UPDATED: Don't Photoshop Makeup On a Woman's Face While She Speaks About Women's Equality, Thanks!

In honor of National Women’s Equality Day, bad feminist Roxane Gay appeared in a video for Reuters to discuss how the American suffragette movement excluded Black women. Marring what was a perfectly standard talking head appearance was the fact that, according to Gay, someone behind the scenes edited the video to make it seem like she was wearing makeup, when in fact, she was not.

In the video, Gay appears to be wearing a smoky eye and a fetching magenta lip—two inspired makeup choices that work, but would probably work better if Gay had made them herself?

Zoom calls and the like are an unfortunate reality of our current state of existence, but the magic of your computer’s all-seeing camera is that even if the lighting is kind of shitty, the low-res vibes act as their own sort of filter. Yes, Zoom has a filter built in that automatically gives the user Instagram skin, but even if you don’t use that filter and just let the magic of ambient lighting wash over your features, the end results are largely fine.

Aside from the fact that no one should be doing this to anyone, I’d just like to acknowledge that manipulating a woman guest’s features for a video hit about women’s equality is not great for women or, uh, anyone at all. There you have it: a learning moment for the day that no one asked for or needed.

Updated 8/26/20 5:30 p.m.: In a statement sent to Jezebel and posted to Twitter, a Reuters spokesperson denied that any filter had been used, attributing the “color quality of the video” to “shadows from poor lighting as well as low resolution.” Jezebel apologizes for our/Roxane Gay’s misunderstanding and sincerely hope at least one of the parties involved invests in a ring light.