With the rise of Instagram, we have also seen a rise in male beauty and makeup gurus, who create masterpieces on their own faces. Bretman Rock, James Charles Dickinson and Manny Gutierrez are all internet stars that have one thing in common, they’re boys that wearing makeup, not only this they also are known for they’re makeup tutorials online. It’s important and relevant for us to celebrate diversity and acknowledge that makeup is not just a women’s thing. The second reason is that I believe that by wearing makeup, men are changing what it means for all of us.
Batman Rock is they youngest of the three, at the age of 18 he also has the largest following of over 6.5 million subscribers, he’s mostly known for his makeup skills, comedy skits, and his selfies. However, his impact on the web is not wholly superficial, with such a large audience Bretman has shown the internet that boys wearing makeup can be acceptable, using his unique sense of humor to lighthearted go against the status quo.
James Charles Dickinson is the first male to ever appear in makeup on the front page of cover girl magazine, this was a huge step forward in terms of breaking gender stereotypes, he is now also a spokesperson for the publication. This all started from his Instagram account where he now has 770 thousand followers. At 17 years old he has already broken down so many walls, his impact has been so large mainly because he has taken his gender-bending look and put it out into the mainstream media, which is much more traditional than an online based presence and a lot harder for people who are different to break into. Meaning that he has introduced this new trend into the mainstream market.
Manny Gutierrez also known as Manny MUA is most known for his presence on youtube and also being close friends with one of the first male internet stars to wear makeup Jeffree Star who started his career back in 2004 on myspace, and now has over 1.5 million subscribers and an extremely successful makeup line. Manny is also extremely successful in his own right, he has collaborated with all the big beauty brands, including Tarte, Makeup Geek, Jeffree Star, and Ofra Cosmetics. His youtube tutorials get hundreds of thousands of views, and for a great reason. His high-energy attitude is totally infectious, and his reviews are spot on.
Instagram and other social networks have had a huge impact as in the past the main avenue where boys could wear makeup was the drag bar, where chances are they wouldn’t run into anyone who could influence other parts of their lives, and the repercussions were quite small. For other men, makeup or women’s clothing were strictly things they wore in the privacy of their own bedrooms, never letting anyone else especially their family see.
Nowadays, thanks to the rise of social networks primarily frequented by younger people, like Instagram and Myspace before it, these boys are given an opportunity to broadcast just about anything, as well as many other parts of their life and innermost thoughts, to a much wider audience, without having to worry too much about their families finding out.
In the future, as it becomes more acceptable for men to wear makeup we may see the separation of makeup and feminity, currently all the men using visible makeup tend to be gay. However, straight men have already started using makeup to cover up blemishes. I think that soon enough, visible makeup on the average man will also be accepted because as a society we are slowly but surely starting to not only reject traditional gender roles, but we are rejecting the very notion of gender.
The mainstream makeup brands have already been using models of non-binary gender identity for years, take makes the campaign with transgender icon Amanda Lepore. As we move forward I think men will be more prominent in the makeup industry.
It will also be interesting to see how perceptions of the makeup industry will change as women’s hobbies are often seen as passive, while men’s hobbies are active so we might be seeing the legitimisation of makeup. As gender roles become more blurred we may see women and men of all sexual orientation and gender identity enjoying the use of makeup. As well as this, women may step away from wearing makeup as they won’t feel obligated to appear more feminine.
Overall I think these boys of Instagram have changed perceptions of what it is to be masculine or feminine with their traditional masculine clothing and short haircuts juxtaposed with their full faces of makeup they are changing the societal norms and showing the world that gender roles are changing.
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