From: Olivia
While growing up, kids tend to be heavily influenced by the world around them, especially from parents, family, friends and media and by modeling their behavior from the examples they see and experience, they learn their own identities within societal roles. The reading “The Two Cultures of Childhood” explains that “...children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but they also willingly adopt and exaggerate differences between the sexes”(Rudman). One of the toys that reflects this is play makeup.
Makeup in and of itself is interesting because it isn't explicitly gendered- anyone of any gender can use those products. However, play makeup sends a different message. The products are specifically marketed towards younger audiences, specifically young girls. Think miniature unicorn-themed makeup brushes, brightly colored and sparkly eyeshadows, lipsticks with Disney princesses on the packaging- all things we stereotypically associate with girls. When girls put on this makeup, this behavior is often reinforced by others and puts an emphasis early on about validation from appearance. For young boys, though, it is a completely different story. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen boys reprimanded for using makeup…I’ve seen so many innocent videos of boys just having fun messing around with makeup like girls often do, only for the comments section to be a multitude of hate comments shaming his parents and full of homophobic and transphobic remarks. I think this also says something about how masculinity is constructed, too- by putting masculinity at such a strong opposition to femininity, anything even slightly feminine apparently makes one “not a man.”
Either way, the reinforcement of these roles only pushes girls to be conditioned to think that prettiness is equal to worthiness, and societal beauty standards become internalized when it comes to socialization. As the reading said, “Gender schemas become a part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes and behaviors as they strive to act in socially acceptable ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ ways”(Rudman). When having a pleasing appearance becomes so emphasized by peers, media and society, it’s not hard to see how makeup can remain a constant in a girl’s life while growing up. Crazy makeup looks with purple glitter eyeshadow, blue swirly eyeliner and bright pink lipstick suddenly aren’t desirable or acceptable past a certain age. All of a sudden, we start hearing “guys prefer more natural beauty in girls,” but what do you do when you’ve been conditioned to believe your natural face isn’t good enough to receive validation? Simple: you adapt. The illusion of natural beauty, aka the “no makeup makeup look” becomes the new goal; your face but “better.”
For my photo, I wanted to represent the result of this gendered socialization, and I did so by laying out some of the makeup products commonly used in everyday looks. I wanted to visualize and show just how much actually goes into these so-called natural beauty looks. It starts out fairly normal, and I used a neat first row/line to demonstrate this. The products seem sparse and in distinct steps, but as your eye jumps to the next row the products quickly become strewn everywhere. It doesn’t appear messy, but it no longer seems chronological or in steps; it’s all sort of happening at once. The straight-on camera angle, the even amount of space taken up and the lack of layering between foreground, middle and background contributes to the feeling of being overwhelmed by the subjects- it looks more like an I-Spy page than a simple product list! There is seemingly one or more products for every part of your face, and most with the intention of correcting/covering “flaws” or altering the shape of a feature. The sheer amount of products is meant to symbolize the ridiculous amount of time, effort and money that goes into appearance, as well as the idea that this many products being used is in any way “natural.” Lastly, the pink tint overlaid onto the entire image is meant to represent that this is a standard for women only.
On that note, it is interesting how nowadays there is also gender segregation in how makeup is used in the adult world. After all, it is no secret that the online beauty community is extremely popular and now recognized in pop culture- and some of if not the most prominent creators are men. Their looks mainly feature crazy, experimental and glamorous concepts, much like the one I mentioned earlier that were commonly explored by children. While women also do these styles and are able to experiment with concepts too, men are not the majority of the ones making tutorials for natural or everyday makeup. The reason becomes clear: it’s because those looks aren’t a standard for men. When men wear makeup, our society views it as challenging gender norms, but when women wear makeup it is simply the expectation. When women are “brave enough to bare their natural face” (I cannot believe how frequently I’ve seen that as a headline for celebrity gossip news outlets and candid paparazzi shots), they are resisting gender norms…when all they are actually doing is existing.
Lastly, this photo isn’t meant to demonize makeup or the people who wear it. Personally, I really enjoy wearing makeup and being able to express myself artistically in a medium that many use and understand. The problem doesn’t lie in the makeup products themselves- it lies with the beauty standard that has been created that women and teens and now even young girls are expected to conform to as well as the industry that feeds and profits off the insecurities it creates.
By looking all the way back to childhood, it becomes clearer how these beauty standards have been perpetuated for so long. From modeling behavior from outside influences, from being conditioned by positive reinforcement, from pressure from media and society, it doesn’t seem like there is any escape from being forced to conform with these gendered ideas of attaining beauty when your natural face is treated as the variant rather than the standard.
Works Cited:
Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood."
The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations
. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.
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