Inspired by a conversation elsewhere

[commodorified]

... About fangirls who would like to like makeup but don't quite know what to do with it.

If I brought my full makeup kit to MJ and/or WisCon, would people like me to do their faces before the dances? I've taken two courses in, and have some experience with, theatre makeup and I can do anything from super-subtle to smoky/pinup/sexpot to full on glitter machine. Subject to panel assignments at WisCon and roomies' needs at MJ, I'm willing to spend 2-3 hours each time on this, which is 8-12 faces.

I can do basic FX work as well, but this must be pre-negotiated as I will need to bring quite specific stuff and I may need to send you shopping.

I am also willing, if asked, to talk about what I am doing while I do it.

If enough people express interest that I do pack the whole kit, I will purchase a packet of disposable mascara wands and also one of disposable eye-makeup applicators, for safety, though I am also happy to guide people in buying their own mascara.

Please feel free to repost, etc.

Please note that I think compulsory makeup and compulsory feminine display are abominations. This offer is for people who would enjoy this, and this comment section is not your space to vent about how much you loathe makeup or girliness. I don't loathe it. I enjoy it. I'm a femme, and I don't feel like being beat up for it.

ETA: somehow I'd missed that sparkymonster and a few other people already do this at WisCon. Am reaching out to them to make sure I'm not stepping on their thing and see if I can join them. Will update.

ETA2: I'm an idiot. You absolutely do not have to identify as a fan*girl* to have makeup! Makeup for all as wants it!

Comments

[stranger]

This sounds like fun, and I'm sorry that I won't be at either convention.

Also, I'm completely in agreement about makeup and other appearance modifications being, in a right and just world, the person's choice. There could be an essay here about local vs global (space and time-span) thinking, but let's just say both the "must" and "must not" views are short-sighted.

[commodorified]

I do see that this isn't a right and just world, and that the things we do have effects; I just have been ... a little burnt in the past when I've posted how-tos about shaving or makeup or self-tanner or other girly stuff and gotten back rants on what a waste of time and all that is wrong in life HAVING to do X is. With which I firmly agree, put like that, but it still felt a bit like taking a slap, in context.

[cleverthylacine]

oh this times a million, and it's especially annoying when it comes from people who do not seem to realise that the level and style of girly I like to present is not, actually, culturally approved pretty much anywhere (I could go on and on about the differences between styles that are "mote" and styles that are not, but I'd have to explain the Japanese.)

[commodorified]

And the thing is, I absolutely *get it*: people who grew up with BE A LADY ringing in their ears day and night end up with some damage, exact degree and nature varying according to their own nature. Any time that I'm not actually already engaged in doing or trying to share some femme thing, I'm a fairly good listener for same. I just need to draw a boundary around the times when it leaves me feeling slapped, you know?

[cleverthylacine]

I think the problem for me is that when am I not doing some femme thing? I don't try to share my femme things with people who don't express interest in them.

I also have a really ragey place about how somehow during the last two centuries people decided that everything intricate and delicate and frilly and colourful and bright was for women (as you know, it wasn't always like that) and hence less valuable, and that drab and functional and practical and unadorned were the markers of seriousness and business and adulthood and trustworthiness, and that as such, when people describe something as "functional" or "unisex" it is always exclusive of ME. I think if I'd been a man I'd have gone a lot madder a lot sooner than I did. I have a friend I'm currently barely speaking to because of an argument in which I cannot adequately express my feelings on the subject about how much of what people claim is "non-gendered" or "genderless" is actually completely exclusive of every single damn thing that makes me feel comfortable and whole and human and me. In addition, I think the whole thing is somewhat classist, as "pretty things" seem to have lost their value at about the same time that they became attainable to those who were not extremely wealthy--when intricate lace and lustrous or highly pigmented fabrics and jewellery were no longer signs of immense wealth because it was possible to produce them cheaply.