Making up femininity: exploring everyday makeup practices of upper middle-class working women

Abstract

The study of makeup has not been a prized area of research for academic scholarship, especially in the context of India it remains heavily under researched. Hence this project is an exploratory study on the makeup practices of urban Indian working women across various professions ranging from doctors, corporate professionals, social media influencers and makeup artists. This qualitative study employs semi-structured interviews as the primary method of data collection as well as surveys and observations. This research is situated within the neoliberal debate of whether neoliberal consumption practices are empowering or oppressive towards women. Drawing on frameworks of neoliberal femininities, leisure, selfcare and play as well as the history of makeup in India, this study proposes a third space of pleasure, fun and play wherein women rework the dynamics of what is to be seen according to their own preferences. It gestures towards the possibility of how an Indian workplace femininity of working women is negotiated and balanced by the everyday makeup practices of women.