Why Are Male Attitudes Towards Womens Makeup Still So Troubling?
It's not difficult to link women's fear that men (and others) might deem our makeup excessive with our ready acceptance of the no-makeup makeup look. Natasha, a 28-year-old software engineer who wears minimal makeup , learned from a young age that men might judge her for her makeup choices. "When I was really young, my older brother used to tell me women are more beautiful with natural makeup. So he said that if I do wear makeup, it needs to be done in a way that men dont know Im wearing it," she says. Theres psychology at play here, Fox Weber adds. "Its so often about being wanted. But we sometimes worry so much about how we are being seen, we struggle to know what we want ourselves." This can manifest as women worrying they are wearing too much makeup, talking too much or coming across as too emotional or opinionated. "Its paradoxical," she says. "Women feel that by being 'too much', they are inadequate, they are not 'enough'."