Today is
the International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate our accomplishments,
but mostly to highlight our struggles, our pains and our difficulties to reach
equality.
I have
always been a feminist. The kind that believes, like Simone de Beauvoir or
Judith Butler, that gender is, not an illusion, but a social construct ; that
our place in this society is ruled by social norms that are presented as
natural, when they are in fact oppressive, unfair and violent.
It can be
seem paradoxical to love fashion and make up, and to devote quite a lot of time
(and money) to them, when deploring at the same that we teach little girls that
how they look is more important than how they think.
Make up and
fashion are certainly tools in the construction and longevity of this “beauty
myth”. They sell a dream, a dream of beauty and perfection. As time goes by,
this perfection never looks the same - some day it is Kate, some other day
Jennifer, and twenty years ago it was Cindy or Naomi. This beauty is
unattainable, polymorphous, photoshoped and discriminatory.
Make up and
fashion can be a prison if they become a mask under which we hide ourselves, when
we just can’t do without it. They become instruments of self-hatred and they
nurture it.
But I
personally believe in the wonderful power of the unnecessary. Fashion and make
up are completely superfluous, and this is their best quality. They colour our
life, they polish it and make it fun.
 |
| Young woman, by Berthe Morisot |
The best
make up is the one which still make us feel pretty when we remove it. And for
this particular reason, it is very important. We all use make up, some of us
because we feel we have to, some of us because we like it, some of us because
we want to hide under it. But whatever the reason, we have to get interested by
it, to know what we put on our skin, to know how it is produced and how it is
sold.
I want to
buy products from brands that respect me as a woman and as a consumer, that
respects my body without putting rubbish in their products and that respects
its employees and the environment.
For that
reason, cosmetics are so very important.
But most of
all, it is for me a tiny way of bringing in my life beauty, creativity, fun and
even silliness if I want to.
xx
Mathilde
