Flipping through the glossy pages of mainstream magazines for young women, one can observe the numerous eyeliner and lipstick advertisements aimed at enhancing a woman’s natural beauty. Makeup companies guarantee a woman’s success and confidence if she wears their brands. The reader is enticed with slogans such as “Because you’re worth it,” “Easy, breezy, beautiful. CoverGirl” and “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.”
One might wonder how long ago this culture of makeup and its influence on women began. Marking the 135th birthday of the Mount Holyoke Art Building, a lecture on Tuesday Nov. 15 focused on the influence of women’s makeup in Ancient Greek and Roman culture. Professor of Art History at Dartmouth College, Ada Cohen talked about how remaining Greek and Roman artifacts show the female social norms and represent the ideal women in Ancient history. The lecture, “Making Up a Woman in Ancient Greece” addressed larger ideas of how femininity is presented in society in light of the historical images.
For Cohen, part of the fascination with this concept is the contradiction of the material itself. One of the most persistent ideas of makeup is image deception. French makeup companies in the 1950s encouraged women to use subtle, natural looking makeup to cover up facial imperfections. By dyeing or curling hair, darkening eyebrows, painting eyelids, lengthening eyelashes and blushing cheeks, women were guaranteed to enhance their natural charms. But did the makeup that ancient women used define femininity? “Wearing makeup is almost constituent to female-ness, but why should this be so?” Cohen asked. She noted that in Roman culture, “real women can be said to implicate themselves in a system by which they beautify themselves and to be implicated in a system that conceals, disguises, derides and silences them.” It becomes evident that a lot hinges on makeup.
The use of cosmetics in ancient Greece was a common practice and a social convention that was depicted on pots and jars. Although there was no real explanation for the application of cosmetics, it has always been associated with women, often as an art of painting the face. Cohen asserted that cosmetics are not essential to survival but constitute human culture. Makeup was used not only to enhance woman’s appearance but also define status in hierarchical culture.
Roman artifacts uncovered in the 1940s provided more evidence that women from the ancient world used makeup to be more feminine. Greek evidence of makeup came in the form of pyxides, little bowls containing white or red substance in chunks of makeup powder, which women applied on their bodies and faces. The makeup was later identified to be white lead, made synthetically with egg and acidic vinegar. The majority of makeup ingredients: lead, alginic and mercury are now known toxins.
Today, makeup continues to define woman’s image and with the advent of science, beautification has expanded to plastic surgery. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports 11,456 cosmetic procedures in 2006 in the United States alone. Despite the centuries that have passed, women in the modern world continue to use makeup to define femininity in their never ending quest to achieve perfection.
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