Sali Hughes: ‘of course you can be a feminist and care about how you look’

Guardian columnist Sali Hughes has spoken about the criticism she receives online for writing about beauty and cosmetics, and how her new book 'Pretty Honest' is her response.

"I used to take them down over 800 very carefully written words and really deconstruct their ludicrous argument for what it was, and then in the end I thought, I can't do this all the time, I'll just put it in a book," she tells Roisin Ingle in this week's "Roisin Meets" podcast.

Much online criticism of Hughes focuses on the importance of make-up and beauty, says Hughes. “I don’t care if people care about their appearance or not, I absolutely don’t. But I have a problem with anyone who has an opinion on how I should feel,” she says. “I think that kind of tolerance should go two ways, and I think women are belittled and teased about their, I think, very natural, innate instinct to groom”.

“Nobody looks at men’s hobbies ever and defines men by those hobbies. No one says ‘Paintballing? I bet you don’t know what’s going on in Syria’”.

Hughes describes herself as a feminist, and sees no conflict between that and an interest in beauty. “There are certain elements of the beauty industry that are really problematic for feminists, and I am a feminist and they are problematic for me. But beauty and the beauty industry are two separate things. You have to be able to separate the concept of beauty from the commerce, because the moment commerce becomes involved in anything, there’s darkness, unfortunately”.

As well as answering Hughes’ critics, and providing make-up tips, “Pretty Honest” gives beauty guidance for women suffering from illnesses such as cancer. “If the thing that makes you feel normal and like yourself is your appearance and trying to control that in some way, then I think it’s really therapeutic to do it’” she says. “I don’t think it, I know it”.

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