Lipstick feminism

Part of a series on
Feminism
Women Girls Femininity
History Social Women's history Feminist history History of feminism History of American women History of Canadian women History of German women History of women in the United Kingdom Timelines Women's suffrage Muslim-majority countries United States Other women's rights Suffrage by country Australia Canada Japan Kuwait New Zealand Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Wales United States In states Utah Waves First Second Third Fourth
Variants Amazon Analytical Anarchist Anti-pornography Anti-prostitution feminism Atheist Conservative Cultural Cyber Democratic Confederalism Difference Eco Vegetarian Equality Fat French French post-structuralist Gender Global Hip-hop/Hip hop Individualist Labor Lesbian Liberal Equity Lipstick Marxist Material Maternal Neo New Post Postcolonial Postmodern Pro-life Pro-sex worker Post-structural Racial Black Chicana Indigenous Native American Radical Radical lesbians Religious Buddhist Christian Neopagan Dianic Wicca Reclaiming Hindu Islamic Jewish Orthodox Mormon Sikh Separatist Sex-positive Social Socialist Standpoint Third world Trans Transnational Womanism Africana
Concepts Antifeminism Bicycling Children's literature Effects on society Equality Female education Femicide Feminazi Feminism and GIS Feminism in culture Feminist stripper Gender equality Girl power International Women's Day Language reform Male gaze Matriarchal religion Media Men and feminism Meninism Movement African-American woman suffrage movement Art movement In hip hop Networked feminism Political lesbianism Lesbian separatism Pro-feminism Protofeminism Reproductive justice Sexual harassment State feminism Straw feminism Theory in composition studies Transgender and transexual Triple oppression Victim feminism Views on BDSM Views of pornography Views on prostitution War on Women Women's health Women's rights
Theory Feminist method Gender studies Gender mainstreaming Gynocentrism Kyriarchy Matriarchy Women's studies Men's studies Patriarchy Écriture féminine Feminist... anthropology archaeology architecture art art criticism literary criticism film theory biology composition studies criminology pathways perspective economics fpda geography international relations constructivism legal theory pedagogy philosophy aesthetics empiricism epistemology ethics justice ethics existentialism metaphysics Oedipus complex political ecology political theory pornography psychology revisionist mythology science fiction sexology sociology technoscience theology thealogy womanist theology
By country Albania Australia Bangladesh Brazil Canada China Republic of the Congo Denmark Egypt Ethiopia Finland France Germany Ghana Greece Hong Kong India Indonesia Iran Iraq Republic of Ireland Israel Italy Japan Latin America Argentina Chile Haiti Honduras Mexico Paraguay Trinidad and Tobago Lebanon Malaysia Mali Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Northern Cyprus Norway Pakistan Philippines Poland Russia Syria South Africa South Korea Sweden Taiwan Thailand Turkey Vietnam Ukraine United Kingdom United States Feminist movement History of women
Lists and categories Lists Articles Feminists by nationality Literature American feminist literature Feminist comic books Conservative feminist Countries by women's average years in school Ecofeminist authors Feminist art critics Feminist economists Feminist philosophers Feminist poets Feminist rhetoricians Jewish feminists Feminist parties Suffragists and suffragettes Women's rights activists Women's studies journals Women's suffrage organizations Categories Women's rights by country Feminists by nationality
Feminism portal

Lipstick feminism is a variety of third-wave feminism that seeks to embrace traditional concepts of femininity, including the sexual power of women, alongside feminist ideas.^[1]

It developed in part as a response to the ideological backlash against radical varieties of second-wave feminism, with the negative stereotypes it generated of the “ugly feminist” or the “anti-sex feminist”; in part the result of the belief that the successes of second-wave feminism had made it possible to reclaim aspects of femininity that had earlier been seen as disempowering, like make-up or stilettos.^[2]

Language

Linguistically, lipstick feminism proposed to semantically reclaim, for feminist usage, double-standard insult words, such as “slut”,^[3] in order to eliminate the social stigma applied to a woman whose sexual behaviour was "patriarchically" interpreted to denote “immoral woman” and libertine.^[4]

Overview

Philosophically, lipstick feminism proposes that a woman can be empowered — psychologically, socially, politically – by the wearing of cosmetic make up, sensually-appealing clothes, and the embrace of sexual allure for her own self-image as a confidently sexual being. The rhetoric of choice and empowerment is used to validate such overt sexual practices,^[5] because they no longer represent coerced acquiescence to societally established gender roles, such as “the good girl”, “the decent woman”, “the abnegated mother”, “the virtuous sister”, et aliæ.

Other feminists object that the so-called empowerment of lipstick feminism is a philosophic contradiction wherein a woman chooses to sexually objectify herself, and so ceases to be her own woman, in control neither of her self nor of her person.^[3] In an ongoing debate, lipstick feminism counter-proposes that the practice of sexual allure is a form of social power in the interpersonal relations between a man and a woman, which may occur in the realms of cultural, social, and gender equality.

• 

  Haute-couture image of a self-empowered woman.

• 

  Lipstick feminism: A woman student primping before entering a classroom.

• 

  A protestor opposed to slut-shaming during SlutWalk New York City.

Stiletto feminism

Stiletto feminism, a more ideologically radical variety of lipstick feminism, sees the postmodern use of fetish fashion as empowering;^[6] and extends the argument from the acceptance of makeup, to the validity of women practicing occupations specifically predicated upon female physical beauty, such as working as a striptease dancer or as a pole dancer, as well as flashing or lesbian (girl-on-girl) exhibitionism.

In popular culture

• In the U.S. television series, The West Wing, the 57th episode, “Night Five”, features a scene wherein the characters debate the merits of lipstick feminism. The female protagonist decides it is empowering, while determining that sex-negativism distracts from important issues like pay equity.^[7]

See also

References

Further reading

• F. R. Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs (2005).
• Sylvia Walby, The Future of Feminism (2011).

External links

• "Lipstick Feminists", by Elizabeth Austin. Washington Monthly, Nov, 1998.
• "Lipstick helped feminism"