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Can We Stop Wearing Makeup Now?
Enough already—who are we trying to kid? Plus, it could kill us
This piece is not about the poisonous killer makeup of the past: the ones containing mercury, lead, arsenic; nor about the cruelty of false eyelashes sewn onto women’s upper lids or the torture of corsets, hoop skirts, girdles, and stiletto heels.
But it is telling to note (and I am certainly not the first to mention it) that those latter contraptions effectively made/make it next to impossible for a woman to flee an assailant. How far are you going to get in a corset and four-inch heels?
Girdles are still around but have gone undercover as “shapewear” and whalebone is no longer used to deform and contort women’s bodies. You can still buy bras, of course, which are needed for comfort and support and to prevent being ogled by men. I also tuck silicone nipple covers inside my bra, just to be sure, though the silicone might well poison me. Some study will let me know, eventually.
Even when well into her eighties, my mother would never leave the house without putting on lipstick. Many times I would be at the door or waiting for her in the car…
