From: danoc@earlybird.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan O'Connell [CONTRACTOR])
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Lipstick
Date: 9 Sep 92 01:10:43 GMT
Organization: Subvert the Dominant Paradigm, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

(Lenore Levine) writes:

 One of the arguments I hear a lot, against the ideas presented in Naomi
 Wolf's "The Beauty Myth," goes like this:
 
 "All the pressures placed on women about their appearance are just
 social. No one is forcing women to look a certain way. Therefore, if 
 other women were strong, like me, they could resist these pressures.
 And therefore, since it would be ridiculous to legally prohibit any
 means of purely social coercion (What would you want to do? *Force* 
 women not to wear lipstick?) there is nothing the feminist movement can
 do in this context."  
 
Certainly, there are myriad pressures from the dominant cultrure
to dress, act, and behave in certain socially acceptable ways.

     <stirring speech mode ON>

It is up to people who believe in liberty everywhere, however, to
fight arbitrary standards like lipstick. No doubt everyone has 
read about the women who used to work for Continental Airlines
and was fired for not "being feminine enough' (i.e., wouldn't
wear lipstick), and of black women who were harrassed and 
threatened with the loss of their jobs for a non-professional
haircut (cornrows) in Washington D.C. a few years ago.

Yes, it can be a difficult battle which tests the strengths of
one's convictions (am I willing to be fired over my style of
dress? Is it worth it? Will it make any difference in the long
run?), but publicizing the abuses and getting like-minded people to
come together in cooperation (i.e., send checks, or whatever)
is the American Way(tm).

     <stirring speech mode OFF>

 To illustrate how strong these pressures are, I'm presenting an part of
 an article from the August 9, 1992 "WomanNews" section of the Chicago
 Tribune (a section with an ostensibly feminist orientation):
 
It seems clear that this woman has made a choice about
wearing lipstick based on her age and the people she
wants to impress. If so, obviously that's her decision.

                                                     And someone, out
 there, must take articles like that halfway seriously -- or the women's
 magazines wouldn't continue to buy them. 

Perhaps people who look to the dominant culture to define
their gender roles for them, and perhaps cosmetic companies
who advertise profusely in the same magazines?
 
 Two final points. One, a woman who devotes an inordinate amount of
 effort to putting on lipstick, all day, every day, is a woman who has
 that much less time to devote to other, and maybe more personally 
 meaningful goals...
 
Agreed, but it is a personal decision, isn't it?

                                   But if Ms. McGrath is telling the
 readers of this article, that they *have* to spend time putting on
 lipstick, to be socially acceptable, she's telling them that they *have*
 to take that time away from the children, pets, job, thesis, whatever --
 whether they like it or not. 

This fits in nicely with the thread about women policing 
each other doesn't it? Ms McGrath obviously feels some
amount of guilt for "crossing the line"; if she wants
other people to make the same decision she did, she may
be attempting to assuage her guilt, by declaring that
any-reasonable-woman would have to do what she did rather
than take responsibility for her own actions.

On the other hand, it could have been (writing the article)
a brief observation that turned into a quick $500.
 
 Final point. Remember that argument that nothing could be done about
 "The Beauty Myth", since the pressures involved were purely social...
 
 I don't think that's true. I think social pressures can be fought, not
 legally, in the courts -- but with education. And remember, the best
 form of education is humor.
 
Even if the pressures are "purely social", society does not sit
still, it is up to those who wish to change the dominant paradigm
to *do* something about it: education, yes. Humor may be the most
effective of all, especially irony.

Dano

P.S.: Let's not forget lipstick's originally function.


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