Angela Mollard: I’m not dumbing myself down by wearing make-up

People are falling over themselves to congratulate Pamela Anderson for not wearing make-up. Props to you, Pammy, but is it really a revolutionary act?

A makeup-free Pamela Anderson attends The Fashion Awards 2023 presented by Pandora at the Royal Albert Hall on December 4 in London. Picture: Getty Images

Call me vain, or a victim of the patriarchy or a feminist sellout but there is a thing I do most mornings that I absolutely love.

It unfolds like this:

Make cup of tea. Take it to bathroom to sip. Flick on ABC app and listen to Radio National. Apply sunscreen to face then one of two foundations – the pricey Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk if I have TV work or Zoom meetings or a cheaper BB cream if I’m working from home. Sweep cheap tint across brows, a soft pink eyeshadow across lids, something brown in the corners, a single coat of waterproof mascara and the same brand of Lancome concealer I’ve been using for 30 years.

Then it’s a dab of blush – always, always blush because it makes the whites of your eyes pop – applied higher than when I was younger because it lifts the cheekbones.

Pamela Anderson poses on the red carpet. Picture: AFP

Then lips. Trusty Pillow Talk for matte or Mac Cremesheen if I want something glossy.

And then I smile at myself in the mirror because in those sweet, meditative four minutes (I promise it takes no longer) I’ve not only caught up on the news headlines and enjoyed a fortifying cuppa but I’ve created a more empowered and polished version of me.

Make-up free Pamela, 2023.

Made-up Pamela, 2003.

Unfortunately, mine is not a particularly progressive point of view for a woman in her 50s.

Rather, everyone and by everyone I mean women, men and the media at large are falling over

themselves to congratulate Pamela Anderson for not wearing make-up.

Don’t get me wrong, Pammy, who is the same age as me, looks great.

After pouring herself into a scrap of red Lycra for half her life the Baywatch star says it’s liberating now that she’s “not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room”.

Pamela Anderson stuns in Baywatch inspired swimsuit for new collection in 2023, left, and back in the Baywatch heyday, right.

Having stepped out without makeup at Paris Fashion Week in September then again at the Fashion Awards in London earlier this month, she’s obviously committed to au naturel. “I feel like it’s just a freedom. It’s just a relief,” she has said, before adding that “chasing youth is futile”.

Fair enough and good on her for doing what makes her happy but is it really a revolutionary act?

Jamie Lee Curtis heralded it as such and in news to beauty brands who seem to be going gangbusters despite #cozzie livs (new slang for cost of living crisis), declared it the beginning of the “natural beauty revolution”.

Anderson had “claimed her seat at the table with nothing on her face”, she gushed, as if it’s hitherto been impossible for women to sit down without a smoky eye or highlighter-accentuated cheek.

“I am so impressed and floored by this act of courage and rebellion,” she said which is hyperbole on the scale of anti-ageing creams promising to remove wrinkles.

Oh please, make up is not a political choice, it’s not evidence of prescriptive womanhood or acquiescence to the man.

In fact, every time there’s another study saying men prefer women

without make up – or they’re ambivalent as a new study from Southern Utah University reports this week – I wonder why researchers are wasting their time.

British actress Helen Mirren is 78, and happily plays around with makeup to look fabulous. Picture: AFP

Because for so many of us, and particularly for the middle aged, make up is something we wear for ourselves.

We like the way it evens out our complexions or makes our eyes appear brighter and we’re getting fed up that in making that choice we’re being accused of dumbing ourselves down.

On the back of the new research which reported that “what stirs male desire remains a

sophisticated sensual mystery” – I sincerely hope the citizens of Utah did not contribute their

taxes to this study — a writer in The Times declared that make up was “infantilising”. Declaring that the women in his circle do not wear make-up, surmising that this is likely because they are happily hitched, Kevin Maher goes on to comprehensively shame women who do.

“You go from being a sentient person with ideas and arguments and a pulsing inner life to a painted performance,” he opines.

Oh Kevin, where to start. Firstly, the women you say aren’t wearing make-up, possibly are.

Plenty are not going the full Kim Kardashian but simply opting for a bit of minor enhancement which they enjoy very much.

Secondly, the application of mascara or lipstick is not so taxing that it causes our brains to fall out of our heads. It is possible to paint and think as centuries of artists have proved.

Finally, why is the least decorated version of ourselves proclaimed the best? We don’t apply the same purist standards to fashion or cooking.

If we did the populace would be clothed in hessian sacks and eating legumes boiled in water for every meal.

Making things look, taste, sound, perform and feel better is what humans do.

In any case, grown up women can do whatever they like.

Good on Pamela Anderson for ditching the slap after all those years of being paid to look hot.

But also good on every other woman, including Helen Mirren, 78, and my mum, also 78, who still play around with make-up and look fab.

It’s not artifice, it’s fun.