Reason #20 to Love Taiwan

Makeup-free and in New York just before our honeymoon in September 2010

The fact that not wearing makeup is socially acceptable.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been a bit ornery about doing up my appearance to the point that it is generally expected of women (I don't mean I'm gross or unclean - I'm talking about things like hair, makeup, diet for the sake of being thin and adherence to fashion trends). It's just that in Taipei, I feel as though people simply don't notice that I'm not wearing makeup and didn't bother much with my hair...or if they do notice - maybe they do, and they're just too polite to let it show - I get a "pass" because there are plenty of women here who similarly can't be bothered.

I also should admit here that there are two semi-related reasons why I don't wear makeup often, and when I do it's because I want to: the first is purely comfort and health. Makeup, even the light-as-air mineral makeup, feels cakey after an hour or so if you have skin as oily as mine. Blotters don't help. In Taipei and DC, two cities renowned for their humidity, the effect is magnified. I can't do anything, like splash water on my face or rub my eyes, without messing up my makeup. I can't eat or drink anything without messing up lipstick and having to re-apply (even if it's the "long lasting" stuff, which totally does not work.) It just feels uncomfortable. The second is a feminist reason - nobody cares if a man has a zit showing, so why the brouhaha if I do? "Because women are judged more on their looks" is true, but not an acceptable reason. I don't feel the need to conform to a social expectation that I highlight my most feminine features - my eyes and lips - disguise imperfections that the male gender openly displays and generally make myself uncomfortable. I feel women should be treated equally to men, and this should also be true where makeup is concerned. I don't mean makeup should be banished, but rather that it should not be expected (by the way, I do know men who wear makeup and no, it doesn't bother me).

It's this idea that all women wear makeup, or that makeup is required to look professional - why only for women, then? Are our natural faces not acceptable professionally? Why? - or the feeling that because makeup is so common that not wearing it is making a statement...that bothers me back home, and I love that in Taipei it's not really an issue.

It's true that you'll see a lot of fashion-conscious primpage in Xinyi and even Ximending (and to a lesser extent in Gongguan and Shida) and plenty of girls in tight jeans, fake lashes and highlighted bangs on the MRT, but after attending GWU and living in Washington, DC, this subset of done-up women in Taipei seems like just that - a subset, not the basis for a full-on expectation.

I know a lot of people will say "but DC isn't fashionable! All those lobbyists, politicians and policy wonks are hopelessly dorky!" and that is quite true...but that wasn't my circle (I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing). Think young office drones swathed in MAC and Banana Republic - no hate on MAC, I love their stuff even if I rarely wear it - staffing the political offices as well-connected twentysomethings, working in law firms or driving out to the 'burbs to work in the high tech firms in northern Virginia - the ones who rented condos in Ballston and swarmed DC on Saturday nights. They were done up and I was...not. It wasn't the same kind of done up - no whitening cream or fake eyelashes to be found - but it was still a sparkly powdered, eyelined palace of feminine peacockery (the men all dressed the same).

Here, I hop on the bus or MRT and sure, there'll be the Super Fashion Girl with her toffee hair and stiltlike heels, but I can always spot another woman, even one my age (although I admit I'm totally an obasan-in-training) wearing comfortable flats, minimal or no makeup and neatly brushed but not overly styled hair.

So I could lay my social pass to not wear makeup at the feet of being foreign - "she's foreign, they're weird anyway so it's OK" - but I won't, because plenty of local women follow the same path.

I didn't wear makeup daily even when everyone else around me did, and I was fine with it, but I have to admit I enjoy being able to go out with a freshly scrubbed face and not be the only one.

On Beauty

The proverb comes at me from unexpected places. It’s a bit cliché, and certainly old-fashioned, to say it straight, but it worms its way out in other phrases. I might hear it straight up from older women, or referenced behind a veil of translucent compliments from younger ones. It never fails to bother me. It’s 一白遮三醜 。

Literally translated, it means “one white hides three uglies”, or “if you have white skin, it will make up for three flaws” or, more bluntly, “white is beautiful”.

I usually hear it sneaking around behind a phrase rather than being said outright:

“Your skin is so pretty! I wish I had such white skin!”

“Why did you dye your beautiful golden hair red? You shouldn’t dye hair like that!”

“Your skin is so perfect!”

“White skin and blue eyes, oh!”

“I use all sorts of things to get my skin that color, and you have it naturally. It’s not fair!”

“If I had white skin and blue eyes, I’d have such a handsome husband too.”

Occasionally, a blunt-minded obasan will say it outright – “you are pretty, because one white hides three uglies!” (Uhhhh, thanks?)

I find this amusing and perturbing, because first of all, my skin is far from perfect. At 30, I still get acne to the point where I see a dermatologist. I can’t imagine many women want that, white skin or no. I have uneven tone and get undereye circles and redness around the nose. It’s not smooth at all. I have to get threaded every few weeks thanks to my Armenian genes. My hair is not naturally gold, it’s dishwater brown. Nothing spectacular.

Me, but it's a better than average photo of me, and I'm wearing makeup. Trust me, between the craters, blackheads, oil and zits, my skin is not all that.

The "...I'd have a handsome husband too!" line really gets me. I don't even know where to begin with this - the idea that good looks are the end all and be all, or that a good man is only attracted to beauty (of course physical appearance is a factor, but I find that chemistry has a lot more to do with the type of attraction that develops into real love), or that I am somehow deserving of this good-looking husband - and he is quite good-looking, thanks - because I'm white. That's just not OK.

It also unsettles me from a perspective of race – aren’t we beyond all that? Do we still not live in a world where all complexions can be beautiful? I don’t know about the women who made the comments above, but I live in that world and intend to continue doing so. To hear on numerous occasions that my features are to be envied not for their fineness but for their whiteness echoes just a little too much of “white is right” sentiment, even though the payers of these compliments are certainly not thinking that, at least not consciously. I can’t believe that those who pay such compliments really do have some deep-seated desire to look “more white”, but it’s hard to ignore – between whitening cream at Cosmed, whitening masks hawked on TV, the increasing popularity of freckle-removing laser procedures, the predilection for carrying umbrellas outside to shield oneself from the darkening effects of the sun and Jolin’s Butterfly cover last year in which she dons a sunset red wig, blue contacts (which are not too far from my natural eye color, thank you very much), has something done to her eyes on the computer to round them out and all-around makes herself look like some freakish semblance of Asian-trying-to-be-Caucasian, it’s hard not to wonder.

An album cover featuring Jolin - rather than "beautiful", I see this as being a bit freakish. Unnatural. Who is she trying to be?

So when I find myself in this situation, shifting uncomfortably, wondering “really? Did they see my giant zit? I can’t believe my white hides that ugly!” I generally reply “Why? Your skin is beautiful too. In fact, I wish mine was clearer, and I never tan. I always turn red.”

“But who wants to tan?”
“Well…it’s not healthy, but I’d rather tan than burn.”

“Just use an umbrella outside!”
“No…no…that’s…no.”

“Why not? You’ll stay so beautiful and white!”

“I just don’t think it’s that important to be white.”

There’s rarely a good answer to this – I wonder if the awkward silence that follows is the woman who’s just ravished praise upon my skin rethinking her position, or thinking I’m crazy, or thinking I can’t possibly be right, or just uncomfortable?

Should I have just said thank you, despite my own discomfort, and been done with it?

Sometimes joking works better – “美國人覺得一黑遮三醜呵！”

(“Americans think darker skin is attractive” – or exactly translated, “Americans think one black hides three uglies”, but it doesn’t mean black in exactly that sense).

“No no no, it’s white! One white hides three uglies!”

“No, seriously, that’s not how we see it. I’m not kidding!”

“Haha, you’re so funny! But really, in Taiwan we think it’s one white.”
“I know. I wish it was different, though.”

And yes, it bothers me. I don’t want to be put on some pedestal of beauty I don’t deserve – I’m straight-up average looking and happy with that. I don’t want to be admired for being white; that really bothers me. I don’t want being white to hide the extra pounds I’d rather not be carrying around or the zits that I wish would just stop already.

I want to see whitening creams be a thing of the past, and for women to be proud of their own gorgeous color. I want things like the Butterfly cover to be chuckled at, not emulated. I want women to realize that it’s not healthy to put bleach on your skin, and to realize that round eyes and fair skin are not the end-all and be-all of beauty.

I realize that plenty of women do realize this, and yet the comments keep coming. I really wish they’d stop.