Au Naturel

I’m not entirely sure if Colbie Caillat is trying to start a makeup free movement or just help women feel better about the fact that we don’t look like her.  Listen lady, you’ve got a lot of natural beauty to work with and some of us…well some of us don’t.  I’d love to roll out of bed and just show up to work with no makeup on.  I’d love to not have to think about every outfit and whether or not it’s hiding all of the things I don’t like about my body, but unfortunately this isn’t the world we live in.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where women still make less than men for the same jobs.  And where mansplaining is a real thing. We live in a world where overweight women are viewed as lazy and unintelligent.  And as a woman, I sort of thought you might know that.  Maybe there’s a celebrity bubble in which you live where these things don’t affect you.  But they certainly affect me and I simply can’t afford to just run my fingers through my hair in the morning, throw on some hippie Birkenstocks and run down to the studio where no one is really going to see me.

And maybe I just feel better about myself and more confident when I’m dressed up and as I call it “put together.” It doesn’t have anything to do with what my worth is to men in general.  But the truth is that as women, we are viewed to be worth more if we are more attractive and some of us need more help with that than others.

Case in point:

collage

I’m not sure if it’s coincidence or not, but this week I’m also seeing a lot of chatter on my news feed where women are posting collages of the pictures that make them feel beautiful.  Not for nothing, but I haven’t seen a single one where any of the pictures were makeup-free.  Not one.  And I am no exception to this.  I hadn’t posted one, but if I were going to, it would look like this:

 

collage1

 

Look, whether it’s right or wrong I’ve had to work infinitely harder than my male friends to get to where I am. And I didn’t do it by sitting back and bitching about how unfair it was that I had to look a certain way.  No, I woke up a half hour earlier each day and worked my ass off until I achieved what I wanted.  I wasn’t handed promotions because of how I looked.  I earned every one of them.

Now really, take your ridiculous standards of natural beauty and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine.  For me, I’ll take the Sephora route.

2 Comments on “Au Naturel

  1. I think you’re beautiful in all the pictures, and yes, that includes the makeup free one. My favorite picture is the black and white. You look just lovely.