Mayor’s no cover-up look is on trend with recent study
● When Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille arrives to greetings of “Aunty Pat”, you already know, with your eyes closed, that her look will be down-to-earth and practical.
The no-nonsense 67-year-old told the Sunday Times this week: “I don’t wear makeup because I don’t have the time to apply it and I don’t know how to apply it properly. I also just want to age naturally.”
But maybe she’s on to something, because a new study has found that women who wear too much makeup are less likely to be perceived as strong leaders.
Psychology researchers at the University of
Abertay in Scotland conducted an experiment in which they presented participants with an array of pictures of faces. Software had repeatedly altered the amount of makeup they displayed.
“It was found that both men and women evaluated women more negatively as a leader if the image suggested she was wearing a lot of makeup,” the researchers said.
Christopher Watkins, lead researcher on the study, published in psychology journal Perception, said previous findings suggested “we are inclined to show some deference to a woman with a good-looking face”.
The new work tended to show the opposite.
For De Lille, it is about freedom of choice: wearing makeup has “nothing to do with the profession or career women are in”. If women want to use makeup because it makes them happy or to hide something they are not happy with, “we must let them be”, she said.
According to evolutionary psychologists, makeup mimics the youthful face in its reproductive prime: large eyes, luscious lips, rosy cheeks. This might also trigger jealousy in another woman who perceives the makeup wearer as a rival in the hunt for an alpha male.
In the world of celebrities, the choice to not wear makeup garners more publicity than the subtle machinations of the political sphere. Singer Alicia Keys appeared on the red carpet of the Grammys recently with a firm commitment to the no-makeup policy she adopted two years ago.
She wrote in an open letter in 2016: “I don’t want to cover up any more. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.” In South Africa, however, “covering up” is on the rise: makeup is a thriving business despite economic challenges. According to Euromonitor, a global market research company, “cash-strapped shoppers cut down on nonessential items” last year but “continued to demand beauty and personal-care products, with colour cosmetics and men’s grooming performing particularly well”. The company said this was because of a “strong grooming trend”, with consumers “increasingly concerned about their personal appearance and looking attractive”.
It’s also big business for exporters. Market research company Report Linker says South Africa exports cosmetics worth around R8-billion a year.