From Emily:
In the picture I took, I decided to show the duality of women. Most days before I go to work I spend about 30 minutes to an hour getting ready and putting makeup on just to feel pretty. I have noticed that I only receive compliments in public when I’m wearing makeup. So in my mind, it registers as “Oh you need to wear makeup to receive validation that you’re good looking”. In this picture, I did just a half face full of makeup to show the difference between me without makeup and me with full makeup. The creative elements I tried to use were the close-up angles and lines to draw attention to my makeup versus my normal face.
In society, many women feel pressured into wearing makeup to get validation from mainly men. Men claim to want a natural girl but then judge the women that don’t wear makeup. Makeup is an investment and women feel the need to spend large amounts of money to feel somewhat beautiful. Makeup is time consuming and we usually wake up way earlier than need be just to apply our makeup. In childhood, girls are taught about makeup from a very young age. The fake makeup kits, the beauty salon dolls, everything like that teaches young girls that you need makeup.
I remember having the small little eyeshadow kits from Claire’s and that sort of awakened my want for makeup because everyone thought it looked so cool when I wore makeup. My parents would always say how pretty and gorgeous I looked with my bright blue eyeshadow on. My parents were never big on compliments when I was growing up so when they would like my makeup, I would crave that validation and I started experimenting more and more with products. When I started becoming a teenager I realized how expensive normal makeup was and I used to save up change so I could go buy mascara. My sister was also very big on makeup and I always looked up to her so that was another influence in my life that guided me towards makeup.
Today’s society is always pushing young girls and women towards spending money on makeup. Advertisements show the “natural look” but the way they achieve that look is through makeup and we are given the false image that that’s what we should look like. It’s very damaging on young children because they think they need to look like that when they’re older to be desirable.
3 comments:
From Brynn:
This photo is a great way to show how women feel the need to wear makeup to receive validation from others. As stated in the essay, many little girls begin playing with makeup and having makeup relayed toys from a very young age. All of these toys, and the interactions that we have with people as we grow up, like men complimenting you when you wear makeup, influence girls and women to conform to these beauty norms. I did think that several creative elements were included in the photo that were not touched on in the essay, one of the biggest being gaze. The photo angle is directly in front of and on the same level as the girl, and the girl is looking directly at the camera in a powerful way. This could show that when women wear makeup they feel safer and more powerful in society. Another creative element that is demonstrated is color. The background of the photo is taken up primarily by red with a small amount of blue. This could show women's conformity to feminine colors like pink and red while trying to suppress any masculine parts of themselves, which in this photo would be blue.
From: Alicia Brabham
I want to say that this photograph is very unique and very creative to show the difference between people's aspects to be shown. When we grow from being kids we see our mothers, commercials and our friends use girly things and we see that as a norm of our society. The half makeup shows the differences of what beauty can be shown to be “beautiful” using makeup and without. The close-up angle is shown to draw attention to people to see the makeup. The center of the photo takes up space to show the meaning of the description of the photograph to show emphasis on the half makeup. As children, we grew up with makeup, salon rooms for our baby dolls which now in our society we have look “beautiful” in public to be seen or get a boyfriend. The natural side of the face shows how we are pressured in our society to look pretty and buy products to show in the beauty industry. In today's society, girls have lower self-esteem than boys do because they want to look good for others to be recognized. Girls often have to wake up early to do their makeup and hair for school which would take up 30 minutes to an hour and we're spending our time doing these tasks to show people that we look good because often sometimes based on our looks people use these stereotypes to define our lives. I love how your photograph represents purity and values to women.
From Eva Haseldine:
I like how this photo depicts not only one side naked face but a sort of over-the-top makeup look on the other. More and more these days I see young girls in high school with full faces of makeup and fake eyelashes on. When I was younger I was a competitive dancer and I would always have to be putting on full faces of makeup, fake eyelashes, face gems, etc. I remember the makeup always feeling so heavy and I never wanted to wear the fake eyelashes, but I was always told that I had to and I was always so uncomfortable. In high school I never really wore makeup, I would have to get up early and I always had the “I’m here for an education not to be all dressy etc,” attitude so I never really cared. Although I always had moments were I felt if I did wear makeup and I dressed up more that maybe I would feel like I fit in more and would have more people in my life. I feel like one side really resonates with me as a kid and the other as an adult. From a young age we feel the pressures of society to fit in and feeling like we have to wear makeup and look presentable at all times. Even though we may move past that stereotype as we get older the pressure is still there everyday in the back of our minds. This photo really captures the day to day struggle women face when it comes to decisions about makeup and presentation and if we feel we’ll be accepted in our society based on our appearance.
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