The Ice Spice no makeup photo went viral in 2023 after the rapper took a selfie with no makeup on. The difference between how she looks made-up vs. bare-faced kicked off a large number of social media posts, many of them misogynistic and declaring women cannot be trusted.
This launched a period of discourse in which fans came to Ice Spice’s defense, with many women explaining that makeup is indeed intended to change the appearance of one’s face—a fact that has never been a secret.
What is the Ice Spice no makeup controversy?
The latest example of makeup vs. no makeup internet fighting comes from a Twitter post in which a user presented three photos meant to tell a story: One of Ice Spice’s 2023 look featuring her characteristic short red curly hair and a fairly standard amount of makeup, an image of some makeup remover wipes, and an older photo of the artist with straight pink hair wearing minimal to no makeup.
The contrast between the two photos of Ice Spice is significant, which speaks to the transformative power of modern makeup and the skills required to be done right. However, OP and many others commenting on the post were more scathing than impressed.
“Never gonna trust a woman who wears makeup ever again,” he wrote.
Ice Spice no makeup photo origins
Social media users had been speculating on what American rapper and songwriter Ice Spice might look like without makeup through much of 2023. On October 19, Twitter user @scxrdvx posted the photo set that sparked the viral controversy around her appearance.
It’s unclear who took the photo of Ice Spice without makeup or what the context was, or whether she consented to having her picture taken at the time or shared online. However, it’s well known that her straight pink hair era was around the year 2021.
This is far from the first time that online fighting has broken out over how people (mostly women) look when the makeup comes off. There have been several examples of similar trends in which someone posts a photo of a woman without her makeup on, sometimes alongside an image of her in full makeup, and says they won’t trust women anymore or will require them to remove their makeup before dating them.
This is always followed by backlash in which women explain that this happened due to social pressures put upon them to wear makeup in the first place and that these pressures were largely created and driven by men. They also tend to point out the fact that improving one’s appearance is literally what makeup exists for and widely mock the guys for being surprised when it does.
Backlash and fan praise
While the fervor around the Ice Spice no makeup photo was initially negative, fans quickly jumped to her defense. Folks tired of this routine freakout began to flood Twitter with posts praising the artist for how she looks in the no-makeup photo.
Others clapped back at the men putting Ice Spice down for her natural appearance or made fun of them for being weird.
“Men when they realize women don’t grow 7-foot long jet black eyelashes and aren’t born with pink eyeshadow,” wrote one Twitter user, following up with a string of screaming and scared emojis.
Examples:
Related memes:
- This Michael Jackson makeup meme is sweeping TikTok
- #NoMakeupSelfies raise over $1.6 million for cancer research
- Girl magically turns her mouth into the rarest Pepe ever
- ‘Margot Robbie is mid’ is the sexist Twitter discourse from hell
