There are a new bevy of products climbing the beauty horizon. They are shelled in dark, matte containers, laden with names that similarly attempt to be daunting. Warpaint. Stryx. MMUCK. In advertisements consumers are promised, “confidence.” A product like this is what, “they deserve.” Makeup for men. Men, says the message, are now allowed to feel good about themselves. Patchy beards may now be filled in with “beard products.” Dark under eye circles may be similarly masked with eye care lines. Red, blemished, “problem skin,” can be hidden underneath a smear of creamy masculine foundation.
Male public figures have been wearing makeup for decades. If a male news anchor delivered you your news this morning, he did so wearing a few layers of makeup. Your favorite male actor never steps out onto the red carpet with a sheer second skin. The formulaic difference between makeup targeted to women and makeup now beginning to be targeted to men is virtually nonexistent. Women’s products have been exhaustively researched and tested for decades upon decades. They offer specialities such as sensitive, dry, oily, combination. But male targeted makeup companies this is purposely ignored. In fact, it is one of the core principles of their marketing strategies.
It is a pure and simple truth that men are ashamed to associate themselves with femininity. This self-admitted of the brand’s founders. The message men purport to fellow men is that this shame they feel about purchasing makeup has a solution. We have, “the goal to remove the stigma of men’s cosmetics,” says one. Their products, aren’t for men who “are already comfortable buying cosmetics products designed for and marketed to women.” “It’s time to come in to the modern age and for men to benefit from these sorts of great cosmetic products without the embarrassment,” says another.
According to male targeted makeup brands, the solution to ending the stigma of men purchasing and wearing makeup is to reinforce that it is a shameful, embarrassing thing for them to do. Shelling makeup in nondescript packages with discreet labeling does not make men feel less ashamed men feel about wanting to waltz into Sephora and buy concealer or use that concealer to conceal a pimple on their faces. They simply reinforce that makeup, which is traditionally associated with feminine presenting people is something shameful when affiliated with a gender not as supposedly frivolous or vain.
For men to rid themselves of the stigma they speak of, they need to collectively recognize that makeup targeted towards women is done so because of a rigid structure of gender norms. Ridding themselves of the stigma would begin by men purchasing makeup targeted towards women, issue free. Ending the stigma would be looking past the expectations of gender and the corporations who perpetuate falsities for profit. Instead men perpetuate more falsities.
The lesson women learn soon into adolescence is something akin to “You are not beautiful, but you can be if you spend x amount of time and money.” Marketing for male targeted makeup brands such as Stryx have utilized this age old method that keeps the beauty industry alive. Step 1. Develop a product based upon an uncontrollable function of the human body. Step 2. Instill in consumers an insecurity about said function. Once promotion of said product has further assured consumers that an insecurity should exist, commence Step 3. Distribute the product to the masses. It’s worrying because men have forever been allowed to be imperfect.
Marketing tactics must evolve with the consumer, and in recent years, a more sinister device has emerged. In a rightfully capitalistic fashion, companies have begun to market their products, designed to “fix” or “remedy” something about the consumer, underneath the guise of self-love. Love yourself for who you are, says the message, but who you are needs to have clear glass skin, and a pinched waist. This marketing supports the idea that your natural self is actually a body that has been waxed, toned, groomed, scrubbed, once all that has been done, that is the natural body you will love. They market loving bodies contingent on being totally unnatural, whose upkeep is completely dependent on them and their products. Along with this comes an era of nonchalance. Effortlessness must be conveyed. There is now more shame than ever before in “loving” yourself. It is a hushed unspoken truth that behind naturalness, is a lengthy regimen of creams, serums, machines, and tools.
Just like confidence has been redefined, natural has taken on a new meaning that each day ebbs closer and closer to artificial.
There has never been anything liberating about makeup companies targeting makeup a female demographic. There is nothing liberating about makeup companies targeting a male demographic. This new wave of male orientated makeup companies is worrying. It subverts the long held notion that women are the only gender expected to perform constantly. We are held to a higher pedigree than men, perfection must constantly be adhered to, otherwise we are assumed to lack in capacities irrelevant to our appearances. Men perpetuate this, and now, they seem hungry to lock themselves in the same prison.