A story has been circulating this week about Bradley Cooper's insistence on
Lady Gaga's makeup-free appearance for "A Star is Born" and has gotten mixed reviews. While some are fawning over it and praising Cooper for his acceptance of "natural beauty", others are unpacking things a little more. For centuries, women wearing makeup have been accused of hiding their real appearance or lying about their true selves. Especially for women we see in the media, society demands a certain level of put-togetherness from women. They must appear beautiful, but not overly made up. Men have been the drivers of this for most of history, determining beauty standards for women and policing their looks. While the sentiment is nice on the surface - and given that Cooper was also the director of the film, it makes sense that he had a vision for his characters - it just further ingrains the belief that women who are "honest" about their appearance are somehow better than those who cover up. The media has enormous influence on what makes a woman a "real woman", and "A Star is Born" is no exception to this.
Seems like another instance of a male director controlling women's bodies and the version of femininity that he wants to portray for whatever reason. It isn't feminism. If the choice were left up to her that would be a different story. Lady Gaga has been known to go make-up free before, but Cooper actually physically took a make up wipe to her face when she showed up wearing make up. I agree with you, there are stereotypes about women who wear too much make up and ones that wear none, and it is dangerous when we label one as being a "honest" version of femininity. I have not seen the film so I am unsure of the femininity being portrayed in the film, although I heard it is pretty submissive and not empowering so I don't think wearing no make up makes it an empowering feminist film.
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