sidereal – does that mean if I always wear make-up, I’m being deceptive? Or if you haven’t seen me in make-up, then I’m being deceptive? Given that a wide majority of women wear make-up (and probably a wider majority of women on first dates wear it), a man should not assume that that’s what a woman also looks like when she first gets up in the morning.

William Saletan mentioned in passing in an article about blond anchorwomen that they were being deceptive in dyeing hair. I think the same principle holds. ENough people do it so that one is always aware that a given hair color is not one’s natural color, so it’s not deceptive.

I the first case, the makeup-wearer could (and probably intends to) create the impression that she has a certain level of beauty Y which does not obtain without makeup (I’m going to completely avoid any argument here about whether makeup actually makes one beautiful etc, etc. For the sake of the discussion, just assume it’s true and universal).

If the impression created is ‘she has a degree of beauty Y when wearing makeup’, there’s no deception. If it’s ‘she has a degree of beauty Y (unqualified)’ then it is deceptive. And the degree of deception might vary depending on how often she wears makeup (this now relates more to the apartment cleaning analogy. If you clean it daily, it’s not deceptive to clean it. If never, it is). Who controls that distinction? The woman can rightly say ‘I never signaled that I have beauty X without makeup’, while the recipient might (relating to the rationality issue I referred to earlier) suggest that that impression was created anyway, and the makeup wearer both knew that and relied upon it.

On the other hand, if you know someone well, then it’s impossible to imply that you have beauty level Y without makeup, because the other party already knows you without makeup. But that doesn’t necessarily dissuade use of makeup (when going out), because creating beauty level Y is enjoyable, even if both parties know it isn’t intrinsic.