The Face of Art

An Anti-feminist group put out this video trying to make feminists look like hypocrites. The woman in the video (one of their actresses) was talking about how she expected men to pay for her dinner because she had painted her face and done her hair to look good for the date. I guess the point was supposed to be that women shouldn't want men to pay for their dinner because they're all independent now. I get that. And honestly, if paying for a date was just about the man paying because women have no money and this is how he proves his worth to her, I would completely understand why people are against it. The thing is, that isn't all that is going on here.

One of the biggest problems for women when it comes to art is that many of the artistic things we do aren't viewed as art forms. Men cooking meals could be Art but women were just making food for their families. Women making blankets out of scraps or yarn, well that was 'just' providing warmth for the family. And making oneself look beautiful? That's just . . . well it's the rent you pay to live as a woman, right?

It's just that, it isn't. As I have written about before, there is the kind of beauty where you are accepted for how you really look and valued for your uniqueness. Then there is the kind of beauty where you aspire to fulfill a certain archetype of beauty, usually one beyond what people look like naturally. How does one achieve that archetype? With painting (makeup on the face), sculpting (the body to look a certain way, via exercise, surgery, certain types of undergarments, etc), shaving this, painting that, wearing certain clothes, making sure you smell a certain way, and creating designs with the hair.

This is art. The act of making one's self look conventionally beautiful is a multi-media work of performance art.

People should be paid for their art. If you want to partake in part of their performance, if you want to enjoy it, if you want to have the experience of it, then you should pay. It isn't like men aren't getting currency out of dating women who meet this kind of archetype fulfillment. Their social status is rewarded for it. Men see them as able to obtain time with a beautiful woman and look on them favorably. Women will view them as more attractive....or if it is obvious that they aren't attractive, it will be assumed they have money. This kind of social gain is worth far more than the cost of a dinner, as is the enjoyment of being with the artist who created the beauty illusion.

RuPaul said, "We're born naked and the rest is drag." This is very true and it applies to everyone. So, again, why is it that when men go out of their way to meet the beauty archetype of women we see no problem in paying them for their art (because drag queens do get paid), but when women do it, we find ourselves dismissing it with a 'it's just' because it is never a 'it's just . . ." Art is art and people who do it well should be respected.