I like the video, overall but, as a mother of three daughters (and someone who rarely wears much makeup herself), I agree in part with Beemo, too.
The girls in this video were not overly made up. I don’t think any one of them had on the kind of “getup” that I would consider to be covering them up, pretending, trying to fit some media image. For the most part, they had the kind of makeup that I think of as one of the ways a girl can choose to “look her personal best.” Do I *have* to wear makeup? No, and I don’t always. Do I *have* to brush my hair every morning? No, I *could* go around with bedhead if I chose to. That would certainly be “natural.” But I don’t think feeling that I look more “me, but at my best” when my hair is brushed than if I just went around with bedhead is “selling out.” Likewise, if I want a little “polish,” I don’t think indicates that I feel less than adequate or less than myself. “Polishing myself up” doesn’t CHANGE me any more than polishing my shoes makes them different shoes. They’re not different — just a little shinier.
As a culture, we need to be careful not to take the “you’re okay the way you are” message (which is GOOD) over into the opposite ditch where girls are getting the message that wanting to “polish up” *for themselves* (or, to an extent, for someone they love — nothin’ wrong with my wanting to look nice for my husband!), or to slim down from an unhealthy weight *for the sake of their health and being the best “them” they can be* is not okay. Ultimately, we’re then giving them the SAME bad message: “YOU are not okay.”
I think Beemo is just — rightly — calling for attention to BALANCE.
I like the video, overall but, as a mother of three daughters (and someone who rarely wears much makeup herself), I agree in part with Beemo, too.
The girls in this video were not overly made up. I don’t think any one of them had on the kind of “getup” that I would consider to be covering them up, pretending, trying to fit some media image. For the most part, they had the kind of makeup that I think of as one of the ways a girl can choose to “look her personal best.” Do I *have* to wear makeup? No, and I don’t always. Do I *have* to brush my hair every morning? No, I *could* go around with bedhead if I chose to. That would certainly be “natural.” But I don’t think feeling that I look more “me, but at my best” when my hair is brushed than if I just went around with bedhead is “selling out.” Likewise, if I want a little “polish,” I don’t think indicates that I feel less than adequate or less than myself. “Polishing myself up” doesn’t CHANGE me any more than polishing my shoes makes them different shoes. They’re not different — just a little shinier.
As a culture, we need to be careful not to take the “you’re okay the way you are” message (which is GOOD) over into the opposite ditch where girls are getting the message that wanting to “polish up” *for themselves* (or, to an extent, for someone they love — nothin’ wrong with my wanting to look nice for my husband!), or to slim down from an unhealthy weight *for the sake of their health and being the best “them” they can be* is not okay. Ultimately, we’re then giving them the SAME bad message: “YOU are not okay.”
I think Beemo is just — rightly — calling for attention to BALANCE.