According to a piece in The Telegraph, it’s sexist to tell women that they “‘look tired’ at work.”
“Chances are if a woman has a totally bare face, she’ll be told by both male and female colleagues that she looks exhausted, hungover or ill . . . people are so used to seeing made-up women at work that an au naturale face seems anything but natural,” Radhika Sanghani writes in a piece oh-so-aptly titled “It’s sexist to tell a woman she ‘looks tired’ at work — and here’s why.”
Okay. First, the makeup thing. Sure, it’s annoying that us women “have to” spend more time getting ready in the morning because we “have to” put on makeup. But here’s the thing: It’s. Not. That. Serious. Although there are of course exceptions, each sex generally has a different, unique set of struggles that they deal with just because they’re that sex. Sure, I may “have to” spend more time getting ready, but at least no one has ever expected me to help them move their damn couch.
(Oh, and by the way, I put “have to” in quotes because you actually don’t have to. I don’t wear makeup to work on the days that I’m not on television, and I definitely don’t look as good as I do on the days that I do. So how do I handle it? Oh, I don’t know, maybe by being too busy working to worry about any of my coworkers’ potential opinions of my face. Really, if it weren’t for the Internet, I would never have had any idea that showing my actual face in public without paint on it made me some kind of feminist hero.)
#related#Second, the makeup “issue” (ugh) alone doesn’t in any way make saying, “You look tired,” sexist. Sure, I’ve heard that comment while I’m makeup-free, but you know what? There are plenty of reasons someone might tell another person that he or she looks tired. And I say “he or she” because — believe it or not! — sometimes dudes have people tell them that they look tired, too!
Crazy, I know. Bloodshot eyes, yawning, dark circles… all of these are things that happen to men, too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m smart enough to know that when someone tells me that I “look tired” what they’re really saying is, “You look bad.” I could definitely get behind an article saying that it’s rude. But declaring something “sexist” that happens to both sexes? No. That’s pretty doggone clearly not what “sexist” means, so please stop . . . you’re embarrassing us.