One for the boys
Make-up for men is breaking the gender norm, writes Syahirah Mokhtazar
IREMEMBER watching an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians a few years back where Kourtney Kardashian called out her ex-beau Scott Disick for wearing make-up. In his defence, he said he wore tinted moisturiser ... even though it is placed under the same make-up section at the store, Disick was adamant it wasn’t makeup he put on his face.
For generations, make-up has always been strictly the province of women, but now men are also free to apply make-up and express themselves without being questioned about their masculinity.
Well, it is 2018 and people are breaking the gender norm for almost everything, but I didn’t think make-up would make the list. In all honesty, men wearing make-up is nothing new, but this used to be limited to actors, and TV personalities for the purpose of appearing on camera and doing what’s best for photos.
The habit of wearing make-up on a daily basis, as far as I know, has never been a practice of the man on the street because having make-up on has never been considered “manly”. Also, most would agree that for them, doing anything beyond ensuring hygiene is unnecessary.
Chanel recently made headlines when it blazed the beauty game trail by launching Boy de Chanel, its first make-up line for men. The brand claims that “beauty is not a matter of gender; it is a matter of style”.
The collection offers tinted foundation available in four shades, brow pencils and matte lip balm. Granted they’re not lipsticks, in shades of pink and nude, or a range of blush in bright red but who knows, that might be included in the line-up too?
Seeing make-up collections crafted especially for men is something worth keeping an eye on. Does this mean beauty stores like Sephora will allocate a special section for make-up for men now?
GROWING PRESSURE?
As much as women feel the need to wear make-up to hide their flaws and boost their confidence, perhaps it’s the same for men.
According to The Conversation, a research showed that men are increasingly dissatisfied with their self-image. Adding to the pressure for men to look tall, muscular and flawless probably means having flawless skin with no pores visible, strong eyebrows and no skin blemishes.
Perhaps this is why marketers jump at the opportunity to provide a solution to men who want to invest in their appearance to some degree.
Honestly, what does the rise of men’s make-up mean for masculinity? Do they really need make-up?
It’s becoming a mainstream trend abroad, and it’s only a matter of time before the trend gets picked up here. But it remains to be seen if we will be as accepting of this trend.
I’m curious to know what sort of issues will crop up should that happen because our culture traditionally shuns make-up for men due to religious issues.