Woman confronts male coworker over comment that women 'look better' without makeup: 'I'm not a doll'

Makeup is not something that sprung up after the invention of products. Men and women have been doing makeup since the beginning of civilization for enhancement, disguise, and personal expression. The objective of makeup is not just to achieve perfectly glazed porcelain skin or to gloss over blemishes but to enhance beauty. However, a recent post by a woman in her 20s, u/depquahv, bespeaks how makeup is sometimes bracketed by the societal belief of women’s inauthenticity. She shared how she stood up for herself and clapped back at a 30-year-old male colleague who gave her an unsolicited opinion that “women look better without makeup.”

The woman described that she had been working in her job for the past 3.5 years. There was this one colleague with whom she had spoken only a handful of times and had short interactions. One evening, this colleague approached her out of the blue while she was doing her closing duties. At this time, the woman was wearing full makeup with some “sparkly eyeshadow.” The guy walked to her and said he needed to tell her something. “I think women look better without makeup. It’s just too much. Did you dance or something when you were younger? A natural face is better,” he told her.

The colleague said this while looking “right in her dolled-up eyes” and “wrinkling his nose with a stank face.” She was dumbfounded after this encounter. But instead of dwelling on the man’s judgmental remarks, she used them as an opportunity to motivate her glow-getter self. “Well, now that I know the makeup I like to do is a creep repellent, I’ll happily go out of my way to wake up early and wear a full face of makeup every day for weeks. It was honestly a boost of motivation to wake up early and have an extra healthy breakfast, too,” she wrote. Ever since then, she has kept a distance from this guy. “I’m your coworker, not some doll for you to ogle at,” she expressed.

Impressed by her unflinching self-confidence, over 6,000 people upvoted the post. Many of them reflected on how it is too hard for women to fit into a society steeped in a standard of beauty that isn’t humanly possible. Countering the guy’s words, u/catatonic2020 wrote, “I think men look better with their mouths closed.” u/detunedradiohead proclaimed, “They think we do it all for them. They don't realize we wear it because we like it or we just enjoy sparkles. That's why they have the audacity to give feedback. They assume its only purpose is to attract a man.”

Other women joined the discussion and shared similar encounters with guys who judged their looks based on their fashion, style, or makeup. ”I had a guy friend tell me he didn’t like my outfit because he didn’t like high-waisted style jeans and he didn’t find them 'attractive.' And I just said, ‘Well, that’s great news because I’m not trying to attract you or the men who don’t like them!' He was gobsmacked. I think he genuinely never thought that some women simply dress for themselves,” described u/mischiefmoderated.

After receiving such tremendous support from people, the woman shared another post in a different Reddit group, with a cropped picture of the original eye makeup that her colleague commented on. The picture itself revealed nothing but ordinary makeup with mascara and some sparkly eyeshadow on the lids. It seems some people can’t comprehend a woman unless every dab and dot of her skin is devoid of cosmetics. Thankfully, one man got his lesson.