I’ll be the first to admit that when Alicia Keys’ ever-important ode to emotional flip-flopping, “Fallin’” came out in 2001, my eight-year old self wanted to pick up a keyboard and have my momma add some beads to my hair immediately. Like any musical artist, and especially black musical artists, reinvention is necessary to keep audiences interested and albums relevant.
So when Keys hit us with her single “In Common,” and it’s beautiful black and white visuals, many of us were all here for it, but what got most people talking is Keys’ new au naturale vibe via headwrap and bare face. What seems to have followed in the weeks since the video’s release has been less praise over the actual song and more praise over the fact that Keys graced us with her real “I woke up like this,” self, sparking the trending #NoMakeup, which has apparently become a movement.
In an essay penned on Lenny.com she writes “This was the harsh, judgmental world of entertainment and my biggest test yet. I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon. Never fully being who I was, but constantly changing so all the “they’s” would accept me.”
I have to admit that despite her newfound confidence in going without makeup, myself and a whole lot of other black woman may not have “too much in common,” with her.
Media outlets from Essence to Refinery29, are now praising Keys for supposedly starting a movement, and stars like Gabrielle Union.
To which my response is “hold up.” (Beyonce voice.)
Remember when everyone praised the beauty of Viola Davis in her daring scene in HTGAWM that involved peeling wigs and eyelashes? No? Me neither.
Just like all social media trends with a socially conscious angle to them, #NoMakeup is not the problem, although it’s a shame that in 2016 we need social media to reaffirm natural beauty, and black natural beauty at that. The problem is how skewed the supposed movement is, despite its good intentions.
As a light-skinned, biracial woman with near flawless skin, Keys has been dubbed the face of the barefaced movement, and it begs the question would the media be so quick to applaud if a celebrity with a darker complexion and not-so-clear skin had chosen to abstain from makeup?
The debate of “makeup vs. no makeup” has been a hot button topic since before Kylie became the face of full lips and contouring prompted “take her swimming on the first date,” memes. Black women in particular, with classic features are told to wear less makeup and those who go weave and makeup free with imperfect features are told to put a little color on their cheeks; as if their out-of-the-box beauty is invalid because they choose not to rock a full face beat.
If the media responded the same way to a makeup-free Alicia Keys as they did a makeup-free Davis then maybe it could be a genuine movement with room for those with kinkier hair, darker skin, and skin issues.
Until me and my dark skin, big pores, and 4c hair and other variations of natural black beauty are included in the dialogue, then the #NoMakeup Movement still has work to do.
There are black women all over the world, and particularly in many of our own circles who rock a bare face every day and not because it’s trending on Instagram. We wear our hair the way it grows from our scalps, we own shades of too bright red lipstick and pair it with tired eyes and blemishes and do not question if we have a right to feel beautiful. Yet the idea of women wearing makeup to hide flaws or women who appear flawless, being the face of natural beauty continues to be the narrative sold by the media.
Maybe I’ll serve snatched- face realness one day or maybe I’ll go months wearing nothing but a smile on my face, but me and countless other black women don’t need a hashtag to affirm our beauty.
Author: Tiffany Curtis
Email: [email protected]
Your Bio: Awkward black girl, writer, content creator, part time side-eyed.
Link to social media or website: http://www.tiffanylashaicurtis.com
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