genderscosmetologylesson-blog

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Portlandia is popular show that involves cross-dressing. There are many characters in the show, mostly played by Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen. In this skit, Carrie plays Lance and Fred plays Nina. Because this is for the purpose of entertainment, the cross-dressing adds to the comical aspect of the skit. Having a man play a woman and a woman play a man is accepted in pop culture. Cross-dressing characters are more abundant in pop culture now than they were years ago, showing that people, especially the younger generations, are more accepting of this behavior. 

In the words of Nina (and myself), we must say cacao to gender barriers that prevent people from self-expression.

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Robin Williams dresses up as a woman called Mrs. Doubtfire in the film Mrs. Doubtfire. This film won many awards and is a top-grossing film. It was very well received, and it was one of the first popular movies that involved a ‘cross-dressing’ main character. That being said, Williams dressed up as a woman not because he identified as a female, but because he wanted to win back the love of his family. Despite this, the film did bring cross-dressing into the spotlight at the time. Because the cross-dressing was for entertainment purposes, it was deemed acceptable by the popular crowd. At the time, a cross-dressing individual in real-life society might have been ridiculed or made fun of.

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This Ted Talk gives an overview on the relationship of social media and gender. Many advertising firms, and even consumer data firms such as Nielsen, are using demographic information from social media sites to predict the wants and needs of consumers. Johanna also talks about how the social media scene is dominated by women in every age category. She shows that demographic information is NOT the best representation of consumers for analysis anymore. People are better represented by the things they like, what they show interest in, and, in the digital world, what they click on. Now we see a lot of companies targeting groups of people who share a common interest rather than targeting people by gender. In her explanation, Johanna is trying to show that interests are not defined by gender. Social media is helping people to construct their own individual profile, with little reliance on gender.

Source: TedTalk

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This Buzzfeed article sums up millennial women perceptions of the purpose of makeup. The idea of women wearing makeup for men as seen in the old 20th century advertisements does not exist in this article. Most women claimed that makeup is a fun tool, or that it gives them some ‘me time.’ One woman even mentioned that makeup allows for gender play. This further supports previous blog posts that discuss change in the reasons why women wear makeup.

Source: Buzzfeed

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This article shows how there are generational differences in the way we think about gender. It mentions that there have been previous makeup lines crafted specifically for men, but that they never gained popularity because the acceptance of men wearing makeup was not mainstream in previous times. 

This article quotes Mazdack Rassi, founder of the new Milk Makeup brand, providing the audience with an understanding of where brands are headed in the future. Makeup is now being made and marketed for no specific gender. While there are still many popular brands that use only one gender in their ads, the understood message is that makeup is up for interpretation and cosmetic products can be used by anyone. 

Overall, this shows how the barriers between gender are breaking down. Younger generations don’t want to be restricted to labels, and young people are more interested in their own individuality. Having men start using makeup does not change the meaning of makeup for women, and men are starting to be less ‘afraid’ of using cosmetics. 

The majority of the motivation for wearing makeup does not come from trying to please the opposite gender anymore. Rather it stems from our own want for self-expression.

Source: LA Times

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Manny is a male makeup guru that millions of followers look up to for advice. His followers include men and women. Compared to Wayne Goss, Manny’s look is less wearable for men. Most straight men are not looking to wear false lashes, a bunch of eyeshadow, and liquid lipstick. They want something more natural, almost unnoticeable, because while makeup is becoming genderless, there are still men that believe makeup is for women. For these reasons, Manny has more appeal from gay men. Overall, Manny has been very influential in bridging the gap between makeup styles/techniques for men and women.

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Wayne Goss is a huge celebrity in the makeup artist community. I don’t fangirl but I totally would if i met him. He launched his own brush line a few years ago!

Wayne Goss is the perfect example of a man who has positive recognition in the beauty community. While his fans are mostly women, Goss provides his viewers a lot of wearable makeup looks that can be labeled as unisex. Goss provides a male perspective on makeup that does not imply any expectations of women or men involving makeup. He uses his makeup skills to provide people of all genders brand review, tutorials, and general makeup advice. In this way, he is subtly promoting inclusion and individuality. 

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Jeffree Star is a huge YouTube content creator, social media celebrity, and owner of Jeffree Star Cosmetics. I am personally not a fan of Jeffree Star for ethical reasons regarding how he runs his cosmetics line (I am Kat Von D’s #1 fan), but he has so many followers from showing that makeup is for ‘anyone who’s fearless enough to be their own person.’ The fact that people have responded so well to Jeffree and gave him the popularity he has today shows that people believe that makeup really is for everyone. 

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In Paris Is Burning, we can see drag culture how it really was at the time. This documentary was not staged at all in order to show the realities of individuals that were a part of drag culture in NYC. Here, we can see their dress and how they used cosmetics to express themselves. At this time, it was not normal for men to wear makeup, which is why the balls and their ‘drag identities’ are kept a secret from the real world. The balls serve as an escape where they can be “whoever they want to be.”

For me, the documentary really packed a punch when a drag queen was being interviewed and he said that he won’t get a sex change to become a woman. He has seen that when others have become a women, they do it because they think that they will feel better about who they are, but really they are treated worse than they were before. They failed to realize that women are treated worse than men. 

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There's no longer any hand lotion or face cream, not for us. Such things are considered vanities. We are containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important. The outside can become hard and wrinkled, for all they care, like the shell of a nut. This was a decree of the Wives, this absence of hand lotion. They don't want us to look attractive.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Chapter 17 P. 96

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the ideals of makeup are representative of their societal views. Despite the outlaw of cosmetics for women, Offred is able to use her butter as a moisturizing lotion. 

Makeup represents Offred’s loss of control over her own appearance, since she is not allowed to wear it. The commander, representative of the male perspective, views the lack of makeup as a source of freedom. However, not being able to wear makeup is actually restrictive and prevents the women from expressing their individuality, showing that this society tried to make the handmaids seem the same when in fact they are all different individuals. So controlling! At Jezebel’s every woman wears makeup in the hopes of attracting men. This is a different world from the atmosphere that the handmaids live in. 

The purpose of sharing this quote is to show how makeup can be for the individual. In this society, the purpose of wearing makeup is to attract men. Using makeup as a sexual tool takes away the individuality and self-expression it can provide, which is what most people regardless of gender want to use it for in the current day.

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Not only is L’Oréal including men in their promotions, Maybelline is also advertising makeup to include ALL types of people. This is an ad for the new That Boss Life mascara where we see Many and Shayla both apply the mascara. Both of these individuals are major influencers and gained their popularity from YouTube. 

From this ad and the L’Oréal ad, we can see that brands are marketing the diversity of their products in showing that anyone can use cosmetics. Brands are straying away from advertising the idea that women should wear makeup for men, realizing that women want to wear makeup for themselves. They are incorporating both genders in ads, recognizing that this technique attracts MANY customers. This says a lot about how gender roles and gender-specific traits are changing. People are no longer defined by society, rather they are defining themselves through their individuality and expression with cosmetics.

There is also a Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yFWpVo85_0

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Just at the beginning of this year, L’Oréal launched a new campaign for their True Match foundation. This was launched to show that they are inclusive of all skin colors. Because of this ad, the True Match foundation was the top selling foundation in the UK for 4 months. Promoting inclusion was so successful that L’Oréal changed its slogan from “Because you’re worth it” to “We are all worth it” for the remainder of the year.

You might not see it at first glance, but Darnell Bernard is featured in the top left corner of the ad. This got so much positive feedback that L’Oréal had decided to continue this campaign and its strategy of inclusion and diversity. However, I feel like it is almost incorrect to claim gender diversity here, because this ad has one man against 15 women. I recommend that next time, MORE men are involved in the ads for this campaign. I think makeup should be normalized for men, because at the end of the day, makeup is for the individual, and why can’t men wear makeup without getting criticized/judged?

Overall, I think it’s cool to have a brand match the foundation to the individual rather than have the individual match the foundation. Yay for a really influential/trendsetting business telling you to be yourself rather than telling you what you should be!

BIG THUMBS UP! (but also pls avoid tokenism)

Source: This print ad can be seen in many major fashion magazines like Marie Claire. I got this picture from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/loreal-paris-debuts-new-true-match-campaign-your-skin-your-story-300387365.html 

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This ad is for Axe body spray a little over ten years ago, created way before the ‘is it ok for guys’ ad that was released a few months ago. 

This ad shows a bunch of basically naked women running ravenously to one man that is using Axe body spray, implying that if you use the spray women will be attracted to you. This shows how for a period of time, marketing to men was effective when it involved women wanting men and women being sexualized. 

Not only does this show how ground breaking the ‘is it ok for guys’ ad is, but it also shows how the brand has changed overtime. Brands change to fit with societal trends, showing that breaking gender barriers is an important topic in modern society. It also shows that men and women alike are looking to use products to feel good for themselves as opposed to pleasing the opposite gender.

Times are a changin’ :) yay

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THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING FOR MEN (and women also)

I don’t know why this ad has not gone viral ESPECIALLY because Axe is notorious for having that cool, bad boy image that is totally unachievable and unrealistic for most boys. 

This ad shows that men are human too. This ad takes a huge handful of ‘feminine’ characteristics and breaks the gender barrier. There is this idea that men have to be ‘manly,’ tough, and even sometimes violent. Axe shows that you can still be a man and do/feel things that are not ‘manly’ by societal standards. For women, this ad shows that feminine characteristics are starting to be relieved of the ‘feminine’ label. These characteristics are starting to become the new norm for all genders. I think that this trend will explode when our generation and the generation below us gets older and starts to enter the real world. 

Just like women, men also have this cookie cutter image that they feel they need to fill, and this ad is breaking that image. 

It’s about time. :)

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Now that I have looked at ads for women’s cosmetics, I wanted to also look at men’s cosmetics to see what the other side entailed. This is a 1960s Old Spice commercial for their shaving cream. I wanted to look at a product that was specific to men, as at this time makeup was specific to women.

In this commercial there were no women involved. There was nothing about how ‘your wife will love you if you use this cream’ or ‘don’t we all want to please our girls at home?’ 

This did not suprise me. What this shows is that there was no importance around self-care to make please your wife/girlfriend. Society did not suggest that men care to please their wives with their appearances. Men were able to look good for themselves, whereas women had to look good for men.

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This is an ad featuring Barbara Britton for Revlon’s ‘Berry Bon Bon’ lipstick color. This was made when Revlon was introducing their red lipstick that also had hints of pink to it. This lipstick was a very big deal at the time because there was not the variety of lipstick shades as there is today.

All of these old ads that I posted on this blog show how men were involved in women’s cosmetics. For a gender that did not wear makeup at this time, they were very involved in the marketing and creation of women’s cosmetic products. 

I love watching old ads like these because you can see the psychological trends of the time. You really get a glimpse of how people were thinking and what was important to them.

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This video is a compilation of a bunch of 1950s shampoo commercials. In all of these ads, there is a man narrating. When you read between the lines, you can see how back then there was a lot of importance of what the male thought the woman should look like, and the women were responsible for achieving said look.

The ad for Finesse shampoo sticks out to me above the rest. The ad uses terminology like the ‘man in your family.’ It markets the product to women by saying that men will love the shampoo as well, and the entire ad is narrated by a man. At the end there is a happy couple shown, exhibiting the ideal societal image.

The ad for Dream shampoo is narrated by Michael ‘of the Waldorf’ and he shows how he styles all of the womens’ hair and how he uses that product to achieve these coveted styles. The idea here is that there is a male showing women how to look. This is exemplifies how a lot of women’s trends and styles were popularized by men.