Should You Boycott the Beauty Industry?

"Studies predict that if women stopped buying cosmetic products and services, every economy in the world would collapse overnight." So begins Olivia Gatwood and Megan Falley's slam poemyabout the beauty industry. The next line? "This is a call to collapse the economy." And the resulting battle cry will have even women who love fashion and makeup cheering.

The truth is that while many if not most women enjoy things like makeup or new shoes or that shampoo that gives your hair the right shine, the beauty industry still has a lot to answer for, especially when it comes to ads that make us feel like we're not good enough as we are. And that's not even to mention the fact that it's insanely unfair that women are expected to have a look impossible to achieve without products while guys are under no such obligation. Because come on.

In an ideal world, cosmetics and clothes and lingerie and hair products and all of it would be about nothing more than women wanting to take control over their appearance and express themselves. And plenty of women do see it that way, but usually that's a place we have to get to after years of insecurity over our appearance, insecurity which is fostered by the beauty industry in an effort to sell more products at the expense of our self-esteem. It's a multi-billion dollar industry built on keeping women unsatisfied with how we naturally exist.

And as much as I enjoy finding a great brand of mascara (falsies still scare the hell out of me) or that perfect pair of heels, there's still a part of me that is totally there when Gatwood and Falley suggest we just burn the whole thing to the ground.