Do You Want to Make Up or What?

It is a conundrum: This cosmetics company is passing out swag at a local university. Women are lining up to get the goodies, which included consultation, application, and a fine array of colors, tints, and products, from mascara to lip gloss, as part of a promotional campaign.

Why Yes, That is a Lipstick in My Pocket; Yes, I am Glad to See You...Why Do You Ask?

A guy is watching the long line of women snake around the kiosk. He goes and gets a poster board and marker from the student union (red lipstick would have been perfect, but one can't have everything -- at least all the time and upon demand -- and it's not for want of trying!). On it he scrawls: "You are perfect. You don't need make-up!"

Damn, but this is one question that is so tough we're gonna have to call up the rabbinical council for consultation.

The women in line talked about his sign. So, if it's their faces, then it's their right to choose. And yet, were they falling into a knee-jerk reaction about what a woman's face should look like? Then again, all this shit was FREE (smart cosmetics company -- they share in the London motto: Get 'em while they're young!).

Question: Do cosmetics make a woman look beautiful? Feel beautiful? Or does it play into conventional stereotypes? Do women feel coerced into wearing color? If it does mimic sexual desire, what does its application mean? Does a woman have a right/obligation to ignore the voice of reason/liberation against patriarchal pressures? Or if affirmation to be oneself (whatever that is) comes unbidden, is it one more pressure?

Finally -- do questions such as these bring roses to a woman's cheeks?
Nah, that's just the tinted foundation/sunscreen/moisturizer.