Fashion consists of everything you put on or pick up to establish your own image. For some people, fashion includes a lot of jewelry. For others, fashion includes hats and hair accessories and extensions. For myself, fashion definitely includes makeup.
Love it or hate it, makeup is an extremely popular trend that has been a part of human culture for centuries. Men and women have historically worn makeup within multiple cultures across the globe — from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas — for a variety of symbolic, practical and aesthetic reasons.
In American culture today, the everyday use of makeup for basic facial enhancement or decoration is perhaps its most common application. Historically, makeup has had a number of genderless functions. In most modern societies, however, makeup is primarily associated with femininity.
From sometimes very young ages, many young girls and women are drawn to colorful eyeshadows, liners, glosses and glitters to put on their faces. In fact, products are marketed to women via video and print ads containing digitally perfected celebrities and models, and the billion dollar cosmetics industry works hard to disseminate the idea that women want and need makeup so its largest consumer base will remain loyal.
Any corporate responsibility aside, many women feel pressured to wear makeup, and a lot of young girls’ self esteem is connected to wearing makeup. In response, many women have been wearing little to no makeup, and "#nomakeup" has accompanied a number of celebrity selfies on social media to promote self-love and encourage those who want to go bare-faced.
Still, as the fight against this societal pressure rages on, those who choose to wear makeup because they enjoy it are also fighting to wear it in peace.
The artistic nature of makeup application has gained in popularity over the last few decades, especially with the rise of online make-up bloggers who teach their followers a wide range of creative, simple and even professional-level make-up skills. Beauty geeks and cosmetic enthusiasts argue that makeup is not just a mask or a crutch for those with low self-esteem; makeup is a hobby — an art form — as well as a profession.
With an arsenal of digital platforms to exhibit their skills, low-key makeup artists are making their names known. CoverGirl just made national headlines after the company unveiled its first male spokesperson, James Charles, who at the age of 17 has been able to launch a career by flaunting his skills on Instagram. As a male high-schooler, Charles has had to learn to cope with criticisms and bullies because society associates makeup almost exclusively with femininity. For a man to wear makeup in modern American society is still something that is rarely seen in mainstream media images, and is certainly not viewed as the norm.
Charles’ experience and the experiences of makeup wearers nationwide prove that the social perception that makeup is inherently feminine is not just historically inaccurate, but harmful to all genders. The division between women who choose to wear makeup and those who choose not to is fueled by the idea that women should be doing one or the other. The idea that women wear makeup to soothe their insecurities as well as the idea that women wear makeup to empower themselves are two concepts centered around the same assumption: women wear makeup. These norms and ideas about makeup create a social box in which makeup becomes either a burden or a taboo, when in fact it shouldn’t be either.
Makeup is paint: material used to decorate one’s face. There is nothing inherently feminine about using or wearing makeup, and a person’s choice to wear makeup or go without it doesn’t make them any more feminine. Like a person’s choice to wear a lot of jewelry, a snapback, or a bright green hair piece; a person’s choice to wear makeup can tell you a lot about their fashion sense and little else.
Kayla Beard is a senior studying journalism with a focus in web design at Ohio University. Do you wear make-up or think it's excessive? Let Kayla know by tweeting her @QKayK
