Or capitalism in general really but like I feel linking your identity with consuming products produced by brands that are like closely linked with and produce profits for public figures who are like notably shitty people, like shittier than the vast majority of celebrities is like… at the very least politically questionable.

IDK social media posts that are like “OMG Jeffree Star cosmetics” or what have you seem like… sorta fucked up because like… although whatever you consume it’s going to be linked to the evil of capitalist fuckery, Jeffree Star’s line is high end, most of these lines are, and so it’s not like how it’s not any less evil to buy expensive “fair trade” coffee and like you’re buying these products and displaying that you bought these products at least in part because of the image and identity associated with the company that produced them and so like… I’m just going to use Jeffree Star cosmetics as an example here because it’s a post about his products that brought this up.

Jeffree Star cosmetics is a relatively small line, produced pretty directly by its owner (Jeffree Star) and like very closely tied to him and his income directly and its brand is very much his brand and so like when you show off your Jeffree Star products you’re pretty thoroughly endorsing Jeffree Star and saying like “I’m proudly associating myself with Jeffree Star and like purchasing products from him because, at least in part, of the cache associated with this brand” and like even if you love the products for their color and formulas and what have you… there are other similar products out there, you’re choosing his and like Jeffree Star is very openly HORRIFICALLY racist and transmisogynist and all sorts of other shit.  He’s a shitty person.  He’s very openly, very publicly, very noticeably a shitty person and like even if you think he’s a talented makeup artist and his products are good… it’s not like there’s a shortage of great cosmetics products or talented makeup artists. 

Saying “Don’t buy from Jeffree Star or if you do at least have the decency not to endorse him as a person by showing off that you purchase shit from Jeffree Star which only adds to the general sense of the acceptability of Jeffree Star and the awful shit he says” is pretty different from saying “working class people need to consume less/spend money they don’t have to be *~*~*ethical*~*~*” and so like… IDK I do kinda judge people who show off products from him.

That said I’m also shitty about not buying makeup from companies that support the occupation of Palestine and like they’re usually much larger and probably have a further reaching effect on what happens in the world… so like maybe this is just performance politics and I should take my head out of my ass but like even then I sort of try to do my best… but like IDK I love makeup a lot too and I guess I sort of hate the way the beauty community largely ignores the political implications of what they’re buying/endorsing (especially because it is a community and so many products become trendy because people talk about them) and also the hypocrisy of how like so many beauty community people are like interested in “cruelty free” beauty products which shows that like they are capable of skipping out on trendy products for political reasons but then turn a blind eye to not only the actions of the companies in terms of how the cosmetics are produced and how that money is used (cause most people do that with most products and there is no ethical consumption under late capitalism) but also like the very public statements of people closely tied to the images of the brands they aren’t just consuming but are endorsing.

And like this is one of the reasons I feel pretty conflicted about doing beauty tutorials and the like, because like I’m conscious of the fact that like I’m endorsing the brand image and statements associated with the products I’m recommending and like the political implications thereof and like if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that like purity politics aren’t a thing I’m into participating in, and that I strongly believe the idea that you have to be morally perfect and the people you associate with all have to be morally perfect and always have been morally perfect in order to be a “good activist” or whatever is profoundly toxic and harmful to the possibility of affecting actual change but like it still feels like there is actually some complexity there and stuff to be conscious of.