we are all wearing make-up

We are all wearing make-up

Have you ever thought about it? How strange it is that some people wear make-up. They put colour on their faces, in order to look different to how they naturally do. Even the name, the term make-up is quite telling. Afterwards the person has been made up, And that phrase in other circumstances can be slightly negative: it's made up, or he's making it up as he goes along. It means inventing something false. There's no truth in it. When something is made up, it's a fiction. It's artificial, fake. And yet when it comes to make-up, it seems that it's often, usually, socially acceptable. And I almost always, when seeing someone wearing make-up, have the feeling that they would appear more attractive, more beautiful, in their natural state, without the make-up. So it's really quite perplexing. Why do we do this? Why do some people wear make-up?

But the real reason I wanted to talk about this, is that in another way, we are all wearing make-up. We are presenting a certain image of ourselves to other people. And it might be a different image in different circumstances: one set a make-up for the office, another for the evening out with friends, yet another when trying to seduce someone. Different roles we play require us to put on different make-up. But it's very rare, when interacting with another person, for us to be natural, to be presenting ourselves as we naturally are, without make-up. 

These masks we put on, these various personas, these are all make-up. We might as well be laying on the lipstick and the eye shadow. And just as the phrase make-up implies a falsity, so it is when we are presenting ourselves with these masks, these personas: they are false. They have covered up our authentic self. And there's a tragedy in this. It means that when two people are interacting with one another, it's really just two personas. There's nothing real going on. Two masks, two sets of make-up talking to each other. What's the point? It's okay for fiction, and this is actually how we are largely living our lives, as if our whole life is a work of fiction.

This make-up is not just hiding who we are from the other. It's cutting ourself off from the other. It's a barrier, a two way barrier. I long for the day when we can dispense with the make-up, when human beings can meet each other without the need for masks, personas, images, without the need to present something that we are not. And perhaps you have occasionally had moments where you felt completely at ease, perhaps with an old friend, just relaxing one day. And it's so beautiful when two people do happen to meet without make-up. There's something so relaxing in it. It feels like one can breathe, without having to hold one's breath at all. All this make-up requires a certain tension, a certain holding back, tightness in the body. We are not at ease when we are covered in make-up. So I hope, more and more, we can meet each other without the make-up, as our natural selves.