you can try to defend the beauty industry all you want but aside from that video of the girl chemically burning the shit out of her face on purpose to make a “permanent contour” i also know women in my life who have gotten their eyebrows and their eyeliner tattooed on (respectively) simply because they thought it was a better alternative than applying them onto their faces every single day for the rest of their lives or risk being judged/ridiculed/punished by society
like think of how delicate the skin of the eye is where your eyeliner goes. imagine getting a fucking tattoo there. imagine thinking that pain is worth it because you feel so doomed to wearing makeup and yet so exhausted by the sheer idea of putting it on every day for the rest of your life
one of these women is my grandmother and the other is my aunt’s grandmother, and both of them have explicitly told me that they regret getting these tattoos, and neither of them got them redone when they eventually faded, years and years later. this isn’t a matter of “they love makeup and it helps them express themselves so let them do what they want!” it’s a matter of desperation, of resignation to the constraints and expectations of a society that wants women to look fuckable at literally all costs, even if it means undergoing significant, and even permanent, physical harm.
“beauty is pain” is just another (condescending) way of saying “your priority should be your looks, not your personal well-being” and no amount of loving makeup as a hobby and form of self-expression is going to make that stop being true
A question I ask myself a lot is, “Would a man put up with this?”. When I put on that dress that looks great but I can’t quite breath in. When I wear those heels to work that I know will give me blisters just because they match my outfit. When I wear that skirt that effectively hobbles me if I don’t hike it up past my knees. My mom and I say to each other “It’s more important to look marvelous than to feel marvelous” and laugh because it’s just a joke, but it’s really not funny, because the more I analyze my actions, the more I realize that some part of me thinks it’s true.
“Would a man put up with this?”
This. That is the question we should ask to know something is sexist or not.
Please do not start your essay with “Music has always been a big part of my life.” I get it. It’s the start of every. single, fricken, essay. And I know I probably made the same mistakes when I was writing mine.
Love,
A College Admissions Counselor
Can I start it with “dude bro. Music is the bomb digity.” ?
Honestly, you wouldn’t be the first person. I had a student start an essay with “Ball is life” and they got a scholarship so…
I am incredibly curious as to why a college admissions officer has a tumblr
Shouldn’t we be worried that a college admission officer HAS a tumblr??
hey guess what your sex posi feminist male friends are a million times more likely to be a danger to you than any lesbian that talks about her boundaries …. your priorities would be laughable if they weren’t so homophobic
why are yall getting so big mad over people calling terfs farts djkjfrksh like its so stupid and childish theres no way its ever going to be taken seriously omg
mac miller dies of an overdose and of course people decide to pin it on ariana grande. when will people give this woman a break? why is she apparently responsible for every man’s bad actions?
man sexually assaults ariana grande: “its because her dress is too short!”
man dies of an overdose: “its because he was heartbroken by her!”
blaming women for things that they have no control over is blatantly misogyny
man bombs an arena after ariana’s performance, killing 22 people: “it’s because her outfits are too revealing”
Men will literally scramble, will literally trip over themselves to blame the nearest woman for a male’s actions. What’s wrong, do they think males are stupid infants who can’t be held accountable for their own actions and can never be as mature as women?
Big Mean Sweaty Dyke 