Everywhere you look on the internet you see celebrities posting their pictures “without make-up”. Of course, in most cases this is actually not true, they’re wearing what most women wear on a daily basis: makeup that looks natural, but it’s still makeup that they’re trying to pass off as “barefaced”.
Just as pervasive is the “body positivity” movement that has now become just a pretext for normalizing obesity and “curvy” has come to be a euphemism for fat. Thank you, political correctness, but you get no thanks from the medical profession. Obesity is killing people, in fact, globally it kills more people than car crashes, no matter what you call it.
As a nod to the movement to promote the notion that “natural” –meaning warts and all—is the new standard of beauty, a Miss England finalist has made history and become the first ever beauty queen to compete without wearing any makeup in the pageant’s nearly century-long history.
Melisa Raouf, a 20-year-old college student and model from south London, moved forward into the pageant’s finals on Saturday after opting for a “barefaced look”. Now, she’ll compete in the finals this October for the crown—also without makeup.
“It means a lot to me as I feel many girls of different ages wear makeup because they feel pressured to do so,” Raouf said in an interview with the UK’s Independent newspaper.
“If one is happy in their own skin, we should not be made to cover up our face with makeup. Our flaws make us who we are and that’s what makes every individual unique,” she added.
The question that comes to mind, though, is this, can we be happy with who we are and dismiss society’s pressures to cover our flaws?
Raouf said that, though she started wearing makeup at a young age, she decided to forego the practice for the pageant. “I never felt I met beauty standards. I have recently accepted that I am beautiful in my own skin and that’s why I decided to compete with no makeup,” she explained in the interview.
In May, Raouf posted a selfie on Instagram from the “bare face” round of the competition, writing that she was “embracing blemishes and imperfections.”
Angie Beasley, director of Miss England, told CNN in a statement on Friday: “We introduced the Bare Face Top Model round in 2019 as most contestants were submitting highly edited images wearing lots of makeup and we wanted to see the real person behind the makeup.”
According to organizers, Raouf plans to go bare-faced again at the national final in October. “We wish her the best of luck in Miss England, it’s a very brave thing to do when everyone else is wearing makeup but she’s sending out an important message to young women,” Beasley added.
