Opposed to or rejecting the use of cosmetics or beauty enhancement products.
From anti- (against) + cosmetic (from Greek kosmein, to arrange or adorn). The term reflects cultural attitudes questioning beauty standards.
Some philosophical movements throughout history have been anticosmetic, viewing makeup as dishonest ornamentation—yet ironically, the word 'cosmetic' comes from the Greek word meaning to arrange or put in order, not to deceive.
Cosmetics became coded as 'feminine' and 'artificial' in industrial-era moralism; 'anticosmetic' rhetoric often pathologized women's appearance practices while treating masculine grooming as neutral, embedding gendered double standards into the language.
Refer to 'cosmetic skepticism', 'minimal beauty standards', or 'natural appearance advocacy' to avoid gendered moral coding of grooming practices.
["minimal beauty advocacy","natural appearance philosophy","grooming skepticism"]
Women scientists and chemists (Marie Curie, Hedy Lamarr) advanced cosmetic chemistry; reducing cosmetics to moral critique erases female technical innovation.
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