A Brief History of Makeup as Protest and Power - Teen Vogue

In this op-ed, beauty reporter Arabelle Sicardi looks into the history of beauty being used as a means of protest and power.

We’re living in a unique moment when brands are being forced to act in response to a wave of customer demands for more and better: more employee diversity, better shade ranges, less problematic shade names, fewer whitening products, and more shelf space for Black-owned beauty brands. This is not a movement that grew overnight or out of the ether. Makeup has long been used as a method of protest and generally as a tool for political means, by all arms of the political system. And beauty has been used as a tool for community care and weaponized as a symbol of inauthentic political participation. Beauty is how we negotiate aesthetics as a character judgment in the world, and we judge people everywhere we go, from battlefields to magazine covers.

Time and time again in histories about women on the front lines, you can find nurses and factory workers talking about how their lipstick or perfume kept them sane in discomforting situations. In Heather Marie Stur's book Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era, she shares the story of nurse Lily Lee Adams, who wore Chantilly perfume because it "made her patients think of home." On the other hand, in journals from Holocaust victims and survivors, many recalled the use of makeup and perfume by those who tortured them. One woman became infamous for it: Irma Grese, the “Blonde Beast of Berkenau.” She manipulated those who were doomed to die by her hands by coming to them perfectly made up and expensively perfumed, to remind them of what they had been robbed of. After they were forced to revisit hope for one last fleeting moment, they were sent to die. It’s proof that hope can be weaponized by anyone, and that’s what makes it so dangerous and volatile.

For those who have the resources to acquire beauty, it is still a secret grace given to those afforded very little. For example, in her visit to a Lebanese refugee camp, writer and activist Celine Semaan observed for The Cut in 2018: "At times, it was the only mechanism available to feel control of one's self. . . . beauty is something we can control, love, and celebrate. It is at some of the worst times, all we have left." What is left doesn't have to be product driven, and by necessity it rarely involves anything one might get at Ulta. Holistic products for skin care and cosmetics are far more common, like almond oil and homemade sugar wax, rosewater face mist, and lip balm made from crushed fruit. Self-care as self-preservation may have become cannibalized into a corporate slogan, but for the most vulnerable the bare fact of it still rings true.

For many decades, brands have had a hand in the prospect of linking makeup to protest. In World War II, Elizabeth Arden, and others, came out with shades like Victory Red; last year the brand came out with a lip color collaboration, of which 100% of the proceeds went to the United Nations group UN Women, an advocacy organization for gender equality. Philanthropic efforts have been part of many brands' DNA for decades. After the 2016 election, Lipslut garnered press for pledging portions of profits to issues and causes that tied to each of its collections. To date, according to documentation Lipslut provided to Teen Vogue, the brand has raised $190,000 for various organizations, including She Should Run, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU. 

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A Brief History of Makeup as Protest and Power - Teen Vogue
"make up" - Google News
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