Could make up make her look more attractive? Sure.
Is being attractive a requirement for what she’s doing? No.
I think she’s average looking and the first picture just caught her from a bad angle with a not too flattering look on her face. So yes, I think she could look (to my tastes) a good deal more attractive with a few adjustments. Her hair style is not flattering as it is too long and shapeless. Coupled with her Grumpy Cat expression in the first picture it really brings her face down. I would also groom her eyebrows. As for makeup, she doesn’t need a ton (well, none of us *need *it, exactly) but if I had that complexion I would want to even it out a bit. She could bring out her eyes with at least a little mascara and also put a little color on her lips. To me her face just all sort of blends together and she could look better by highlighting some areas.
To be fair, someone mentioned Trump, who gets his share of “gah, if he’d just get a decent haircut” comments. Still,
Isn’t the flipside potentially just as off-putting, or even worse? Imagine you see a guy talking to two individuals: *“Anne, you’re unattractive – but you could be attractive, if you’d just put on a little makeup. Bertha, you’re unattractive. <beat> That’s with a capital ‘U’.” * Sure, he’s a jerk – but which comment is more problematic?
As a dude, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her face and I find this thread to be in poor taste.
To those that have a problem with this thread, is it the way the question is worded or do you think discussing someone’s looks is off limits all together? I’m just taking it as a fairly neutral question but I feel like some are reading something into it that I’m not seeing.
She looks fine. Just about everybody everywhere looks fine. Look at the people around you in your workplace, on the street, wherever. This woman totally fits in as a normal-looking member of humankind. You know, the sort of person who lives, eats, loves, fucks, maybe gets married, maybe has kids, or whatever. You tell me, what way does her appearance make any of those things unlikely; in what way does her appearance prevent her from pursuing the totally normal, human life that billions of others manage to live with all sorts of different looks?
What, there’s nothing wrong with her? Oh, then yes, asking how a random person can “fix” their look to be more attractive to you is a sexist bullshit thing to say.
I don’t know from makeup, especially for redheads, but she seems reasonably attractive as she stands. You are correct that she has gorgeous hair.
Maybe a little mascara or something, but she’s about a 6 without it. The complete makeover thing isn’t necessary. I’ve never heard her speak or if she has a good sense of humor or anything else that would affect how attractive she might be IRL.
Of course, I don’t care for the overly done-up Hollywood look either. I suspect if you take enough pictures of someone, you can find ones that make him/her look good as well as ones that don’t.
Regards,
Shodan
I can’t speak for others, but I find it distasteful to publicly comment (at least negatively) on the looks of some random girl. I’m aware that she is a public figure to some extent by dint of her SCOTUS case but presumably she wasn’t asking for that. I would say the same thing if we were talking about a man who happened to be in the news for similar reasons.
Fair enough(and thank you for your civility).
What is offensive to some is the notion that all women must wear make up and style their hair according to mainstream conventions in order to appear more desirable to men or there is something “wrong” with her.
It’s not a matter of discussing looks - that can be done in a non-offensive way.
It’s the way the question is worded that reveals an underlying assumption that a woman displaying her natural appearance is not good enough/wrong/mannish and she needs to be “fixed”.
Not that I’m upset at the OP - this is a cultural problem so entrenched he wasn’t aware of what was throwing him off, and his post was worded such that he was asking for insight into why he was puzzled. That’s not offensive, that’s actually someone being thoughtful.
I’d say both comments are basically equally problematic, because why is this guy telling Anne and Bertha anything about their appearances? I can’t think of any circumstances where his comments would be warranted, unless he’s a beauty pageant coach and they are beauty pageant hopefuls and he’s giving them his honest opinion. But if he’s a friend, acquaintance, co-worker, or stranger, then his comments are not helpful and not warranted.
And just past the basic sexism of it, his comments are untrue, because like others have said, well-chosen and well-done makeup helps every single person look better, and attraction is subjective.
I don’t know if it’s off limits all together, but it’s troubling because of how often women have been reduced to their looks. Some men are made fun of for their looks, but in general women are criticized a lot more and have to work a lot more on their looks.
There are plenty of situations and contexts in which it is irrelevant, or even against her own best interests, for a woman to appear desirable or sexually attractive. (e.g. it would draw the wrong kind of attention, or make it harder for people to take her seriously.)
In such contexts, to ask questions like the one in the thread title could easily be interpreted as implying that she should make herself more attractive, which could further imply that her purpose as a woman is to be attractive.
Now that I think about it, my objection might be even more along these lines.
Oh, I see. I just like makeup and stuff and watch dumb girlie shows like What Not to Wear and read fashion blogs like Go Fug Yourself so I guess I took the OP in a very different way than some of you. I don’t think there’s any reason to attribute any negative intent to **astro’s **question so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I must agree.
She does have beautiful hair. 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking makeup, and watching dumb girlie shows, and liking fashion and all that stuff. And I don’t think astro had negative intent to his question. But I think it’s worth pointing out the mild sexism of how women’s looks are constantly critiqued.
I absolutely love the Tom and Lorenzo blog. It’s a fashion blog, and they are very good at pointing out specific things that are good and bad about an outfit and hair and makeup, but only of pictures of celebrities on the red carpet or other places who are out promoting their movies or TV shows. And they are also constantly pointing out how for many promotional events the women will be dressed to the nines and with hair and makeup that took hours to do, but some of the men will look like they just rolled out of bed and put on the clothes that were on the floor, and it’s because of sexism that the expectations are different. And Tom and Lorenzo do post some “street style” pictures of celebrities, especially ones where they are walking their dogs or other cute things like that, but will have very different measurements for those, and won’t tear down a female celebrity for looking less well put together walking her dog than she does on the red carpet. And they don’t generalize and expect all women to look like celebrities, since it’s not our jobs to do so.
Sure, but I was replying to even sven’s line about how ‘unattractive, but here’s what could be done about it’ is more problematic than ‘unattractive, period’.
I said the flipside struck me as being just as bad or worse – and so of course have no bone to pick with a decision of “basically equally problematic”.
As has already been said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with those interests. I fully support your right to have those interests. What gets objectionable is if a woman is considered “wrong” or “broken” if she doesn’t happen to have those interests.
I don’t think the OP was being negative either - he was bothered by something and asked for feedback on what it might be in a non-offensive manner.
Well saying that someone is unattractive is just rude and unnecessary. But saying that someone is unattractive and here’s how it should be fixed is presumptuous. I guess if I was going to pick between the two, I’d rather someone just tell me “you’re unattractive” rather than “you’re unattractive, but here’s how you fix it.” Because with the first, it’s easy for everyone to see that the person is a rude jerk, and I’m right to ignore them. But in the second case, they have the veneer of being helpful, and they and other people might be confused why I’m upset or annoyed at them. The first is more overt sexism, easier to deal with and call out. The second is covert sexism, which is harder to call out and easier for people dismiss as you being a crazy feminazi if you have an issue with it. Because men can go through life looking average or like slobs 95% of the time (not that all men do, but that they can). Some men do dress up and take care of their appearances or are even vain about their appearance. But they can also just be lazy and not have it be an issue with their jobs or social life, and it’s not commented on by family or friends or co-workers or random strangers. They’ll be expected to look nice for dates and for weddings and a few other times, but even then it’s expected that they’ll spend a fraction of the time that women do getting ready.
So while you shouldn’t comment on a random woman’s appearance either to say that she’s ugly, or that she’s ugly and could fix it in a certain way, I do agree with even sven that the big issue is that if a woman is ugly that it’s a problem she needs to fix.
I don’t like makeup and stuff or watch dumb girlie shows. But I’m not above talking about someone’s physical appearance. The girl does give off Peppermint Patty vibes. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think Peppermint Patty is cute. And I’m sure there are plenty of others who agree.
I agree with the chorus that talking about women’s physical appearance all the time is sexist and tiring. But I think the fair solution is to start talking about men more. And not just the hideous freaks like Robert Filner or Ted Cruz. Seems to me that a lot of men on this board might benefit from some basic styling tips. “Is this look attractive?” type of threads might be useful to them.