From the moment Eve stuck three fig leaves onto her unmentionables, women have been aware of their femininity. When scientists hark on about the "missing link," I can firmly assert that it was a fully-evolved Avon lady who showed us that opposable thumbs are for grasping mascara and lipstick. Religious or not, women across the world cannot escape the pressure to show everyone how delightfully feminine they are.
Women have been complaining for centuries, but they were usually silenced with a good burning or a swift lobotomy. They finally made themselves heard during the 1960s, and now the women of my generation look to that of our mothers and hear their pleas for equality, respect and liberation. We just can't seem to juggle these notions with new ideals about our sexuality. Think one way and dress the other. No wonder the relationship between feminism and femininity is decidedly schizophrenic.
In light of recent American activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, the masses have been forced to accept that not only can women cook, clean and doll themselves up, but they can also fix helicopters, fire weapons and become prisoners of war. Women make up 212,000 of the 1.4 million people in the Armed Forces. The problem that niggles me is the notion that the latter persona can only be justified by the former. In short, society accepts women who join the military but only if they don't lose their femininity. And our most overwhelming feminine trait harks back to the Avon lady, and her toolbox of makeup.
I found a corker of an article in a woman's glossy, Glamour, which gave 10 female soldiers makeovers. Amidst their ridiculous cries of "I couldn't wear gloss - the sand stuck to my lips!" were the more sincere comments portraying a deeper regret: "In this job, you don't even have time to feel like a woman."
I spoke to Faith Kapperman, a battalion commander for the Sun Devil Cadets who, at just 26, will become an officer in the National Guard after her graduation in May. "I thought [the Glamour article] was dead on," she said. "The day I got out of basic training AIT, the first thing I did was get a pedicure, a manicure and facial. I wanted to feel feminine."
Yet she questioned the idea behind the article by asking "Is dressing up important? Does it make you feel feminine, or does it get in the way of who we really are?" Kapperman believes she got her answer during four months of basic training when all personal items were locked away in favor of uniform color and style. Now she admits that she rarely wears makeup, but this doesn't damper her sympathies for the 10 women who felt they needed to. She recognizes the need for these women to feel confident and have a sense of normalcy whilst in such challenging environments. Wearing makeup is the easy way to remind themselves that "this is what I am, who I am. This is what makes me, me."
As much as I agree with this, I can't help but think that Glamour jumped at the chance to act the savior. Fear not, Glamour will wash that sand right outta' your hair so society can recognize you're still a woman after all that engine grease and sweat. It seems wrong that as much as the soldiers affirm they wear makeup for all the positive reasons, the media feels they can turn it into justification for the ignorant louts who still can't get their fat heads around the fact that a woman can do a man's job. We can do your jobs, and we can do them without sacrificing our femininity. We don't need to wear makeup to prove it.
No one would dare venture that a woman with a mastectomy is less of a woman, so why do we freely joke when she doesn't wear makeup? There are deeper, more profound aspects to our sexuality that we ignore, and I think it's about time we started embracing them. You can be a feminine-feminist, wear all the makeup you want and espouse ideals of equality: it doesn't make you a hypocrite. But just be able to go to bed at night and wash your makeup off without feeling you've watched your femininity go down the plughole.
Katie McCrory is a history junior. Reach her at kathleen-ellen.mccrory@asu.edu.
