The Use of Makeup

[Jo_Was]

Brother, we can agree that every individual's use of makeup is subjective for good or bad reasons. And we are not privy to such reasons. So again, I ask, what is the point of the question of your research? You may acquire an informed broad brush, but a brush I frankly cannot see a use for.

You say, "Make-up is very much part of our culture, but can we look to our culture as to what should be?" but that ignores that someone who does not care for culture can love and use makeup. Someone can hate immodest dress and use makeup in reference to you saying "But generally why is women's fashion more form-fitting to show off curves, or why are women's shirt necks typically deeper, revealing more skin?"

You are mixing a lot of categories and assumptions.

Agreed. For example, per my previous addition to the discussion, there are cultures where the woman's figure is not overly revealed or revealing (saris, long dresses, flowing outfits with flowing pants, head coverings, etc), yet they wear make-up. It's just assumed that the women wear make-up, yet still dress modestly. So more makeup and immodesty don't always go together. We just can't conflate all of these various factors of fashion and dress as one presentation. It's too complicated to do so.

Further, we aren't letting culture "dictate" how we view this issue but understand that this issue doesn't come up in a vacuum. There is history to it all. We are a people moving through time and place. That doesn't relegate us to subjectivist ideas BUT it should cause us to consider the context, and indeed the context of fashion and modesty in Biblical times is very foreign to us today. Therefore, in light of not having a 1-1 correlation to everything modest or fashionable to the original hearers/readers of the Scriptures, we have to inevitably face the hard work ourselves of cultivating discernment. Discernment is not in abstract. Even Paul was careful to warn us not to unduly offend our society. As some others have mentioned, that can mean to be appropriately dressed/styled in what others will recognize as appropriate to the context. That is not a consistent scale across cultures and places. That's not subjective, that's just the reality. Something we may find modest, may be immodest in another setting. Bringing it back to this point: in certain times and places, makeup can indicate femininity, and sometimes even indicate the stage of life a woman is in (available, not available, etc). We don't necessarily have that today in our present Western contexts, but, again, just brought up to show how things we take for granted "as they are" have not always been so.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

Outside of Miss Marple's excellent response I would ask the question does someone need to justify it? You ask a great question but what's the real question? You've already said that "you don't judge it" and "its up to individuals to decide", so it seems You've already answered your own question. I'm trying to figure out what your real question is, is it for people who do it/don't have a problem with it to justify the practice from some biblical reason? I ask out of general confusion of the question thats all.

I'm always open to reason and education, and that's one area of life I can educate myself in. Maybe in the future my wife may be able to help someone wondering about such things, and my knowledge can help. Also, I have young children that will have to face these decisions, and I would like to help teach them when the time comes. Ultimately I want the truth in all of life, and the way to get to that is by knowledge, experience, and reason. Thanks!

 

[jwright82]

I'm always open to reason and education, and that's one area of life I can educate myself in. Maybe in the future my wife may be able to help someone wondering about such things, and my knowledge can help. Also, I have young children that will have to face these decisions, and I would like to help teach them when the time comes. Ultimately I want the truth in all of life, and the way to get to that is by knowledge, experience, and reason. Thanks!

Ok that makes sense. I have a daughter as well so I've been concerned about that stuff myself. Thankfully she's modest but she's an adult now. I would say you seem to have a good grasp things so I'm sure your wisdom will pay off.

 

[Elizabeth]

My wife takes a good bit longer than five minutes, and she is gorgeous. Her makeup accents her features in a tasteful, sensible, and modest way. I love it. To call her “drag queen chic” would be an incredible insult.

Drag queen chic doesn't NECESSARILY apply to all women who take longer that five minute to apply the paint. I expect some women like the process a great deal and can spend longer than five minutes. But nevertheless, there is a garishness to some women's war-paint which mimics drag-queens. Enhancement is one thing, clownish quite another.

 

[Taylor]

Drag queen chic doesn't NECESSARILY apply to all women who take longer that five minute to apply the paint. I expect some women like the process a great deal and can spend longer than five minutes. But nevertheless, there is a garishness to some women's war-paint which mimics drag-queens. Enhancement is one thing, clownish quite another.

Of course. I understood what you were saying and generally agree with you. I just wanted to proclaim that my wife is a beautiful exception.

 

[Mr. Great-Heart]

To me it is a puzzling thing that is a huge part of Christian culture, that I want to be able to settle with an answer on, but I am finding that is just about impossible. I don't judge anyone's motives or reasons, and recognize that this is up to individuals to come to their own conclusions. If I were one to personally wear makeup, the only reasons I could justify it would be 1. To try to cover up a disfigurement, scar, or something like that, or 2. In privacy for my spouse. But even if I was a woman, I still wouldn't do it for either of those reasons. A third would be for something like a costume or trick-or-treating.

But I say it again, I'm not judging anyone who does it. We all have our freedoms. I'm looking for the justification for the way it's used. Thanks!

Do you ever wear a belt as part of your outfit? Why, and how do you choose which belt to wear? If you only own one belt, why did you purchase that one specifically?

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Closed for the Lord's Day.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Thread reopened.

 

[VictorBravo]

Do you ever wear a belt as part of your outfit? Why, and how do you choose which belt to wear? If you only own one belt, why did you purchase that one specifically?

Ambling along trying to avoid the image of what would happen if I didn't wear a belt. Besides, I need something to clip my impact driver to.

 

[Miss Marple]

I'm always open to reason and education, and that's one area of life I can educate myself in. Maybe in the future my wife may be able to help someone wondering about such things, and my knowledge can help. Also, I have young children that will have to face these decisions, and I would like to help teach them when the time comes. Ultimately I want the truth in all of life, and the way to get to that is by knowledge, experience, and reason. Thanks!

In re daughters, food for thought, in our culture it is normally quite inappropriate for children to wear makeup. Due to this we allowed only one item of makeup at age 13 - acknowledgment that they were becoming women and it was allowed but of course voluntary. By they time they were 16 or so they were doing as they saw fit and never went extreme with it.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

Do you ever wear a belt as part of your outfit? Why, and how do you choose which belt to wear? If you only own one belt, why did you purchase that one specifically?

I confess that I don't post much on the Puritan Board because it's hard for me to discern people's feelings and intentions that I'm interacting with. When I'm talking to friends in person about such things, I feel the love, peace, and cordial feelings we have for each other that makes it easy to talk about controversial things. Because we are on social media and aren't in person, I often struggle with how people come across, including myself at times, and kind of end up feeling defensive about things when I shouldn't. It makes me emotionally uneasy. I wish it were easier to communicate through social media. It's probably my fault most of the time, as most people probably do have good intentions and I probably am looking for assurance that all is good and merry, but because I can't see that in person, it's hard to tell online. LOL, all that to say I just want us to all be happy, build each other up, and enjoy fellowship. And because of my struggle it's probably best for me to not get into further discussion. Btw, you didn't do anything wrong.

 

[RamistThomist]

and sorry no pictures exist, I had them all destroyed).

That made my day

 

[Edward]

Do you ever wear a belt as part of your outfit?

Suspenders are much more comfortable, and make a better statement, but it's almost impossible to find pants with buttons for them, and almost as difficult to find affordable every day suspenders.

Besides, I need something to clip my impact driver to.

the only belt that would work for me if I carried an impact driver would be a Sam Browne belt. Which, thinking about it, would also make a statement, wouldn't it?

 

[Mr. Great-Heart]

I confess that I don't post much on the Puritan Board because it's hard for me to discern people's feelings and intentions that I'm interacting with. When I'm talking to friends in person about such things, I feel the love, peace, and cordial feelings we have for each other that makes it easy to talk about controversial things. Because we are on social media and aren't in person, I often struggle with how people come across, including myself at times, and kind of end up feeling defensive about things when I shouldn't. It makes me emotionally uneasy. I wish it were easier to communicate through social media. It's probably my fault most of the time, as most people probably do have good intentions and I probably am looking for assurance that all is good and merry, but because I can't see that in person, it's hard to tell online. LOL, all that to say I just want us to all be happy, build each other up, and enjoy fellowship. And because of my struggle it's probably best for me to not get into further discussion. Btw, you didn't do anything wrong.

Well, a number of things could be said but let me just apologize for the post that made you emotionally uneasy (though you didn't directly say my post did, I will make the assumption). I think I follow some others in being a bit confused about the way you're posing your question, but I see I did no better with mine!

Anyway, I am sure there is plenty more to puzzle over about why we do what we do in terms of external presentation, and I mean things that men do (and wear) as well as women.

I will go back to not posting much, too.

 

[AnnaBanana]

By all the comments so far, this seems like no simple matter. Make-up is very much part of our culture, but can we look to our culture as to what should be? The topic seems similar to the issue of modesty: we make it subjective. But generally why is women's fashion more form-fitting to show off curves, or why are women's shirt necks typically deeper, revealing more skin? As Christians the answer is plain. My wife knows Christian women who think bikinis are modest, and they will defend it hard. It is easy to justify what we do. I wonder how much of a difference it would make if we step back and really ask ourselves, "what are the real reasons I am doing something?" Am I being influenced by the world, culture, or insecurities? Is this ideally how life should be?

"Research shows there are two primary reasons why women wear makeup: Camouflage – Women who are anxious and insecure tend to use makeup to appear less noticeable. Seduction – Women who want to be noticeably more attractive tend to use makeup to be more confident, sociable, and assertive."

Are the above justifiable for Christians? And I'm not against it and so far think it is subjective, but I sincerely want to know why we do certain things, and if they are the best way life should be.

My wife sometimes wears light makeup on formal occasions. The other Sunday she had on more noticeable eye-liner. Another woman gave her a compliment on how it looked, and my wife took that as a sign that she shouldn't wear it that noticable again. But that's just her mindset. I tend to think the same way as my wife, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this matter.

I really appreciate all the replies so far!

Came across this thread and wanted to chime in.

A hobby of mine is learning make up tricks on YouTube. It’s fun and a creative outlet for me. I used to love painting so maybe there is a correlation here, I’m not sure.

Can I go a day/week/year without make up? Of course. I’m not doing it to attract anyone, I’m doing it for creative reasons and to be honest, I sometimes look more alive with it on .

Something did stick out to me in your post and I’m curious to know why. If your wife did wear a more noticeable eye liner and someone noticed, why did that make her feel like she shouldn’t wear it as conspicuous? Or what made her feel wrong about it? This is a non judgmental question but more curiosity.

 

[Jeri Tanner]

I confess that I don't post much on the Puritan Board because it's hard for me to discern people's feelings and intentions that I'm interacting with. When I'm talking to friends in person about such things, I feel the love, peace, and cordial feelings we have for each other that makes it easy to talk about controversial things. Because we are on social media and aren't in person, I often struggle with how people come across, including myself at times, and kind of end up feeling defensive about things when I shouldn't. It makes me emotionally uneasy. I wish it were easier to communicate through social media. It's probably my fault most of the time, as most people probably do have good intentions and I probably am looking for assurance that all is good and merry, but because I can't see that in person, it's hard to tell online. LOL, all that to say I just want us to all be happy, build each other up, and enjoy fellowship. And because of my struggle it's probably best for me to not get into further discussion. Btw, you didn't do anything wrong.

Ryan, this was a really good post. We all get used to speaking on a discussion/debate forum in clipped ways, and being clipped it comes across as terse. I appreciate your pointing this out.

As for makeup, I agree that it is a somewhat weird thing! I have one extremely honest-hearted daughter who currently struggles with wearing it (so doesn’t). I can only say that women wear it to accent their already-there femininity. Women generally have different facial contours, different looks to their foreheads, cheeks, eyebrows, lips, etc that the eye recognizes as feminine. And the makeup we wear, and other things we do, tends to emphasize and try to help that along.

I think it’s a lost cause to try to untangle it all at this point and assign a moral “grade” to the use of it. There is a real line where the wearing of makeup crosses over into attention-drawing- as in you’re seeing the makeup itself, and not just the nice and normal facial features. I think Christian women should avoid that, just like extremes of figure-accentuating and revealing dress. And not just avoid extremes, but be thoughtful in general about the degree of makeup they wear, watching their hearts especially if vanity is a temptation.

We also ought to hold on loosely to the use of it so if the day came when we didn’t have access to these niceties, we wouldn’t skip a beat.

 

[Ryan&Amber2013]

Came across this thread and wanted to chime in.

A hobby of mine is learning make up tricks on YouTube. It’s fun and a creative outlet for me. I used to love painting so maybe there is a correlation here, I’m not sure.

Can I go a day/week/year without make up? Of course. I’m not doing it to attract anyone, I’m doing it for creative reasons and to be honest, I sometimes look more alive with it on .

Something did stick out to me in your post and I’m curious to know why. If your wife did wear a more noticeable eye liner and someone noticed, why did that make her feel like she shouldn’t wear it as conspicuous? Or what made her feel wrong about it? This is a non judgmental question but more curiosity.

Thanks for your post. In short, she sees those things on herself as vanity. I'm pretty much the same way. I don't have fancy clothes, or fancy haircuts, or tattoos, or anything that is outwardly showy. We just prefer to not draw attention to ourselves.