MAC Cosmetics New ‘Strength’ Advertisement

There’s a peculiarly particular balance of appearance so-called feminine qualities that our society tends to tolerate. Women are supposed to be lean but not muscular; athletic but not defined; soft but never squishy. It’s a balance few of us are completely capable of achieving, whether it’s because of ability or simply genetics.

Amongst all of the judgements of the female form there’s is undoubtedly a very specific type of body snarking that revolves around muscular women. Society often shames people they deem overweight, sometimes body shame those declared too thin and noticeably considers very muscular women to be gross or unappealing, which is harsh as these women work out frequently and eat incredibly well in order to achieve the bodies they have. Why insult them? And it appears that MAC Cosmetics now agrees.

I was really excited when I opened an email from MAC Cosmetics last week and spotted this advertisement inside featuring a very muscular woman in a non-ironic manner. The subject of the email was “Fearless Femininity, Powerful Colour” which I think worked wonderfully with this photograph. The model looks beautiful, strong and feminine, and I’m so happy MAC acknowledged that this is not only possible, but also admirable.

The print of the ad says, “Strike a beautiful pose, stand out and redefine the notion of beauty…” So hats off to you, MAC Cosmetics, you folks did an amazing job creating an ad campaign that shows the beauty of a muscular female body in a complimentary way.