Perhaps you've seen this image online recently.
Ladies (and girls, and for that matter men, boys, and individuals who identify somewhere else on the gender spectrum): no matter what you look like, I agree that you're already beautiful without makeup and nice clothes because of the miracle of your unique living, breathing, feeling, improbably alive human body. But I also think you're beautiful in the makeup and nice clothes you choose as expressions of your personality, creativity, and style and I love the artistic ways you celebrate your physicality. And, if your employment or other life circumstances leads you to wear clothes and makeup that anonymize your unique features to make you conform more closely to a conventional beauty standard, I understand where you're coming from and I see the beauty of your craftswomanship.
I understand (and champion) natural beauty not in terms of makeup or the lack thereof, but as the attractive and charismatic quality of confident authentic self-expression. So if you really care what I think, I suggest, dear "girls," that you show or create the appearance that makes you feel most like the person you are. But I also suggest that you ignore messages that encourage you to change your appearance for the benefit of someone other than yourself.
Linked below are several discussions of Outer Space Boy, with plenty of good points made in both the articles and comments.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thanks-but-im-still-team-dolly
http://slacktory.com/2012/06/sassing-back-boys-with-pseudofeminist-handwritten-signs-its-a-trend-nsfw-naked-woman-inside/
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/06/13/notes-from-my-boner-natural-beauty/
Ladies (and girls, and for that matter men, boys, and individuals who identify somewhere else on the gender spectrum): no matter what you look like, I agree that you're already beautiful without makeup and nice clothes because of the miracle of your unique living, breathing, feeling, improbably alive human body. But I also think you're beautiful in the makeup and nice clothes you choose as expressions of your personality, creativity, and style and I love the artistic ways you celebrate your physicality. And, if your employment or other life circumstances leads you to wear clothes and makeup that anonymize your unique features to make you conform more closely to a conventional beauty standard, I understand where you're coming from and I see the beauty of your craftswomanship.
I understand (and champion) natural beauty not in terms of makeup or the lack thereof, but as the attractive and charismatic quality of confident authentic self-expression. So if you really care what I think, I suggest, dear "girls," that you show or create the appearance that makes you feel most like the person you are. But I also suggest that you ignore messages that encourage you to change your appearance for the benefit of someone other than yourself.
Linked below are several discussions of Outer Space Boy, with plenty of good points made in both the articles and comments.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thanks-but-im-still-team-dolly
http://slacktory.com/2012/06/sassing-back-boys-with-pseudofeminist-handwritten-signs-its-a-trend-nsfw-naked-woman-inside/
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/06/13/notes-from-my-boner-natural-beauty/
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