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Meet the make-up removal app that strips women bare
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Why do women wear make-up? It's the age-old question which has had many a non-make-up advocate scratching their head for centuries on end. Is it to mask those deep-seated insecurities? Is it the patriarchy clouting us down once again? Is it simply to give our image that extra bit of pizazz? The truth is, whatever her rhyme or reason, each woman - and the relatively low percentage of men who indulge in cosmetics - can now be stripped bare by MakeApp, the app that allows users to remove make-up from any picture.
Many users are thrilled to pieces with the technology, which was updated this month to include videos. Finally, instead of relying on the paparazzi to catch celebrities "daring" to bare their naked faces in public, they could do a little DIY work and strip back the warpaint the rich and famous employ at red carpet events. After all, what could be better than having a bit of fun catching out Kim K or Blake Lively sans make-up, right?
Wrong. MakeApp has painted itself as the subject of controversy among those who insist that it is just another way to shame people who choose to wear make-up, as well as those who claim that the new app doesn't accurately portray their bare faces, often making odd assumptions about their skin. So, do the haters need to get over themselves or is it all a little problematic?
Perhaps the main issue is that many people see the app as a way to "expose" the women wake up in the morning and apply foundation, blusher and eyeliner to their faces. In the online world, make-up is commonly seen as a way for ladies to disguise the way they really look and "fool" men into thinking they are more attractive than they are in reality, the two Twitter posts below exemplifying this worrying opinion that is rife in society. After all, women make the decision to put on make-up for a reason and whether that reason be due to it being an art form, her own insecurity, or just to make herself happy, who are we to take that away from her? By giving users the opportunity to uncover a woman's face, are we swindling her out of the right to determine how she presents herself to the world?
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Izabella Zaydenberg, a writer at Revelist certainly thinks so. She wrote an article entitled 'This make-up removing app is just a subtler form of shaming' that claimed: "If a woman steps out with make-up on her face, it's because that's the image that she wants to convey that day. It's not up to us, or up to some creep with an iPhone, to determine what she "really" looks like underneath her make-up. If a woman is wearing make-up, it's presumably because she WANTS to, and robbing her of that right is totally unfair."
Another problem some users have encountered with MakeApp, which can also add make-up to a face, is that it is not always completely accurate in its portrayal of a bare face, often presuming that whoever using it has big bags under their eyes, red blotches on their face and a ghostly white complexion. It's come under fire for appearing to lighten people's entire faces, even giving them a paler eye colour than before, as well as not removing the make-up in its entirety.
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However, it appears that the controversy surrounding the new technology was never intended. MakeApp founder, Ashot Gabrelyanov, reached out to Revelist explaining that his app was never intended to offend and, rather than troll, was instead meant to help the large number of people who are illegally trafficked around the world each year. He wrote an email, stating: "Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are illegally trafficked all around the World. In most of these cases, make-up is heavily used to disguise the age and/or identity of these people. If human traffickers can hide these victim's identities, their chances of rescue are low. When security services show an image and say 'Is this your daughter?' heavily applied make-up often makes the identification process quite difficult. We hope our technology may help families and authorities identify victims for rescue. We are already in communication with a few organizations to help them identify the victims of kidnapping and human trafficking."
So, what do you make of MakeApp? A genius invention designed to better society, or a devious creation that humiliates women yet again? At the end of the day, it seems as though it is all about whose hands the app falls into. If trafficking victims are being saved, there's no argument that the app serves a worthwhile purpose. However, you could argue that once internet trolls, school bullies and make-up shamers find it in their clutches, they'll be no going back.
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