Men and Makeup

While trying to think of something to post about I went youtube surfing and ended up looking at videos that come up under man makeup/men and makeup. The videos were not as varied as I would have hoped. The videos could generally be broken up into themes:

• makeup tips by/for gay men (visible but not overly much, softer appearances)
• makeup tutorials for asian men (these videos did not seem to indicate that this was anything out of the normal like some of the others did)
• “drag” makeup (male to female as well as female to male) not made for passing
• “Straight” man makeup (extremely subtle and mostly consisting of foundation and moisturizer)
• Goth/emo makeup (exaggerated eyes and large amounts of black, sometimes resulting in an androgynous appearance)
• One video about highlighting your abs that I found amusing

It surprised me that there weren’t more videos similar to the abs video, using makeup to further enhance “masculine” qualities (abs, large muscles, stubble, chest hair) similar to how makeup is often used to enhance more  traditionally “feminine” qualities in women (long eyelashes, red, succulent lips, blushing cheeks). Maybe I’m just not using the right search words. Also, in the videos in which someone other than the models are putting on the makeup the makeup artist is almost always female, reestablishing that this technology is part of the feminine domain, an interesting switch from the male mechanic fixing a woman’s computer/sewing machine/stove etc.

On a side note, the female to male video that i posted above includes a story about discrimination in a gay bar in relation to gay customers which might have resulted from not acting “gay enough”. Thoughts, comments, concerns on that general topic?