Uma Thurman is being taunted in media for showing up on the red carpet without eye makeup. Mind you, she has a full face of makeup but not the false eyelashes that are de rigueur glamor. She resembles Tilda Swinton.

The scrutiny these actresses are put under to conform to a beauty matrix is vicious & it must be said, white supremacist. You can hardly distinguish the Latina under the layers of makeup & prosthetics imposed on women like Jennifer Lopez or Raquel Welch. Those Black women who make it in Hollywood have to look at least as Caucasian as Black.

But those false eyelashes are among the worst prosthetics since eyes truly are “the windows to the soul.” Movie stars have worn them for decades, along with phony hair & other trompe l’oeils of beauty, but now they’re showing up on young working women. The false lashes are mesmerizing but an utter distraction from their eyes. Is that because the misogynists who create the beauty matrix think women have no souls?

A secret of old age is there are no homely, ill-favored young people. They’re all just beautified by the energy of youth. There are no homely seniors either unless cruelty has been etched into the face.

This is not a diatribe against use of cosmetics. They’re fun to use & enhance one’s beauty. But when they hide beauty or hide that part of the soul we’re meant to see in each other, or shame us for what we are, then they become impedimental to a fully human life.

(Photo of Uma Thurman)