Do women 'choose' to wear make up - Essay Example

Though makeup has been in production since 3500 B.C., it became a female necessity in the early 20th century (Peril, 2002). Makeup was created for the sole purpose for women to hide any flaws and blemishes that others, mainly men, did not wish to see on them. In essence, makeup was designed to make women look more desirable to the eye. Due to makeup, a woman was hardly ever seen for who and what she really was; this seemed to be how men liked it. Oddly enough, most makeup was advertised as enabling women to feel better about themselves, though all it did was give the majority of women a complex of self-consciousness, and the only people it seemed to positively affect was males.

Makeup was the subtle way of telling a woman that she was not pretty enough, and that she could look better than she originally does. From a young age, women were taught this and they were convinced that makeup would not only make them feel better, but that it would also make them look better. When it came to being a female, looking your best was always, for some reason, what mattered the most above all other characteristics. Because of how young they are when they are influenced by makeup, when it comes to whether or not women have the choice to wear makeup, it can be said that many of them do not.

Even as children, girls would watch their moms spend time everyday in front of the mirror - and often more than one time a day - applying makeup, trying to look her best. Some of these little girls were given toy makeup kits to play with; whether these were meant for fun or for early makeup applying practice, it cannot be said (Peril, 2006). Even if they were meant for pretend play, girls were still subjected and influenced by makeup from that young age, during those young years when they should have been more concerned with having a childhood.

As they get older, they are subjected to other types of makeup; once they have all of the various types on their