Ironically, Gentle Reader, despite being the Urban Decay Generation, Pink does NOT make me puke.
These are my new pretties. They are so very pretty! I have had many revelations for 2013, and most of them deal with personal development. I am attached to my clothes and my enjoyment of sparkly things, yet find myself so often going to work without makeup. One of the advantages of being the Rather Absent-Minded Professor is that, well, even if one works on fashion, one can find oneself overwhelmed by fashion. So much so, that one finds herself not concerning herself with fashion.
So, 2013, The Year of the Fashionable Amy. This means fun new toys, new shinies and sparklies, and new makeup.
I am of the Urban Decay Generation. I was born at the tail end of Gen X, which means that the girly color pink, at one time or another, did make me want to revolt against gender stereotypes. Why should I be bound by pink and pastels when, as a Winter, I look so much better in jewel tones and black, anyhow? Then, of course, there was, as I often tell my students, The Time When Dr. Montz Wore Much Black Eyeliner, which really felt anti-pink.
But then, something happened. Perhaps it was the fall into third-wave feminism, the rejection of my Second-Wave Sister Suffragettes who said one could choose beauty or feminism, but not both. Or perhaps it was the seriousness of my research into fashion and beauty standards of the nineteenth century. Or perhaps it was finally admitting that yes, being a “girly girl” did not mean one was “a bad feminist.”
Urban Decay continues to this day to stick up its perfectly manicured middle finger to gender stereotypes, and colors like “Virgin” and “Harlot” poke not-so-gentle fun at a culture that often categorizes women by external sexual determinations but refuses to do so for their male counterparts.
The revolution may not be televised, but it will be coiffed and manicured and damn fabulous.
Cheers to all. And Suffragettes Bless Urban Decay’s gorgeous makeup.
Like what you’ve read? Visit my website: The Life and Times of the Postmodern Bluestocking.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 
Hey there, hot stuff! What a gorgeous feminist. I’ve been hearing all over that Urban Decay is a great brand, but I haven’t had a chance to play with any. Now it will make me think of you.
It’s amazing stuff, truly. I like what it stands for, and how well it stands up to my long days of reading and writing and suffragetting 😉
I do like brands with ideals.
(I know reading and writing can be hard on one’s appearance, but suffragetting must be murder!)
Do look at the “Suffragetting Hair” post for a quote from your friend and mine, Mr. H. G. Wells, re: suffragetting and one’s appearance 🙂
It is a great quote. I’ve always liked the idea of expressive hair, and suffragetting hair is probably the best mental image I’ve constructed all day.
One of my favorite lipsticks, ever ever, was from the politically incorrect Urban Decay Schizo Stick line. There were two colors: one of each side of the stick. The colors could be worn alone or together. My shades were called AC/DC. One of them was fuchsia; the other, frosty lavender. I only ever wore the fuchsia by itself. I received many compliments on it from both men and women.
I hope you enjoy your new cosmetics but don’t completely abandon the fashion of not wearing makeup and/or straightening one’s hair/coiffing one’s hair for work.
Studies show that women who wear makeup make more money. I resent the idea that I have to apply paint in order to be fairly compensated.
Please keep in mind that I am a former heavy makeup user and hair styler, as in, every day. Sorry you missed the days of 5 shades of eyeshadow, at once!
Time used to put on makeup is extra sleep time which is badly needed for many work-related and other reasons. Primping can be fun, but I have literally wasted years of my life engaged in excessive amounts of that activity.
My not wearing makeup and putting my hair in a ponytail 3 days out of 5 is not, however, a feminist statement.