Makeup and Gender

The human race has been beautifying itself for thousands of years. Throughout history, we have used various kinds of makeup and beauty routines to enhance and reshape our natural features. In fact, our use of makeup traces back to 6000 B.C. when the Egyptians used things like kohl, eye paint, and red lipstick to adorn their faces. For the Egyptians, makeup was a way to distinguish one’s wealth and to appeal yourself to the Gods. Even more interesting, in my opinion, both male and female Egyptians wore makeup. For thousands of years after the Egyptians, makeup was used by both men and women. In Ancient Rome, Elizabethan England, and 18th-century France, for example, makeup was used equally between men and women.

If makeup started as a tool employed by all genders, then why is it that in recent history makeup has been seen as a strictly feminine habit? At what point in history did we begin to restrict simple rouges and powders for one gender? Many historians believe that the social attitude towards makeup shifted around the mid-1800s, during the reign of Queen Victoria I of Great Britain. According to an article by the beauty magazine Byrdie, during this era makeup was regarded very poorly by the crown and the church in England, and society began to associate the use of makeup with vanity and femininity. This negative viewpoint towards makeup, along with shifting attitudes towards the masculine identity, contributed greatly to the idea that makeup was for women only.

Ever since this great shift in attitude toward makeup application, we have seen a few breakthroughs in the previously rigid and gendered view towards cosmetics. The pampering of male appearance was seen again with actors in Old Hollywood. Several male artists and musicians in recent history have also used makeup as a form of self expression, such as David Bowie, Robert Smith, and Prince. Still, these iconic artists were outside of the mainstream. While they certainly could stand as symbols for a return to a culture becoming comfortable with male grooming or “metrosexuality”, they didn’t necessarily represent a widespread shift in males returning to the use of cosmetics in everyday life.

While I wouldn’t say that our views towards makeup have completely reverted back to its origins, it’s certainly true that in this day and age we have become far more comfortable with the use of makeup for all genders. With social media and the internet, several male beauty gurus and influencers have found a platform to share their beauty routines, further solidifying them in mainstream culture. Our continued diversion from makeup as being for women only has also been embraced by cosmetics brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills and Milk Cosmetics, who have both had campaigns featuring male models.

As mainstream society’s views towards makeup become less gendered, it leaves me wondering how such a simple and benign practice became dictated in a culture in the first place. The extremely harmless desire to pamper and beautify oneself is, in my opinion, innately human. Throughout history we have seen human beings, both male and female, search for endless ways to express themselves. To be human is to want to create, to want to extend oneself through something external and physical. Whether it be the clothes you wear, photographs you take, the music you compose, the food you cook, or the makeup you put on your face; the desire to create and express yourself is not a gendered act. And neither, in my opinion, is the desire to take care of one’s own appearance. In the application of makeup, we see these two desires converge. I think our shifting attitudes towards makeup are revealing that the practice of using cosmetics is not one divided by gender, but instead a practice that exists on a spectrum for all human beings. The urge to wear blush or apply mascara is simply a kind of urge to self-express depending on the individual and their specific preferences, not depending on their gender.

Strike Out,

Georgia Witt

Editors: Jaden Rudd

Saint Augustine

Georgia Witt is a writer for Strike Magazine STA and a freshman at Flagler College. She loves thrifting, going to the movies, reading & writing poetry, and riding her bike. You can reach her at georgiawitt3000@gmail.com or on Instagram @twink3rb3ll_

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