Alicia Keys at the 2016 MTV Video Music AwardsYOUTUBE: MTV

On 28th August 2016, at the MTV Video Music Awards, the singer Alicia Keys shocked the world by daring to bare the last part of the female body (it seems) that has not been exposed on the red carpet – her fresh, unadorned face. Her explicit understatement became the most controversial statement of beauty. Amid the chiselled contouring, the overdrawn lips, the hair extensions and the eye-watering smoky eyes, it was the total absence of makeup that has elicited a flurry of social media activity delving into the social implications of makeup or lack thereof.

The #NoMakeup gauntlet has been taken up on the red carpet and the runway alike. Celebrities including Susan Sarandon, Zendaya and Lorde, have taken to Instagram makeup-free and proud. In recent months, Cameron Diaz posted a candid no-make up selfie to generate a discussion about ageing naturally. Cindy Crawford, Eva Longoria, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Hathaway have also gone barefaced on social media to contribute to the movement. 

Kate Winslet has launched a personal crusade against the unobtainable beauty standards perpetuated by the fashion and beauty industry in an attempt to be a better role model for young women. The actress has a contractual agreement in place with the L’Oréal group to prevent additional editing of her appearance in the Lancôme adverts she features in, making her one of the only actresses to appear in beauty adverts without wrinkles being erased from images. 

More recently, on the Resort 2017 runways, some of the season’s most directional shows have been celebrating the beauty and power of a fresh, unadorned face. At Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Acne, models took to the runway with natural skin and what appeared to be not a scrap of makeup, save for an artistic daub of blue on the lips or white on the eyes.

Despite these high-profile tributes to Keys’ resolute stand against perfectionism, like most bold statements in the entertainment world, her defiant naturalness spurred fearsome controversy. Whilst the majority of her critics were simply sceptical as to whether she was really wearing no makeup, many reactions -from men and women alike- were more alarming. One woman tweeted that Keys should “get the f*** off stage” for looking like a “haggard mess”; another labelled her a “fake feminist” and one man urged her to give up the “no makeup s***, put on some concealer and call it a day”. What does this say about social expectations for women and makeup? Are these reactions symptomatic of a deeply ingrained inequality in our society?

we all know you wear bb cream, sis. also, how does no makeup correlate to this haggard look you're running around with? @aliciakeys

— Pidge Gunderson (@BasedJane) 29 de agosto de 2016

The fact that it makes the Tabloid headlines when an A-list female celebrity goes without makeup shows how deeply embedded this expectation of unnatural perfection is in our society. A woman making a decision for herself about how she wants to look really should not be revolutionary, but the negative ricochet throughout social media proves we still have a long way to go before women are awarded the same freedom as men when it comes to their appearance.

In her essay written for ‘Lenny’, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s feminist newsletter, Keys voiced her previous fear about her unpainted face: “What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it??? These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me.”

As a woman, I completely understand this anxiety, despite not being under the scorching glare of the public eye. I find it hard to leave my room without at least a little mascara and concealer to hide a late night, and god forbid meeting friends or going for an evening out ‘au naturel’. Of course, I know that those bags under my eyes and the blonde (read invisible) eyelashes are not going to offend anyone who sees me, and my friends are not going to think any less of me for not looking my best at a 9am lecture. Yet I, like so many other women of all ages, am acutely, if not subconsciously, aware of the expectations about how women should present themselves in public. Indeed, it is so deeply entrenched in my psyche that I do not know who I am making the extra effort for – myself, my friends, the opposite sex, the same sex or complete strangers.

So far, all this may seem fairly superficial and a little frivolous to many – so what if you like wearing makeup and who cares if you don’t? But the truth of these expectations strikes deeper than you might think. In the professional world, it has long been proved by various studies that attractiveness of character and physical appearance is positively correlated with income. A plethora of research has found people who are considered physically attractive have many advantages in life. However, at the University of California, Jaclyn Wong and Andrew Penner wondered: when it comes to aesthetic grooming, what is the difference, and how can both influence the salaries we earn?

In their article ‘Gender and Returns to Attractiveness’ they found that attractive individuals earn roughly 20 per cent more than people of average attractiveness, which is in line with existing research. But, when people of the same level of attractiveness were compared to each other, well-groomed people earned more money than poorly groomed people. Their research suggested that grooming rituals – practices such as applying makeup and styling hair – was actually what accounted for nearly all of the salary differences for women of varying attractiveness, while grooming only accounted for half of the salary differences for men.

When investigating the reasons behind this imbalance, Wong and Penner conjectured that these differences are the result of a cultural tendency to monitor women’s behaviour more than men’s in ways that keep women distracted from really achieving power. Wong refers to Naomi Wolf, a third-wave feminist who believes women are encouraged to pursue ‘the beauty myth’, or society’s unrealistic standards of beauty as a way to control and constrain women’s behaviour. So, the controversy surrounding makeup or no makeup is not as trivial as you may have thought. A woman who rolls out of bed and into work every morning is very likely to earn less than a man who does the same.

Wearing makeup should be a choice, not something you feel you have to do to avoid hurtful comments or to better your career prospects. With social media having permeated through every part of our lives, celebrity proponents of honest beauty can reach millions of people simultaneously every time they speak up, and the #NoMakeup movement has certainly found an enthusiastic following. Those famous women mentioned above are only a few of the A-List stars to stand behind Keys’ war on perfectionism.

Despite these stellar advocates, I don’t think the cosmetics industry needs to batten down the hatchets against a full blown boycott quite yet; this quiet rebellion against the status quo is more about freedom of choice than mascara and eyeliner. Nevertheless, Alicia Keys’ message is more important and relevant than ever, and I believe the negative backlash only serves to justify her point further. Feeling empowered to be your truest self, whether that involves wearing makeup or not is a movement I can really appreciate and, just like Keys, “I hope to God it’s a revolution”.