Women’s Health: Don’t wear lipstick, people won’t listen to you!

I was reading Women’s Health magazine because I received a free issue in my bag of goodies from a conference for women in communications a couple weeks ago.

I liked what I read about wild rice being better for you than brown rice, but not what I read about how women should apply makeup for job interviews. I think what crossed the line for me was the argument about makeup and women’s priorities. I don’t disagree that somewhere between Pam Anderson and Pam from The Office (though I kind of like how Pam from The Office looks) is the ”sweet spot” WH speaks of. But once they argue that ”Heavy makeup may suggest misplaced priorities: You care more about looking good than working hard,” This is straight sexist stereotyping about women. WH is talking about perception but when WH tells women to play into perceptions instead of standing up for ourselves and demanding we be taken seriously, AND remind our potential employers that it takes 10 seconds to apply lipstick, well that bothers me.

Apparently a woman can’t even wear a rose colored lipstick and be listened to because only tinted lip balm or a sheer lip stain will do, because painted lips say ”kiss me, not promote me.” Employers will be ”distracted from what you’re saying.”

When men want to keep women out of any male dominated space, historically they call women a distraction. Many women have felt they need to look more like men to be taken seriously. And it isn’t right, and Women’s Health shouldn’t passively tolerate it.