3. Can Makeup Ever Actually Be Empowering?

This week we discuss the power of makeup - does it really empower us? Can it ever be liberating? Or does it just reinforce unattainable beauty standards and strengthen our ties to the capitalist machine? 

We talk about the myth of cosmetic-related “empowerment”, the positive feedback loop that keeps us reapplying our makeup, girlboss culture and the commodification of our bodies. 

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References for the episode:

• Sara Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness, 2010
• New Books in Sociology, Ashley Mears, Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, 2020
• Ana Sofia Elias, Rosalind Gill & Christina Scharff, Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism, 2017

• Brook Chervenic, Is Beauty a Promise to Happiness?, 2015