A fascinating journey through history and culture examining how makeup affects
self-empowerment how people have used it to define (and defy) their roles in society and why
we all need to careThere is a history and a cultural significance that comes with wearing
cat-eye-inspired liner or a bold red lip one that many women feel to this day even if we don
t realize exactly why. Increasingly people of all genders are wrestling with what it means to
be a woman living in a patriarchy and part of that is how looking like a woman whatever that
means affects people s real lives. Through the stories of famous women like Cleopatra Empress
Wu Madam C. J. Walker Elizabeth Taylor and Marsha P. Johnson Rae Nudson unpacks makeup s
cultural impact including how it can be used to shape a personal or cultural narrative how
often beauty standards align with whiteness how and when it can be used for safety and its
function in the workplace to name a few examples. Every woman has had to make a very personal
choice about her relationship with makeup and consciously or unconsciously every woman knows
that the choice is never entirely hers to make. This book also holds space for complicating
factors especially the ways that beauty standards differ across race class and culture.
Engaging and informative All Made Up will expand the discussion around what it means to
participate in creating your own self-image.
