The post-2016 obsession with conventional beauty isn’t a coincidence. It’s a cultural reaction to far right politics, and one that conveniently furthers the movement’s goals. Think of it as the aesthetic arm of trad-wifery2 — a promise that women can find peace, ease, and fulfillment by retreating not into the traditional roles of wife and mother, but into the traditional role of object.3 It’s effective across the political spectrum because “object” does not have a single, easily identifiable “look” (natural or glam, classic or alternative, catering to the male gaze or seemingly rejecting it). The point isn’t the adoption of a particular cosmetic trend; the point is the labor involved in the adoption of any particular cosmetic trend4. The no-makeup makeup and OSEA skincare beloved by Ballerina Farm and the fake lashes and full lips of “bimbo feminists” both demand women invest a not-insignificant portion of their personal power (time, money, energy, headspace) into the impossible, unending, and often compuls…