For the record, this is what social progress looks like.
There USED to be a time when any woman was expected to pretty herself up with make-up before showing up anywhere in public.
There USED to be a time when women who would not wear make-up would not get hired at all, or at least not for any public-facing roles.
And in some industries, that old, outdated, sexist standard is still clinging to life, particularly in jobs that require you to have your face showcased to millions in front of a camera, e.g. actors, news anchors, models.
But the fact that it's no longer required pretty much almost everywhere else? Including public-facing jobs on a smaller scale (e.g. cashiers, waiters, any face-to-face customer service job basically)?
That is not a given. That is not a happy accident. That is the result of years and decades of women pushing back against sexist double standards, both by fighting back against discriminatory policies (e.g. having to attach a photo to your resume/CV, which may automatically trigger implicit biases if your hiring manager is sexist, racist, etc.) and by... just not wearing make-up, to normalize the sight of make-up-less women in general.
This is an example of social progress that happened very recently, within living memory of a lot of people, and we should remember that, both to remind us that social change for the better CAN happen, even if it takes decades, but also to remind us that it WON'T happen unless we actually make an effort, and, perhaps most critically for these fucked up times we're living in right now, if we do not let it be undone by being complacent in the face or people trying to push us back into the "good old times".
I still remember quite vividly a conversation I had with my parents over dinner back when I was something like 10 years old. A lot of the girls in my class were hitting puberty (including me) and most of them were going all in on the make-up, partially to cover up acne, partially because this was just what was modelled to us at the time by adults--if you're female and no longer a kid, you start putting on make-up.
The problem here was that:
- My family was constantly broke as fuck and make-up was expensive, to the point where my mom owned like... one mascara and one lip stick and she only put them on when we were going out for dinner, or the movies or something (which also happened rarely).
- I have always been a horrible morning grump--my brain doesn't work right for the first hour of the day and the idea of having to prolong my "boot up" mode before school just so I could slap some paint on my face sounded like a terrible idea to me.
- I am allergic to a number of substances that are commonly used in beauty products, from moisturizer and shampoo all the way to deodorant, so frankly just finding something that would not make me break out in hives would have been a challenge.
So I had decided I just wasn't going to wear any make-up. Ever. And I was cool with that. And when I told my parents about that, my father looked at me across the table and said "well, how do you think you will find a job though? They will all require you to wear make-up. And what about your future boyfriend?" Because that was what life had been like, when he and my mom were young. He's a child of the 50s. She's a child of the 60s. And during those days, if you were a woman and you did not want to make a fool of yourself in public, you were wearing make-up.
My response to that question was that if a job can hire men who don't wear make-up, they can bloody well hire women who don't wear make-up. And as for my future boyfriend, I'd rather have him see me as I am 24/7 than to have him go out with me because he thinks I'm pretty and then one day we wake up together in the morning and he sees me without make-up and goes "what the hell". (Nevermind the fact that even back then I knew I was bi, but I'm pretty sure my dad will disown me should I ever bring home a girlfriend/wife.)
My mom looked at me like I had murdered someone in broad daylight in a busy street. My dad looked at me with that typical "yeah, yeah, you say that now, but you're a kid, you don't know shit" look.
And guess what? Not once since then has make-up been a requirement for anything in my life. Got a job, dated, went to a shit ton of both formal and informal events, and not once did anyone care that I didn't wear make-up, except every once in a while other women will ask me what I use to make my skin look so nice and they always end up shocked when I tell them "Just [brand] moisturizer. After I get up, after a shower, before I go to bed."
Moisturizer and sun screen. That is all your skin will ever need. And if anybody else wants more, well, that sounds like a them issue--they don't have to live in your skin.
But make no mistake it took a long-ass road and a lot of time for us to get to this point.