A woman who goes by the username u/calcarius_ on Reddit recently posted to the subreddit r/mildlyinfuriating about an experience she had with her husband. Typically, he doesn’t care if she dresses up or wears makeup, but he couldn’t tell the difference between her done-up look and her bare face. The post received 6,300 thousand upvotes and 185 comments.
The Reddit user shared that she has been dealing with mental health issues recently and has stopped putting effort into her appearance. She wrote, “My (39F) husband (40M) and I were going out to a show for our 13th wedding anniversary. Admittedly, I've gained weight recently and have been struggling with depression, so it's hard for me to want to get dressed up,” continuing, “He made a big deal out of me dressing up and putting on makeup for our night out. He's never cared about makeup before, so I don't know where it came from.”
The behavior was unlike him, so she was frustrated. It got worse when he didn’t notice whether she was wearing makeup or not. “I ended up putting on a dress and some makeup. While we were out, he asked me whether I'd ended up putting on makeup or not. What the hell was the point if he couldn't even tell the difference?”
Clearly, it didn’t matter in the end whether she wore makeup or not. This upset her, and she asked Reddit for their opinions.
Reddit Users Question Why Her Husband Insisted She Wear Makeup
“Good intention, bad execution: he treated makeup as a happiness button instead of asking what would make her feel good,” wrote one commenter. Another added, “A lot of men are so clueless about makeup, they can only really tell if someone is wearing a lot of bright eyeshadow or lipstick. I notice a lot of guys like the ‘no makeup’ makeup look, which ironically still takes a lot of products to pull off right.”
Some thought she should look at it from another perspective. Maybe he was trying to boost her spirits. “You should look at this from a different angle. Perhaps he wasn’t asking for this because he specifically cares about makeup, but more like he cares about you. Yeah maybe you don’t usually wear it or care about it, but clearly you own stuff. I wonder if he wasn’t trying to help lift you out of what you’re going through, if even for only this one night.”
One commenter agreed with them, responding, “This was my first thought. Also, asking whether she decided to wear makeup sounded to me like he was trying to signal to her that it looks so natural and/or she's beautiful enough without it that he can't even tell.”
While many commenters agreed with OP, others thought her husband may have been coming from a good place.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the personal experience shared by u/calcarius_, which was posted to the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit on Reddit.
