Pamela Anderson’s a hero for not wearing make-up? Then call me a bad feminist

Bum. It’s taken 58 years and multiple tutorials with my mate Mia to get to grips with how to do eyeliner. But just when I’ve reached the point that I’m not totally cack-handed at it, turns out that wearing make-up means I’m a coward. Or something like that. I’m possibly betraying the sisterhood and I’m certainly not chic.

Thanks for nothing, Pamela Anderson.

Pamela Anderson sans makeup at The Gothams Film Awards in New York on Monday.Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Yes, Pam, it has not gone unnoticed by me or my new glowy BB cream that every time you show up somewhere sans make-up you’re hailed as braver than Braveheart. This week alone, your barefaced turn at the Gotham Awards drew raves including “living on her own terms”, “ethereal vision”, and “defying Hollywood’s beauty standards”.

Aaaagh. Right now, courtesy of the responses to Pam saying wearing her old slap now “didn’t really make sense”, being make-up-free seems the pinnacle of feminism. But is it really? Or is this just another impossible standard being dangled in front of women, wrapped up in the guise of freedom?

It’s all making me abhor the great Pam a bit. I mean, she’s a natural beauty. She has a perfect canvas. And likely also access to a dermatologist’s office where making jowls, lunar landing forehead and natural skin look unnaturally good is a science.

Let’s not pretend she chucked her make-up bag in the bin one day and said, “Here’s the new Jan Brady.” There’s more at play here. Pamela is the face of her own skincare brand, Sonsie. Were I a cynic, I’d suspect Meghan Markle wrote the tagline “Be Sonsie, Be You!” and that Pam is saying don’t buy make-up, just my magical skincare stuff.

Then this becomes not about smashing the beauty industry’s unrealistic standards but about profiting off them in a different way. It becomes about Pamela having a financial stake in this bare-faced trend, with her skincare brand front and centre of the narrative and us all meanwhile transfixed by her “courage” as she sells us serum and maybe a lie.

And this is where the problem gets bigger for me. This isn’t just about Pamela saying she likes how her nude face looks. She’s being held up as the poster child for a new kind of beauty standard. One that’s just as unattainable for the average woman, she of the tired dark-circled eyes, menopause rosacea and simultaneous pimples and wrinkles.

Women are being told we’re more “authentic” if we ditch make-up. But only if our skin looks like glass. And who benefits from that? Not the everyday woman juggling kids, work and a budget who needs a bit of armour in a jar to boost confidence on a busy day.

There’s irony, even bare-faced hypocrisy, in framing this as feminism. Like the push by Hollywood stars to get you to buy vagina scented candles or menopause supplements, the celebrity-sanctioned bare-faced movement feels less like liberation and more like a bait-and-switch.

The no-make-up moment won’t topple the patriarchy. It’s just another marketing strategy. And while there’s nothing wrong with Pam showcasing her brand and personal aesthetic, let’s stop acting like it’s some kind of revolutionary act. Women don’t need a new yardstick to live up to and we don’t need to be guilted into spending more money to do it.

We certainly don’t need to be more exhausted by beauty phases. One minute, curves are embraced. Then it’s about an Ozempic silhouette. Now, they’re coming for our lippie. The rules change but not the underlying message: You’re not enough as you are but if you follow this trend, you might be.

Most of all, I hate the undertone that if you still wear make-up, you’re verging on being a bad feminist. Are we really going to shame women for enjoying a swipe of mascara? make-up has been a form of self-expression for centuries. For me, it’s self-care and it’s fun, even if I suck at it. Turning it into a moral battleground feels absurd.

Feminism is about choice. Bunging on glittery eyeshadow to face the world because it feels right for you and makes you happy is just as bold as taking it all off. It’s not conformity. It’s agency.

Kate Halfpenny is the founder of Bad Mother Media and a regular columnist.

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