Sigh. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhh. Guys, someone’s made an app that removes your makeup. It’s called MakeApp, and I really, really hate it.
The creator is Russian-born Brooklynite Ashot Gabrelyanov. Among some other filter options, it allows someone to remove the makeup from any photo, leaving the subject “makeup free”.
Technically, the app has many different “filters” that can add makeup. But it’s this “remove” one that’s getting all the attention, because look what it does to you:
That’s me, by the way. And that is not what I look like without makeup.
It’s like the app purposely takes all definition away from your eyes and mouth (not to mention how it’s lightened my skin there – super problematic as I can only imagine what it would do to a PoC’s skin tone).
The result is that you look aged and washed-out – exactly what the stereotype is for women.
Now, I’m not saying makeup doesn’t enhance our features and does some pretty magical things for complexions and for definition. And maybe Ashot’s intention with this app wasn’t to shame women for what they do or don’t put on their faces, but the reality is that’s exactly what it’s doing.
The issue here is that women are constantly told by men, society, and the media that makeup is “lies” and conceals the “truth”. We’re pumped from our formative years onward with this whole “guys like women to look natural and makeup free” shit, but at the same time shamed when we literally wear no makeup. We can’t win – and somehow what we do with our own faces has become the business of everyone who hasn’t been as heavily subjected to ludicrous expectations of beauty as women.
Consider all those tabloid mags and their “stars without makeup” spreads. Their entire point is to “reveal” what stars really look like. So the subtext is – makeup makes these celebrity women look beautiful, but really they’re gross. Yuck! Look at these monsters underneath all that red carpet makeup! Scary!
Making a shitty filter like this is exactly like those spreads. It’s encouraging this mindset that the makeup-free face is the “real person” and that we need to remove peoples makeup against their will (or take secret pictures of them makeup free) to expose their real self to the world. It’s also implying that women are hideous underneath their “lying” makeup.
It’s also perpetuating the myth that women who do choose to wear makeup are doing so because actually, they’re hideous trolls underneath. The way it removes not just your makeup, but also the natural definition from your eyes, adds a grey, washed-out tone to your skin, and enhances fine lines is absolutely playing into that insanity.
But basically – we don’t owe you our bare faces. And how much makeup we wear is our own fucking choice. So don’t make an app that removes it, because it’s actually none of your business what we look like without it.
