A.P. Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to students at the Dhaka International School in Dhaka May 6, 2012.
Recently Hillary Clinton was in the news, but it wasn’t for any of her accomplishments as Secretary of State. It was for something bigger and more newsworthy, at least that’s what some of the media would have you believe. Why was Hillary in the news? Did she go out without her pants on … again? Was she topless? Caught in a compromising position with a cabana boy in the steamy jungles of Costa Rica? No, it was much more scandalous than that.
Hillary was in the news because she dared show up to a recent news conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh without wearing any makeup!
Fox News wondered if she perhaps forgot her makeup, if you are to believe the headline that screams, “Hillary Forgets Her Makeup?”
Why couldn’t it be that Hillary simply didn’t want to wear makeup that day? Why does it have to be that she “forgot”? The more I think about it, the more pissed I get that we’ve become a society that thinks that if a woman goes out without makeup it should make the headlines.
I can’t speak for men, because I’m not one, but I do know that they’re never judged because they “forgot” to slap their makeup on before leaving the house. How have we allowed something so trivial and meaningless to become so important?
I love Hillary’s response about the reaction to her no-makeup look, which she made to CNN, “I feel so relieved to be at the stage I’m at in my life right now. Because you know if I want to wear my glasses I’m wearing my glasses. If I want to wear my hair back I’m pulling my hair back. You know at some point it’s just not something that deserves a lot of time and attention. And if others want to worry about it, I let them do the worrying for a change.”
Amen, sister. I think we all should care less about how we look and more about what and who we are. Not that I think we should run around unwashed, looking and smelling like we just crawled out from underneath a bridge embankment after a three-day drinking binge; bathing isn’t optional as far as I’m concerned. But we should care less about having a perfectly coiffed ‘do and more about the gray matter that lies beneath our ‘do.
I’d love for more women in the spotlight to follow suit a la Hillary and be seen makeup-free. In fact, I’d love for Hillary’s fresh-faced look to become a trend.
Maybe we could have a National No Makeup Day, where any woman caught wearing makeup would get beaten by a giant blush brush. Seriously, who do you want to be a role model for our young girls? A smart, successful, confidant woman without a stitch of makeup on, or an insipid, twit of a woman with perfect hair and made up face?
I would pick the Hillary version any day of the week.
And for the record, Hillary, because I know you’re reading this, the pictures of you without makeup on were simply beautiful. Thank you for being a role model that we can look up to. Keep rockin’ on with your bad self!
Rachel Birdsell is a freelance writer and artist. You can drop her a line at rabirdsell@gmail.com.
Hillary Bares All
A.P. Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to students at the Dhaka International School in Dhaka May 6, 2012.
Recently Hillary Clinton was in the news, but it wasn’t for any of her accomplishments as Secretary of State. It was for something bigger and more newsworthy, at least that’s what some of the media would have you believe. Why was Hillary in the news? Did she go out without her pants on … again? Was she topless? Caught in a compromising position with a cabana boy in the steamy jungles of Costa Rica? No, it was much more scandalous than that.
Hillary was in the news because she dared show up to a recent news conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh without wearing any makeup!
Fox News wondered if she perhaps forgot her makeup, if you are to believe the headline that screams, “Hillary Forgets Her Makeup?”
Why couldn’t it be that Hillary simply didn’t want to wear makeup that day? Why does it have to be that she “forgot”? The more I think about it, the more pissed I get that we’ve become a society that thinks that if a woman goes out without makeup it should make the headlines.
I can’t speak for men, because I’m not one, but I do know that they’re never judged because they “forgot” to slap their makeup on before leaving the house. How have we allowed something so trivial and meaningless to become so important?
I love Hillary’s response about the reaction to her no-makeup look, which she made to CNN, “I feel so relieved to be at the stage I’m at in my life right now. Because you know if I want to wear my glasses I’m wearing my glasses. If I want to wear my hair back I’m pulling my hair back. You know at some point it’s just not something that deserves a lot of time and attention. And if others want to worry about it, I let them do the worrying for a change.”
Amen, sister. I think we all should care less about how we look and more about what and who we are. Not that I think we should run around unwashed, looking and smelling like we just crawled out from underneath a bridge embankment after a three-day drinking binge; bathing isn’t optional as far as I’m concerned. But we should care less about having a perfectly coiffed ‘do and more about the gray matter that lies beneath our ‘do.
I’d love for more women in the spotlight to follow suit a la Hillary and be seen makeup-free. In fact, I’d love for Hillary’s fresh-faced look to become a trend.
Maybe we could have a National No Makeup Day, where any woman caught wearing makeup would get beaten by a giant blush brush. Seriously, who do you want to be a role model for our young girls? A smart, successful, confidant woman without a stitch of makeup on, or an insipid, twit of a woman with perfect hair and made up face?
I would pick the Hillary version any day of the week.
And for the record, Hillary, because I know you’re reading this, the pictures of you without makeup on were simply beautiful. Thank you for being a role model that we can look up to. Keep rockin’ on with your bad self!
Rachel Birdsell is a freelance writer and artist. You can drop her a line at rabirdsell@gmail.com.