I've never really understood makeup. I used to think that on most occasions, makeup detracted from the appearance of people. I mean.......some people, really look like clowns with makeup on, you know? And I still think this is true, that some people, many people look silly with makeup on.

So, I asked my friends, what is the point? Why do women wear makeup when it makes them look like crap? I asked many people, none of whose answers I really understood. See, I have this problem. I get answers to questions, and I don't really understand them. So I keep asking and keep asking and keep asking. Usually it gets me into trouble, when the person on the receiving end of the questions decides that enough is enough, and decides to end the matter through violence. But I digress. I kept up this line of questioning until I finally got a satisfactory answer. But not without pissing off a few people.

Anyways, the answer I finally got was this. Makeup is a vehicle of personal expression. Which in retrospect, seems fairly obvious. Why didn't anybody tell me this before? I'm sure that people knew this....maybe it's a difficult thing to express into words or something. But it sort of makes sense to me now. I mean, I was getting a little confused, on how I didn't have a problem with people going to get fancy shmancy haircuts, but I thought it was dumb that they'd get makeovers. I was treating them as different types of things, when in fact, they were the same.

I guess I just didn't think about that makeup can change a person's face into whatever shape they want. The impression that I got of what makeup was, was something that girls wore to look better. I was stuck in this mindset, where makeup was some sort of universal thing, same to everybody. Once they started talking about goth makeup, and different effects, it all fell into place for me. I don't know why I was so slow on the uptake. Just nobody ever mentioned that to me before, and I didn't think of it myself for some reason. Although I don't know why not, there's only about 3 zillion shades of lipstick and mascara and crap

I'd be the last one to try and suppress personal expression. So, for me, now that I understand why.....makeup is okay. But I still think that the personal opinions many people are expressing with makeup is rather frightening. But if that's what they're going for, then hey, it's cool. And if not, then........well, not my problem.

Thanks Joni, for helping me understand. And my apologies to everybody else who I've bothered about this, or offended or whatever.

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