Yes. See the link I linked earlier.
the lips and nails are simply convenient places to paint. those who are inclined to decorate themselves do so, not just here but the entire face and elsewhere too.
men get turned on because they get turned on by anything that suggest sex is on the cards.
The reason I’m stating these things is because no one knows the actual answer. We can measure the effect, but we don’t know the detailed mechanisms of biology that would give a specific answer. The answers about sexual dimorphism are theories that we don’t have the methodology to prove, but we do find consistent.
Do you wear lipstick, or are you attracted to people who do? Do you really know why? I doubt it.
I find it interesting that you used the word ‘rationale’ in your OP. This is often used in the sense of an explanation based on ‘natural law’, which usually means an appealing story that may or may not be based in fact. You sound like you are more interested in a satisfying story than an actual explanation. That may not be your intent though, but all I can offer you is the factual answer, nobody knows how it started, and it continues because the practise is percieved as achieving a subjective goal.
A lot of these thesis would explain this assecory.
We have to admit the fact that most colors in use are not random (i.e red,pink, shades of brown)
You rarely see dark colors in mainstream use(disregarding of course goths and what not)
Would it be fair to propose that these are ways to exaggerate signs of healthiness. Not unlike, being tan, white teeth, being thin, large breasts etc…
Things that are rated high and some of them have probably BEEN rated high in past societies.
That is somewhat fair. Sexual dimorphism seems a more likely answer, and that would tie into evolutionary concepts that include the perception of health. But tanning isn’t a consistent indication of health, or sexual attraction. Many cultures have used white coloring for those purposes. Thinness and breast size vary in perception as well. Just being different is often helpful for sexual attraction. And if you look back at changing trends through time, and the many ways people decorate themselves in different cultures you might find some of them repulsive.
Ah, so you have met my girlfriend.
I believe the wiki explanation. Lip and eye size increase with estrogen levels, which peak when young and at maximum fertility. Exaggeration of lip size with lipstick or lip augmentation make women appear more youthful and fertile, and thus more sexually attractive.
I did not see where anyone else raised this point, but not all men find make up attractive. I for one much prefer a more natural look. I imagine I am in a minority though.
That said, I understand why women use make up and after having had make up applied to myself for on camera appearances have often wondered why more men do not use it.
I think what you’re positing is perhaps the biomechanism behind the sexual dimorphism. In other words, we’re saying the same thing!
Thanks,
You just managed to say absolutely nothing at all!
A couple of translated Chinese novels I’ve read suggest that it was also done in China.
Shadow of a doubt, thrown on the hooker hypothesis?
You don’t have to find just one look attractive.
I hear a lot of men say this, and by and large, it’s ignorance speaking. Most of them don’t prefer no makeup, they prefer subtle makeup in natural hues. They don’t know they prefer subtle makeup, because when they see it, they think, “Ah, now that’s lovely, why don’t more women not wear makeup?”
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I have never understood lipstick, and personally find it revolting. Very unattractive on a woman, as is most makeup. I much prefer a natural appearance.
Lipstick also feels gross when kissing. I have no hesitation in asking a woman to take it off first.
Men find big, plump lips attractive because they are occasionally wrapped around their penis, the same as a vagina.
I have known women that used rouge on their labia. It served the same purpose as lipstick on the face. It makes them stand out.
I probably shouldn’t start debating a mod, but I think it belongs in IMHO, IMHO. All the answers are speculative.
Be that as it may, here is something that seems left out of most of the answers. My father didn’t like lipstick (I don’t know why) and I grew up not accustomed to seeing my mother wear lipstick. I made it clear to my wife that I didn’t much care for it and she rarely wears it, although she uses other makeup (lightly, lightly). So my sons never got used to it and now I see that neither daughter-in-law wears lipstick. What all these sexual explanations seem to miss is that we obviously have learned this from our mothers!
Also being missed is the fact that lipstick isn’t currently all that popular. I doubt your daughter-in-laws’ makeup choices have anything to do with what your wife was wearing while your sons were growing up, it’s just that they’re of a different generation. In most settings women are no longer expected to wear lipstick to look presentable, and for those who care about wearing makeup lip gloss is more the “in” thing. I don’t think I even know any women who wear lipstick on a regular basis, for everyday wear it’s either lip gloss or nothing.
Lipstick, or lip coloring, will never go out of style. I look like a haggard, dead middle aged woman without some. WITH it, I look the same, only not dead, lol. I know scads of young 20 somethings who wear lip balm and that’s it. Maybe they don’t know how to make a choice of the thousands of colors. That’s too bad, it’s a fun little perk of being a female (don’t know what the men’s equivalent is).
Maybe. But it could easily have been invented independently in China. And I was talking mostly about why it became popular in our, Western culture.
Maybe they don’t like the feel of it. I’m an old woman and I don’t wear lipstick (never have). It feels gross on my lips. I do use a bit of flavored balm so that my lips don’t dry out. I disagree that it’s a ‘fun little perk’. 