Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Femininity So Fragile

All Episodes

Previous Next

Nov. 17, 2017 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

06:21

Femininity So Fragile

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	At the beginning of November 2017, an app called MakeApp hit the Apple store, and it caused something of a controversy.
	My suspicions were first aroused when BuzzFeed kindly informed me that the app was made by a man, which A, I had already assumed, and B, is somehow innately problematic.
	But it's not about hating men.
	And naturally, this app caused an internet shitstorm.
	This app wants to destroy your self-esteem, and it's bullshit.
	That the app store overfloweth with thousands of makeup apps that will digitally sculpt your face to enhance your perfection is fine.
	But an app to remove the makeup?
	That's haram.
	The app was branded as a way to make women feel terrible about themselves, with the female authors sarcastically admitting that their makeup is a malicious mask meant for tricking men with artificial, fraudulent allure.
	Well, duh.
	What did you think makeup was for?
	What other purpose could it have?
	In the words of one New York Post contributor, when I ran a selfie through the app, I was shocked to find that under my thin veneer of tinted moisturizer and lip stain was a haggard woman twice my age just off a meth bender.
	At first I thought it was hilarious, but the more I used it, the more I found myself doubting my sense of self.
	Had I been living in some kind of delusion fueled by flattering lighting and sycophantic assurances all this time?
	This stupid app was gaslighting me.
	That's right, the app is gaslighting you.
	It's not that you've spent every day since your teenage years lying to yourself and the world about the quality of your looks, and now you're staring into the reality you spent 20 years denying.
	The app is actually a form of psychological warfare against women.
	She finishes with a plea to humanity.
	Women have to suffer through enough.
	Less pay, less respect, more harassment.
	Do we really need to be humiliated for wanting to look like our best selves?
	But is it really a picture of your best self, Miss Gray?
	It's a painting of you that you hide behind in public, while the real face is hidden away, unseen by the world, because to look upon it is too horrific, apparently.
	Because let's be real here.
	Removing makeup from a woman's face is fucked up.
	Of course the male developer must believe he's protecting his fellow dudes from makeup traps.
	But just so we're clear, women don't use makeup to trick men.
	They just use makeup as a form of self-expression, to make them feel more confident, by making them feel more attractive.
	And they just like it, okay?
	Yes, the point is to make women look artificially more beautiful and yes, men are attracted to beauty, but focusing on what someone looks like under their makeup reduces women to being an object.
	Painting her like a sculpture turns her into a real human being.
	Wanting to see a woman's natural beauty is of course misogynistic.
	Telling a woman she'd look more beautiful without hours of perfectly painted makeup is a microaggression, despite the fact that makeup is literally a struggle against the reality of a woman's looks.
	It gets worse though, as the app seems to also lighten dark skin, so it isn't just misogynistic, it's also racist.
	And to add insult to injury, there still isn't an app to see men's histories of respecting women.
	The weirdest part is this sentence.
	It makes me shudder to think that someone gave people this kind of power without a second thought.
	This kind of power?
	Is this a kind of defrocking for women?
	How could this make sense unless the author had unwittingly admitted that wearing makeup is a form of artificially enhancing female power over men, and the excuse of just wearing it for themselves is a lie.
	Of course, you're free to use this app if you like, or you can just get a fucking life.
	Don't you know how tough women have it?
	Also, did you know that this app was made by a Russian, with links to the Kremlin who writes pro-Putin propaganda?
	Also, if you want to see a woman without makeup, that's basically like seeing her nude, you fucking creep.
	Just remember that the value of a person has nothing to do with what they look like, which is why it matters so much when you try to see what a woman looks like without her makeup.
	Frankly, it's clear that this evil Russian is just a sad man with a sad app, probably an MRA, who wants to stop those evil women tricking him with makeup.
	Makeup is just a sad app for sad entitled people.
	God damn, why won't you just learn to accept that you don't have the right to know what a woman actually looks like?
	Now, time to go on a date and get married to a person whose real face you've never actually seen.
	It's like wearing makeup is the Western women's version of a burke or something.
	The problem is, makeup is a tool of the patriarchy and societal pressure makes some women want to wear it.
	Wait, so isn't this like a feminist app?
	Denying patriarchal gender norms of beauty?
	Either way, shut the fuck up, shitlord, because it's making us feel bad about ourselves and your worth isn't tied to your looks, which is why none of this matters, which is why we wrote a bunch of articles calling you bad people.
	Which is why we've decided to run the app's creator through the app just to show the world how hideous he is too.
	How do you like that, huh, Mr. Russian spy?
	Got him!
	Fucking got him!
	Total burn!
	Oh, it's gonna take a long time to recover from that one.
	Basically, the app is a plot to make men think all women are ugly.
	Fact.
	It's not that women use makeup to compensate for what they perceive to be a shortfall in their looks, which remember is not the value of a person anyway.
	It's a conspiracy by the patriarchy against its own master plan of forcing every woman to wear makeup.
	Of course, the app's creator claims he created the app to help identify women who have been the victims of human trafficking, who are often forced to wear heavy makeup to disguise their identities.
	This is a Russian lie, created by a Russian hacker with the purpose of undermining democracy in America.
	At least, this is the feminist narrative surrounding makeup, and it would be a damn sight more convincing if there weren't thousands of articles stretching back decades in women's magazines created by and purchased by women of celebrities caught without makeup for women to gossip over.
	It would be more convincing if there weren't a million different makeup channels that contain nothing but tutorials on how to paint your entire face so not one square inch of original skin was actually visible, so you indeed can look like a China doll.
	Is this somehow linked to the OKCupid study that showed that women found 80% of men below average when gauging their attractiveness?
	Could it be a consequence of having the ability to put on a mask that artificially raises one's own attractiveness and distorts one's own perception of their own value in the sexual marketplace?
	And is the reason why so many women-focused sites are flipping out about makeup because it unwittingly is pulling back the veil and destroying the artificially inflated egos of so many of their readers?
	Alas, we'll never know.
	But I ran myself through it and I didn't find much difference.

▲