Mainstream WeeklySince the beginning, they’ve told us to look good. Put this on. Fix your hair. Don’t go out like that. Why? Because beauty is what others expect from us. And what others expect becomes a prison if we continue to live inside it. Being ugly is freedom; it’s a refusal to participate in someone else’s fantasy. It is confidence without needing approval. And that is real power.
This piece offers a critical analysis of two widely cited academic perspectives which connect appearance rituals with confidence. By closely reading these texts, I argue that both fall into the same trap they claim to challenge: they reinforce a beauty system rooted in external validation and capitalist norms [1]
Both try to say that beauty rituals (makeup, clothes, hair) help women feel better. More seen. More confident. More alive. But I don’t agree. Not fully. Because what they’re calling confidence is still a game played by other people’s rules.
The Beauty Game: Look Better, Feel Better... But for whom?
Scholars like Fantoni (2024) say that when we dress well, fix our hair, or do our makeup, we gain confidence. She even did interviews and found that women felt "ready for the day" after grooming. She says it helps mental health. That’s self-care.
But here’s the problem: all of that still depends on how others treat us. The confidence is only real when it’s seen by someone else. If I wear makeup and people treat me better, and I feel better, am I actually free? Or just adjusting to get approval?
She says, "Beauty is healing." I say: beauty is exhausting. Because you can never stop. One missed shower, one bad outfit, one acne spot, and the world punishes you. That’s not healing. That’s performance.
Makeup as Ritual? Or Ritual of Submission?
The other set of scholarly articles tries harder. For instance, McCabe et.al (2017) say that women use makeup not just to look good, but to feel "authentic." That it’s a ritual. They apply makeup every day to connect the "inner" and "outer" self.
It sounds nice. But I don’t agree.
They say: makeup helps women feel like their real selves. But if you can’t go out bare-faced without shame, then is it your "real" self, or just the only self-allowed? They admit women often feel "uncomfortable, self-conscious, and embarrassed" without makeup. That doesn’t sound like empowerment. That sounds like dependence.
They say women use makeup "on their own terms." But how can you call it freedom when the terms were created by an industry, sold to us in ads, and reinforced in every job interview, date, or selfie?
They say women are "active participants." Sure. But even a puppet can move its own arms, if it doesn’t know there are strings.
Who Defines "Beautiful"?
Post-structural feminist theory helps here [2]. Thinkers like Judith Butler and Michel Foucault taught us that identity, especially gender, is not fixed. [3] It’s shaped by power, repetition, and discourse. That means: the way we perform femininity (like putting on makeup) is not natural. It’s trained into us through repetition and expectation.
Beauty doesn’t just reflect power, it produces it. Foucault shows us that modern power doesn’t need violence; it works through norms. We monitor ourselves to stay acceptable. Judith Butler adds that gender is a performance repeated until it looks natural. So, when we dress up or apply makeup, we’re not just expressing ourselves, we’re rehearsing what society has scripted. Fantoni’s "confidence" and McCabe’s "authenticity" aren’t outside the system; they’re what the system gives in exchange for obedience. You feel strong, but only because you’ve followed the rules. That’s not freedom. That’s discipline with lipstick on.
So, when Fantoni says beauty gives confidence, or McCabe says makeup creates authenticity, they are still stuck in the system. A system where beauty is defined by media, policed by society, and rewarded when you conform. You feel better because you’ve obeyed. Not because you’ve escaped.
Post-structural feminism says: there is no neutral mirror. The mirror reflects what culture puts there. So, if the reflection only looks good after grooming, the mirror is biased, and so is the world.
Being Ugly Is Not About Looks, It’s About Refusal
When I say "be ugly," I don’t mean be unattractive. I mean: reject the standard entirely. Ugly, here, is not about appearance; it’s about non-compliance. Don’t perform for others. Don’t wake up every day and dress your body to meet a checklist written by someone else. Ugly means refusing the rules of appearance set by capitalism, patriarchy, and media. Ugly is political. Ugly is freedom.
Being ugly means walking into an interview in a t-shirt and wild hair because you know your worth doesn’t live in a comb or a dress. It means not bathing every day if you don’t want to. It means loving your uneven skin, your fat belly, your loud laugh, your silence, without trying to change it.
Being ugly is choosing truth over decoration. And from that truth comes the kind of confidence nobody can take away. Not even rejection can break it.
Because you didn’t ask to be liked. Both Fantoni and McCabe try to empower women through beauty. But they’re still using the same weapon that was once used to cage us. Beauty, as it’s sold today, is not power. It’s dependency.
You want real confidence? Then break the mirror. Throw away the mask. Be seen not as pretty, but as honest. Let them call it ugly. You’ll call it freedom.
References
- Fantoni, M. (2024). Unlocking confidence: A theoretical and practical study on how the right outfit, make-up and hairstyle can transform your self-esteem (Bachelor’s thesis). University of Applied Sciences, Vaasa, Finland.
- McCabe, M., de Waal Malefyt, T., & Fabri, A. (2017). Women, makeup, and authenticity: Negotiating embodiment and discourses of beauty. Journal of Consumer Culture, 0(0), 1