Lipstick on a Pig: Why Do We Care About Beauty So Much?

“Lipstick on a pig,” – a common idiom used to emphasize the idea that while you can dress up something, or someone, as beautiful as you’d like, you can never truly cover up the ugliness beneath it.

For a while, “lipstick on a pig,” was commonly used in political discussions amongst high profile public officials. For example, on September 9, 2008, former President Barack Obama said, “You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” during a campaign rally in regards to Senator John McCain’s public policies. However, sometime between 2008 and present-day, the phrase took on a more sinister meaning. 

In recent years, many young girls and women have begun to identify with the phrase. It’s most common on Tiktok – where these women share their feelings of looking like a pig with lipstick on. One video shared in 2023 read, “When I’m wondering why my makeup isn’t ‘“makeuping’” but then I remember the ‘“lipstick on a pig’” saying.” Many girls were emotionally affected by this sentiment, with one particular comment saying, “I just looked up the meaning and cried for hours, I can't do this anymore.” The profile photo of the commenter was a black screen and no personalized name, just a singular rose emoji – perhaps showcasing the deep-rooted insecurity they themselves are feeling. 

It’s no secret that beauty standards have haunted women for a millennia. Specifically in the U.S., the beauty standard of stick-thin has spanned for decades – for example the “heroin-chic” look popular in the ’90s. However, with the rise of the Brazilian butt lift (largely due to the Kardashian’s), in the 2010s, it’s now most commonly desired to have a curvaceous body – sometimes described as “slim thick.” The standard for being “slim thick” is to have a large behind and breasts, but to have an undetectable waist. This is a standard that is nearly impossible to be born with, hence the rise of cosmetic surgeries to achieve this look. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, an estimated 396,105 people have had the BBL in just the year 2020 alone. This is around a 20% increase from 2016. 

Despite the current popularity of being slim thick, it's possible that in another twenty years, the U.S. will be back to pushing excessive thinness. How can women ever expect to keep up?

The easy solution is to say that women shouldn’t care about their appearance so much. It’s obvious that it’s impossible to emulate celebrities who have thousands of dollars of surgeries under their belts. The average American woman has a full time job and responsibilities. Most women do not have the time, nor money, to fly to Turkey for a quick nose job. 

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple – and, it’s not only the fault of women for caring too much. It’s becoming increasingly more obvious that many young women share this thought. They’ve taken to posting on social media about the pressure they feel about finding the inbetween to being themselves and looking pleasing to men. One video, posted on Tiktok in 2024, is a young woman with a filter on with the caption reading, “Guys my age talking about their unrealistic beauty standards for a woman.” The comments overwhelmingly agreed. Many young women are fed up with the expectations. One comment read, “They say they prefer a no makeup look, but then when you show up with no makeup, they’re unhappy. They don’t know what they’re looking for.”

Many women are becoming so fed up, that they’re turning to the opposite extreme. A common trend on Tiktok is using the audio of a woman who is encouraging others to embrace the “no-makeup” look and cater to their male partners. While this audio is playing, the woman filming is essentially doing the opposite of what the audio says to emphasize the idea that she doesn’t care about what men want – she cares about what she wants. For example, many “traditional” women encourage others to wear their hair long. The women filming the Tiktok may go so far as to shave her head on camera as an act of rebellion. 

It’s understandably an immensely frustrating situation. From birth, women are encouraged to have the goal of getting married and starting a family. In order to get to the stage of marriage, they first feel the pressure of attracting a man in the first place. They feel they must conform and sacrifice a piece of themselves to be successful. Most women even end up giving up their own names. They have to become the perfect woman. And it seems that these days – it’s nearly impossible to achieve that. 

Women care about beauty so much because they have to. When one is regarded as beautiful,they’re treated better, especially by men. Free drinks at the bar, the door being held open for you. One’s life is simply easier, and it’s not unreasonable for women to want that lifestyle. 

Moreover, for women trying to penetrate into many of the male-dominated industries in the U.S, being perceived as attractive is the only way to get men to not only give women the time of day, but also to respect them. 

Now, it’s a difficult task to try to change the mindset of an entire society, especially when the social norms have been the same for decades, if not centuries. Telling men to stop perpetuating these norms won’t solve the problem. In the same vein, telling women to stop caring how men perceive them also isn’t helpful. It’s not a simple problem. There are no simple solutions. 

"The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening." — bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody. 

That is the first step. Men, women, and everyone in between must first acknowledge the problem. Only then can we begin to address it.