“18 Annoying Features All Men Hate About Women”

“Here’s How Men Feel About Makeup.”

“Beauty turnoffs – Beauty mistakes Guys Hate.”

I’m sure you’ve seen those headlines casually lying around your timelines and feeds on social media

Whether it was retweeted by an insecure male himself or published on parody accounts, here’s why you should immediately keep scrolling.

Those headlines are a very small sample of a much bigger problem internalized within our society. If you missed the big picture, those example articles are partaking in a culture that emphasizes male opinions (even when we don’t ask for them) over a woman’s personal choice (and comfort).

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you love dusting highlighter on your face every morning because some men think it looks like sweat. And obviously, we all wear makeup to impress the boys, right? Wrong.

Makeup is used for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to creativity purposes, extra time in the morning, and a little confidence boost. All of which are more than okay. No one should have to validate or justify any personal choice they make no matter how big or small.

The conversation doesn’t stop at beauty standards.

Internalized patriarchal values seep into every aspect of life both physical and mental. It’s as if we are all here waiting for the “green light” on how to act, look, and behave.

And before a certain gender gets extremely offended by my post, let me put a quick disclaimer here that I am more than aware that not all men are the same (#NotAllMen – get it?), which is also very telling because even when the conversation is centered around women, we have to make sure we’re not hurting the egos of men.

That brings me to my next point: it’s a man’s world only if you let it be.

Instead of those click-bait headlines, we should be promoting pieces that empower all genders. Being fiercely confident and unapologetically you should not be revolutionary. It should be normalized.

Let’s change the conversation from “beauty turnoffs” to diversifying how we perceive people and destroying societal standards at the same time, which also means that if winging your eyeliner bothers the person that’s interested in you, then you fly away and never look back.