Over the past twenty-four hours I have read and listened to several women complaining about the wonderful no make selfie campaign for breast cancer awareness that started from nowhere and raised, in a relatively short space of time, about a million quid. I heard women were complaining it was indulgent, sexist(?), narcissistic. Oh no. Really? Come on now. Why do we constantly do that to each other? Why do we feel the need to complain about every little thing. Women and girls are particularly bad when it comes to being supportive of our own sex. Personally, I thought it was far from narcissistic, sexist or indulgent. In an age where perfect body images, drastically altered, air-brushed photographs and the pressure to look utterly perfect all the time are common-place so surely women embracing the idea that it's actually fine and wonderful and normal to go without make-up should be applauded, no? And if you are doing it to raise awareness for a shitty disease that doesn't discriminate, that destroys lives and families, well all the more power to the women who posted those 'no make-up selfies'. Do you know...What it actually did was raise one million pounds for a breast cancer charity and possibly give young girls the green light to say, 'actually, it's ok not to wear make-up, not to conform. I'm ok. We are all pretty brilliant, how about that?! (incidentally, all the girls on my Twiiter feed looked amazing with no make up on as, of course, OF COURSE they would do). Society gives women a hard time. Women give women a hard time. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. Sometimes, oh my goodness, sometimes it's ok to just 'let things go'. Embrace what just happened as a good thing instead of immediately finding fault. Instead of straight away criticising these women for doing something positive, being pro-active, be nice about it... Why not just say, 'you know what, hats off to you. We know how fucking hard it is, living in a society where your self-worth is increasingly judged on the way you look and what you wear so yes, go bare for cancer, go bare for you'. It IS empowering for women and girls to go without make-up. Because, unfortunately, that's where we are, where we've come to. It's a dreadful shame that society and the media have led us to this point but, yes, I do believe it is a courageous thing to do. It's a small step. A tiny step. Women and girls see other women and girls being 'themselves' being brave and they do it too. It took a lot for some of my followers to do what they did for fear of being judged. But they did it. And I applaud them. And after that maybe they slowly begin to see how toxic and mis-represented they are as a sex by the images in magazines and on the Internet. It's significant and it is important. Plus it raises awareness for a charity trying to eradicate cancer. No bad thing. No bad thing at all. And sometimes little steps like the 'no make up selfie' pave the way for bigger change. So let's not be so hard on our own sex. It's difficult enough as it is. Be wonderful, be kind and strive to be happy. And heathly. Support each other and applaud what you did. What you continue to do. And when all's said and done... One million pounds. For wearing no make up. You've got to fucking love that...

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