Nicki Minaj for ELLE Magazine

I do too. I think no matter how bright the plumage(and sometimes even more so with the showy gals) you feel ugly and uncomfortable in less face armor than you usually wear. If she feels it’s a personal accomplishment to be able to think she doesn’t look too bad with a more natural face, then I’ll let her have that.

This may be the language barrier speaking here but I read that more as “this is an accomplishment for me because I did something I am uncomfortable with” instead of “wearing this little makeup is an accomplishment in itself”. I mean, in a way, I feel like she’s admitting that wearing a fuckton of makeup, a giant wig and a crazy outfit makes her feel more secure.

Then again, I might be reading too much into it.

Same for me too. She was pretty clearly saying that it was a personal accomplishment to go out in comparatively little makeup (and to all the people scoffing at her describing it as “little makeup” I would bet that most of you don’t go out in public with as much brightly colored and obvious makeup as she does on a regular basis. She is speaking form her own frame of reference, not yours). When you wear makeup on a regular basis, you get used to looking a certain way, and other people get used to you looking a certain way. She has a hell of a lot more people watching her and judging her than the average person does and she did something that was difficult for her in the interest of self-acceptance. I don’t think describing that as an accomplishment is delusional or deserving of so much vitriol. Taking off a little of her armor isn’t on the same level as saving a life, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a significant personal victory.

Also, that bathing suit is fucking terrifying.

So you are kind of telling us how to feel. When the average woman goes out on the street without makeup she’s not being stared at and judged for how she looks. Nicki is. And this “going out in public” is on a magazine cover so she’s exponentially exposed. This look, while completely styled, coiffed and made-up is a drastic departure from what she generally looks like and this site kind of exists to talk about how shitty (and occasionally awesome) primarily female celebrities look when they don’t hew closely to what is considered attractive or stylish. (Not a read because I’m here, have been for years and join in the conversation on occasion.) You can’t really have a feature called “Girl, that’s not your dress,” and not see how a female celebrity might be extra special sensitive about how she looks to the public.

So when someone with a very distinct image changes it up completely, and it’s an image that kind of has a mask and costume attached to it, no amount of professional pampering and styling is going to make the anxiety of not looking like yourself lessen. Yes, she’s a young and beautiful woman, but so is Anne Hathaway and people just LOVE shit talking what she looks like. Yes, all those professionals exist to make their mostly female clientele look as good as possible, but there are plenty of features here and elsewhere about how all those professionals all too often fail at that job.

I completely buy what she had to say and I agree that her comment was solely about herself and not about how the rest of womandom should feel. It’s just how she feels about appearing in public, and putting herself up for the public scrutiny, looking dramatically different from what she normally looks like. All celebrities are constantly being judged, it comes with the territory but I don’t think you would deny that female celebrities have it far worse than men. You say it every time you feature some guy with a too tight, too shiny or too long suit.

Not trying to kill any conversation. If anything, you jumping in to tell us you’re not buying the counter-argument does since this is your site and your rules.

But I’m just one very infrequent poster among many. I just didn’t realize how sensitive you were to criticism considering how very generous you are with dishing it out.

I love when you guys join the conversation! I agree that her remarks are so goofy — I recently stopped wearing any makeup, and I certainly don’t feel it is an accomplishment.

Wrong. Women judge other women every day based on how they look – and I don’t just mean photos of celebs online or in print. I know I’m guilty of it. Think about the last time you went to the market and saw someone in pajamas and slippers. You know you were judging them for an inability to be bothered to wear actual clothing. What do you think people doing job interviews do? They look at your appearance. The same is true for other professions. You can’t, for example, be a lawyer and show up in court in jeans and a tank top and expect no one to take issue with it. You can’t be a teacher and wear a sheer blouse and a mini skirt to teach school. Both of those outfits would get you fired quickly. By the same token, a stripper can’t really work in granny panties and a cross-your-heart bra and expect to get a lot of tips. So to say that the average woman doesn’t get judged on her appearance is just wrong. We all do our best to put our best face on and get together a look that is tasteful and appropriate but still expresses some kind of style and most of us do it on a limited budget with a limited amount of clothing, and without help from pros. For Nicki Minaj to say that it was an accomplishment for her to put herself in the hands of pros whose best interest is in making her look fabulous is just an overstatement. If she’d simply said, “I was nervous about a different look from what I’m used to,” or perhaps, “I’m used to knowing exactly how I want to look and to let someone change that and trust their vision was a bit scary for me,” that would have been much more to the point.

The thing is the level of the styling/make-up etc isn’t that relevant. It doesn’t matter how expertly it’s done, whether it’s the best MUA in the country, the lady at the department store counter or a friend, it’s still a removal of a mask. I used to be a lot gothier than I am now, had I had my make-up done minus the eyeliner, bright lipstick etc. Been put in colourful ‘trendy’ clothes and had my hair re-styled it wouldn’t have mattered how expensive it all was or how expertly done it wouldn’t have been me, I’d have felt just wrong. If for her that mask is tied up with other issues then yes dropping it is a personal achievement. Accomplishment might be too strong a word, but then it’s hard to say just how much importance those layers may have for her.

Your prerogative of course. But my point is if losing your accustomed mask is stressful then it will be stressful no matter how pretty they can make the face underneath. That’s unlikely to be the issue. Wearing the mask of an extreme image hides her real face, a good ‘natural’ MUA accentuates it.