Just read the following
article online and, although initially I just rolled my eyes, I have to say I do some merit in the point being made.
A set of before and after photos that show the dramatic difference between a woman with and without make-up have sparked an internet debate about cosmetics.
Posted by make-up artist Povilas Staniulionis, the images, simply captioned: 'Make-up. That's it,' show a bare-faced woman with acne scars and shiny skin, and then her transformation after putting on make-up, with thicker eyebrows, flawless looking skin and a seemingly thinner face.
The stark difference between the images has sparked a debate on Reddit, with some internet users labeling make-up in general a 'betrayal' because it hides a woman's true self.
Reddit user plokoonismyfave initiated the war of words when he wrote: 'The left is uglier than the right, but beauty is subjective. The right is her wearing a (figurative and literal) mask.'
One person replied that a woman's personality counts more than her make-up routine, writing: 'You only feel "betrayed" because you put too much value on looks.'
He then went on to accuse the woman in the photo of disguising her insecurites with cosmetics.
'The girl in the photo is apparently not satisfied with the way she looks without makeup,' he said, 'and uses makeup to artificially portray a person more people would find attractive.'
Others stayed out of the debate altogether, instead admiring the miraculous transformation made possible by the make-up artist.
'Holy crap! That's amazing,' wrote one fan of the make-over. 'I would've never been able to tell that those two pictures were the same person. If this is your work, you have an amazing talent!'
As I say, initially I just felt the opinion expressed was just fueled by bitterness at perhaps not being successful with some women that he had perhaps tried to date, or was later dumped by but as I began to think about it further, I have to admit that if I brought a guy back to my place and it turned out he was a few inches shorter (in height
) that he had appeared due to wearing some Cuban heels I hadn't noticed, or was wearing some prosthetic to make it appear he had a good body, I'm not sure that would sit to well with me; as I would without question feel duped.
I know it's not exactly something that would happen, other than maybe the Cuban heels, but I would feel cheated. Not exactly "betrayed" as the article suggests, although if it was there was drawn out serious of dates before I discovered that he was wearing all the above and perhaps some cosmetics to make his features appear more chiseled, of course I would feel a sense of 'betrayal' as I would have built up feelings about him and his looks of course would have been a factor in that.
I'm not saying I develop feelings for guys solely on their appearance but if I'm being honest, and I am, then yes, looks are a large part of why I would fall for a guy and if the truth of that turned out to be a lie, well then any feelings developed for him would for sure disintegrate, and fast. Maybe that comes across as shallow, but I would be lying if I said otherwise. Honesty is important to me and I would consider that level of aesthetic change to be an act of dishonesty.
I must also add that once dated a guy for two years that had quite pronounced facial nevus flammeus and he wore cosmetics occasionally and it didn't bother me one bit. Nor would someone wearing almost anything to make up for an imperfection of any kind, as I feel both a much different.
All of this has me take a long hard look at my own make-up routine, and while I was never one to cake it on, I have begun to cut down on how much I apply and strangely, I have been getting a lot of complements as a result, which I hadn't expected at all. I remember seeing a photo of Christina Aguilera without make-up once and she also, without question, looked far pretty without the crazy amount she was applying back when Dirty came out.
However, the girl in the article is clearly not one of those girls, unfortunately and so is the type that I guess, some, guys would take issue with and so my question to them is would they really mind that level of cosmetic change and what would they feel when they saw how some girl really looked, if indeed, she appeared to be far less attractive, to the same degree as the girl in this article? Also, girls, how would you feel if a guy was to drastically change his appearance, which you really really liked, only to late find out was far from how he truly looked.
