Australian TV presenter Tracey Spicer shocked many with her act – she refused to do makeup for work. A 47-year-old mother of two children and a respected professional in her field, she is sure that makeup is a right, not a duty, for a woman.
“You look tired. Didn’t you get sick?” – Tracey Spicer took all her courage and grit to resist the bewildered looks and questions of colleagues when she began to come to work meetings in the office in her natural form – without traces of makeup, without a coiffed hairstyle and with a few hairs sticking out from the chin. “I felt naked and exposed to the public,” Tracy admits. “But I still decided to go ahead and fight without my “armor” because I want it to become the norm. After 30 years in television, I have become what I despise with all my might – a painted doll who spends an hour a day and almost $ 200 a week to paint a mask on her face.
The TV presenter’s morning ritual before going to work included a hair straightening serum (Tracy’s hair naturally curls into small springs), blow-drying, hairspray, moisturizer, eye cream, primer, tone, powder, concealer, blush, eyeliner , eyebrow brush, eyelash curler, mascara, liquid lip liner, lipstick, lip gloss and self tanner for the body. “I squeezed my swollen feet into tight shoes with dizzying heels that gave bumps to my toes and arthritis to my knees,” Spicer recalls. – She pulled out her hair from the root, repeating like a mantra: “There is no beauty without pain, there is no beauty without pain …”
Work on television undermines self-esteem, the TV presenter believes. “I never had complexes because of my appearance, my sister and I were taught from childhood to the idea that the main thing in life is an interesting activity, and not how you look,” she recalls. – But as soon as I started working as a host, comments began to pour in. Both the management and the audience constantly sought to “repair” something in my appearance. “You look like a pig,” my boss told me almost immediately after I gave birth. “She needs to do something with her hair, otherwise she looks like a stuffed animal,” a “kind” viewer said about my live report from the murder scene. “Your crow’s feet are bothering us” – the producer’s verdict. And then, a year ago, I decided to return to the real me. The turning point was the question of my seven-year-old daughter, who watched my carefully planned beauty ritual every morning: “Mom, why do women wear makeup and men don’t?” I told her: “Baby, society makes unrealistically high demands on the appearance of women. But I’m going to do everything in my modest power to change that. Always remember: you are beautiful just the way you are.
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Since then, Tracy has become less and less makeup. Gradually, she abandoned makeup and creams (“Who needs all these expensive products full of chemicals?”). Make-up – minimal, no hair serums and self-tanning, from care products – a cleansing tonic and moisturizer.
Tracey Spicer’s TED talk, during which she removes makeup from her face and throws off her tight, restrictive dress, has amassed more than a million views in a short time.
She has not yet decided to give up dyeing her hair and puts herself in the hands of make-up artists before filming. “I’m not sure I can keep my job if they don’t wear war paint and a hair-to-hair helmet, which is kind of like a uniform in our profession,” says Tracey. “But I’m happy because I bought myself an extra hour a day: play with the children, strum the guitar, go kayaking. Plus, it’s a great savings. What else has changed? I have definitely become more productive. I feel like a real woman, not a painted doll.”
Despite admiration, many believe that minimal makeup is an unaffordable luxury for a woman in our time. For example, a study at Boston University found that women are perceived as more pleasant, trustworthy, and competent at their jobs when they wear makeup. Our self-esteem is inextricably linked to our appearance. “The best version of me” – this is how many people feel when they put on makeup.
The “right” make-up, clothing and hairstyle increase a woman’s “erotic capital” at work, says British sociologist Catherine Hakim, author of Why Appearance is the Key to Success. “Even babies love looking at pretty faces. Those of us who do not spend effort on caring for our appearance literally lose face, they are not noticed. Nothing personal – this is the law of reality, our unconscious reaction. Appearance matters.”
Another point of view was expressed by journalist Elizabeth Clarke** of The Sydney Morning Herald. For her, daily makeup is as much self-care as brushing her teeth and exercising. “I don’t inject Botox and I’m not afraid of old age, but I want to look attractive,” she says. – Makeup for me is not a prison sentence, but a pleasure, a way to relieve stress and feel better. It emphasizes my dignity, but does not radically change my face and body. I still remain myself, having painted eyelashes and lips.
In your opinion, is makeup a right or a duty of women? The need to profitably sell yourself in the labor market, or a pleasant ritual and psychological protection from stress?
*womenyoushouldknow.net/tracey-spicer-look-like-without-make/
** smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/in-response-to-tracey-spicer-why-wearing-makeup-makes-my-day-20141117-11oavu.html