects the female body to the male’s ideal version of beauty. I put on masacra in the morning. I get my nails done. I don’t eat meat. I love rom-coms. And, I consider myself a feminist. The trouble is that in doing these things women like me actively fulfill the male gaze, what Collins English Dictionary defines as:
“originally in film theory, the tendency of filmmakers and films to assume the point of view of a heterosexual male; now, often, the perspective of the heterosexual male in viewing women generally” (Collins English Dictionary).
Essentially, the male gaze is the idealized version of a woman that satisfies a heterosexual male perspective. If these things that are a part of women’s daily routines satisfy the male gaze, that makes us complicit in patriarchal standards. It also means there is a fork in the road in the modern feminist movement. On one prong feminists believe women have a responsibility to make life choices that do not align with patriarchal standards to meet the goal of dismantling the system of sexism. On the other prong there are feminists who believe that women can still be feminists without making feminist choices all of the time. We can see this tension bubble-up in the discussion surrounding makeup specifically.
On one side of the debate, it seems like wearing makeup goes against feminist ideology because it explicitly feeds into patriarchal standards. Women want their eyes to look bigger, and that is why they wear mascara. They want their lips to look fuller, and that is why the put on lipstick. Women want these traits because it makes us feel more confident and self-assured throughout the day to look like the best version of ourselves. Maybe we want to look cute or hot or something when we run into our crush at the local coffee shop that we go to every morning to grab a latte. Maybe we want to be taken more seriously. The point is we cannot deny that this self-assurance is coming from the fact that some women feel like they look better with makeup on than with no makeup on. The concept of “better” cannot be disentangled from the monopoly of the male gaze and the perceived and legitimate advantage of presenting this way. Women make the choice to wear makeup regardless of its ramifications in perpetuating the patriarchy.
Some feminists argue that women who call themselves feminists have a responsibility not to wear makeup. They believe that wearing makeup is not a feminist choice because the notion that women can and should wear makeup is inherently oppressive. In her article “Come on feminists, ditch the makeup bag. It's a far more radical statement than burning your bra,” Julie Bindel, radical feminist writer and co-founder of the law-reform group Justice for Women,encourages women to stop wearing makeup because doing so does not help in the agenda to dismantle the system of sexism.
According to Bindel, “a free choice to wear makeup only exists if not wearing makeup is not a stigmatised option” (Bindel).
There is no choice if one choice is obviously the bad one. It’s like when your parents tell you it’s up to you to decide whether or not to get an internship next summer, but you really know there is one right answer. To Bindel, wearing makeup could never be something empowering or something that women do only for women.
This is because she believes that “there are…powerful rewards in store for women who conform to femininity, as well as punishment and disapproval for those that reject it, such as being verbally or physically attacked for looking ‘like a man’” (Bindel).
Women who wear makeup are seen as conforming to their gender role so they are better received by society in many ways. There are legitimate consequences for women who do not conform to these standards and advantages for those who do. Maybe they are taken more seriously at the workplace, or maybe they get the job in the first place because their appearance matched what their heterosexual male interviewer was comfortable with. Bindel thinks that women should be making the choice not to wear makeup because wearing makeup feeds into the expectations of the patriarchy and the male gaze’s standards for what women should look like. Not wearing makeup is the feminist choice for Bindel.
Other feminists argue that makeup is a valuable tool in a society where women are marginalized. Wearing makeup is empowering because it gives women agency over their bodies, and that is actually really important in a world where women’s bodies are taken advantage of. When women have the choice to do something that makes them feel good, they should do it.
E
. “Feminism is about being in control of your life—which includes your body, your decision and your face. It’s sad to think that some proclaimed feminists would deny young girls that option to wear black eyeliner to their first ever gig simply because it’s not ‘feminist enough’” (Harrison). Why can’t a girl who wants to get on stage and shred her guitar put on some freaking eyeliner for god-sakes.
Harrison hits it right on the nail: “for another woman to tell their own sex the best way to live and behave, well, does that not defeat the whole point of feminism after all?” (Harrison).
I’m with Harrison here: women should not be telling other women what to do with their bodies. That is anti-feminist. But, to wear or not to wear makeup is more nuanced than Harrison makes it seem. There is a difference between putting on eyeliner to look cool, and putting on eyeliner to satisfy a heterosexual male perspective. Choices do not always have inherently feminist motivations. Being a feminist is not just about supporting women in all of their endeavors. In fact, Finn Mackay from the Guardian, one of the UK’s most influential feminist activists, argues that there is a problem wherein we are reducing “feminism to simply being the right for women to make choices” (Mackay). Sometimes the choices that women make are ridiculous and anyone with good judgement would say that they are not furthering the feminist agenda. It is not feminist in and of itself for women to make decisions. Kim Kardashian making her butt bigger was her choice, but it’s not a feminist choice. She might have done it to look sexy and satisfy a heterosexual male perspective. Or she might have done it to make more money.
“Let’s get real for a minute,” Mackay writes, “we actually make all sorts of boring decisions every second, from whether or not to get a drink of water to whether or not to take an umbrella. There is nothing inherently feminist in making decisions” (Mackay).
She furthers that “people tend to make safe decisions, ones that will not set them apart from others, and ones that are socially sanctioned and rewarded” (Mackay). So, when women make the choice to wear makeup, they are making that choice so they don’t face consequences. This echoes what Bindel said about the rewards women gain in society for wearing makeup as opposed to not wearing it. Radical feminists Bindel and Mackay would probably agree that refusing to wear makeup would be a significant protest against unrealistic patriarchal standards for how women should look. But, Harrison would argue that it is dangerous to put limitations on the female body when there is constant policing of the female body.
On another note, there are feminists who argue that this conversation is not productive at all. Clearly, I think they are wrong. Maria Carreon argues in her CUNY graduate thesis that it is a waste of time. She questions whether women are too “occupied with the debate over what constitutes feminism or anti-feminism, arguing amongst ourselves and blaming one another for the failures of feminism and other women’s objectives” (Carreon). She argues that the debate between feminists on makeup or no makeup and the question of what female empowerment is distracts from the “more serious activism” that needs to be done. To her, these more serious issues include the “fight for education, justice, reproductive healthcare and wage parity” (Carreon). These things, she argues, are those “which pose the greatest tangible consequences for real women and girls” (Carreon). While I can imagine that these things might have the greatest tangibleeffects, the ones we can see and measure, I don’t agree that they have the most severe effects. Women are of course concerned about education, justice, and reproductive rights. But, when we consider the day to day experience of women and girls in the US, makeup and appearance are on the fore-front of our minds when we roll out of bed to get ready in the morning and when we go out at night. It is ignorant to say that we should stop talking about makeup. Personal choices have political significance.
It is worth thinking critically about whether or not women are complicit in the patriarchy when they put on makeup because it is at its crux a discussion of whether or not feminists think revolutionary feminism is valuable. If we understand feminism the way feminist theorist, Bell Hooks, describes it as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression,” a radical version of feminism, then yes it should be considered a part of the feminist movement to eliminate the male gaze. This is because the male gaze is a form of sexist exploitation since it constrains women to make decisions that enforce patriarchal standards in order to avoid repercussions in their daily lives. But, the problem Hooks points out is that the feminism that most people “hear about…is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender equality—equal pay for work, and sometimes women and men sharing household chores and parenting,” a version of reformist feminism that focuses on women being equal to men, and not being liberated from the patriarchy and the system of sexism at large (Hooks). She argues that the real definition of feminism is “a definition which implies that all sexist thinking and action is the problem, whether those who perpetuate it are female or male, child or adult” (Hooks). It does not fulfill Hooks’ definition of feminism when women wear makeup to please the male gaze because it promotes sexism. Women are never going to be entirely liberated from the patriarchy if they continue to wear makeup. But, that does not mean that women cannot gain rights within the patriarchal system, like ending the wage-gap, with makeup on.
It is always going to be easier to gain rights than achieving full-blown liberation like Hooks suggests. The reality is that we are never going to be able to stop women from making choices that enforce patriarchal standards in one form or another. Women are not just going to stop wearing makeup because they do take pleasure in wearing it and they do enjoy caring about their appearance because it’s fun, even though it is ingrained in a system of sexism and does conform to the male gaze and all of these things that all good feminists know are bad. Bottom line it’s their choice. And the point Harrison makes about not telling women what to do with their bodies is important. Policing the female body is a slippery slope. It slips right into the pro-choice versus pro-life abortion debate, and it would be a very bad thing for women not to be able to make that decision for themselves. Women should by no means be obligated to not wear makeup, but women do have to acknowledge their role in perpetuating the patriarchy when they wear makeup to please the male perspective. Women should understand that some choices they make do perpetuate patriarchal standards and feed into the male gaze. There is a self-reinforcing cycle that exists where if one woman wears makeup and another does not, the woman who does not wear makeup is held to the standard of the patriarchy because she is compared to the woman who does. We should not blame women for the patriarchy, but we should consider that the choices that one woman makes can affect the expectations that society puts on all women.
Sources
Bindel @bindelj, Jule. “Opinion: Come on Feminists, Do the Radical Thing and Ditch Your Makeup Bag.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 22 Jan. 2019,
Carreon, Maria L., "By Beauty Damned: Millennial Feminism and the Exploitation of Women's Empowerment in Pop Culture and Corporate Advertising" (2017). CUNY Academic Works .https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2950&context=gc_etds
“Definition of Male Gaze: New Word Suggestion: Collins Dictionary.” Definition of Male Gaze | New Word Suggestion | Collins Dictionary, www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/14245/male+gaze.
Harrison, Emmie. “Here's Why You Can Wear Makeup and Still Be a Feminist.” Glamour, Glamour UK, 25 July 2019, www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/can-you-wear-makeup-and-be-a-feminist.
Hooks, Bell. “FEMINIST POLITICS: Where We Stand .” Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, by Bell Hooks, W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2016, pp. 1–6.
Mackay, Finn. “The Biggest Threat to Feminism? It's Not Just the Patriarchy | Finn Mackay.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Mar. 2015, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/23/threat-feminism-patriarchy-male-supremacy-dating-makeup.
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