The Most Important Consideration Of All

Miranda Sawyer - “Are you of the opinion that people wear make-up to shield themselves from the world ?”

Richey - “Maybe from themselves, from their own reflection in the mirror because they don’t like looking at themselves. But even when you wear it you still look pretty bad.”

Nicky - “If you say that, the only thing is that virtually every woman in the world then is trying to shield herself - well, not EVERY woman in the world, but in Western civilisation.”

( The Manic Street Preachers on ‘Raw Soup’, 31/5/93 )

By far the most potent and oft-quoted reason for men wearing make-up is the same as that given by women – it makes them beautiful.

For Niger’s Wodaabe people, make-up is worn by men during ceremonial dances, to make them appear more beautiful to women. For the yaake – the charm competition – in particular, the make-up worn is that which accentuates the most admired physical features (right, © Carol Beckwith). Skin tone is lightened using pale yellow powder, black kohl rings the eyes and mouth to accentuate the whiteness of the eyes and teeth, and a line is painted from the forehead to the chin to elongate the nose ( Beckwith, 1983; p508 ). There are, of course, contrasts between the Wodaabe and those within our society, most notably that total cultural acceptance of the practice is only seen in the former group. However, that make-up was being used by the Wodaabe for primarily beautification reasons is of paramount import – parallels can clearly be seen between these peoples’ highlighting of certain facial features and Western cosmetic practices.

There are certain men whose primary reason for wearing make-up seems to be to engender a reaction. The make-up routine of journalist Simon Price, for example, involves an application of a pale foundation over his entire bald skull, and heavy black eye make-up; as ‘true beauty stands out from the crowd’. David Ryder-Prangley, another of my interviewees and lead singer in the band ‘Rachel Stamp’, also prefers looking ‘striking’ to just ‘nice’. However, all of my interviewees – and indeed, all those I have seen and spoken to – agreed that they were trying to use make-up to improve their appearance, with most claiming they would not wear it if it did not suit. While emulation – of either your friends or the famous – is the most common reason for men to begin wearing make-up, that it highlights favoured facial features is usually their main incentive for continuing to do so.

“I think make-up should be used to enhance what you have and hide what you don’t.”

( Charlie Ivens, 2000 )

Ivens’ theory as to the usage of cosmetics is one almost universally adhered to, amongst both men and women. Even clowns, in their use of make-up, are only exaggerating existing features with their big red mouths and high-definition eyes. For most, however, the ‘feature enhancement’ which they practice falls short such caricature. Beautification is a far more common goal than deliberate ugliness, as only the former is linked to mate-attraction and reproductive success.

‘There is to my mind no doubt that the concept of ‘beautiful’ has its roots in sexual excitation and that its original meaning was sexual stimulation.’ ( Freud, 1905; p69 )

As Freud himself notes ( 1905; p69 ), the German word for ‘stimulus’ – reiz – is also used as the equivalent term for the English ‘charm’ or ‘attraction’. Psychologists and psycho-analysts have long given consideration to the usage of make-up in attraction. While it is known that make-up can make a person appear beautiful, it is much harder to quantify why this is so. As Freud suggested in the quote above, beauty can indeed be described in terms of sexual excitation – cosmetics can both highlight features deemed ‘beautiful’ by society or those with connotations of virility, and artificially recreate physical markers of sexual stimulation.

Foundations, powders and concealers are used in the West to achieve matt skin-tone of uniform colour and to hide blemishes of age or ill-health, as ‘clear skin’ is seen as desirable. Most of the men whom I interviewed did not use either foundation or powder, as they deemed them both time-consuming and unnecessary, although they were not adverse to using concealers. Indeed, in a recent article for the Sunday Mirror on male beauty ( 2000; p12 ), an insurance worker in his late twenties admitted to using his girlfriend’s foundation to disguise a shaving rash – when it comes to skin beauty, it appears most men would rather hide than enhance. For my interviewees, blusher was similarly uncommon, seemingly also deemed unnecessary. This mimicking of the sexual flush achieved during arousal ( Morris, 1967; p50, 63, 79 ) remains uncommon amongst those make-up wearers not leaning towards drag. By contrast, the practice of highlighting the eyes is astoundingly popular.

‘It [ eye-liner ] works for anyone, male or female. It makes the eyes just…kick out at you and it’s definitely for boys in rock ‘n’ roll.’ ( Izzard & Quantick, 1998; p71 )

While some cosmetics men appear happy to ignore, eye make-up appears to be universal. Indeed, apart from glitter ( which is itself usually positioned around the eyes ), the majority of men tend to restrict themselves to the usage of eyeliner, mascara and perhaps eyeshadow. The eyes are often referred to as being ‘the windows to the soul’; in tests, people find large or wide-eyed individuals the most attractive – this is because, during sexual arousal, pupil dilation occurs, a physical characteristic to which humans are highly responsive, albeit usually subconsciously ( Morris, 1967; p60 ). By highlighting this area with eyeliner or mascara, males are re-appropriating a trick which had become traditionally female, and directing attention to this key feature. When asked for his reasons for wearing eye make-up, one of my interviewees replied:

“People tell me I have good eyes, and I thought I’d draw attention to them a bit better than just opening them” ( Charlie Ivens, 2000 )

A far less common habit among male make-up wearers is the usage of lipstick – within my interview group, while all had tried it in the past, only three individuals claimed to use it with any regularity. Highlighting the lips in this way draws attention to them, and thus the sexual promise of the mouth. Sexual arousal for both males and females of our species is noted to produce a swelling and reddening of the lips, which even in their normal state are clearly marked on the face as a tactile sexual structure ( Morris, 1967; p51, 61, 79 ). The practice of deliberately defining these areas appears to be a way of artificially recreating this sexual glow.

Common psycho-analytical thought is that to draw attention to the face’s labia-like lips is to draw attention to your sexual potential. Freud, with his strident views of fetishism, whereby everything can seemingly be traced back to a genital-obsession and castration fears ( 1927; p351-7 ), would no doubt have seen the male’s emulation of such sexual mimicry in women as evidence of a deeply rooted psychosis. Freud feels all men suffer ‘a fright of castration at the sight of a female genital’ ( 1927; p354 ), and would most probably see their make-up is a way of expressing this anxiety. On a similar line of thinking, one can consider the idea that make-up could be seen as pandering to humanity’s scopophilic tendencies – this fetishising of the genitals, and the act of looking at them ( Easthope, 1990; p137 ) is made a public and non-shameful thing by drawing attention to the labia-like lips using cosmetic colourings. Personally, I do not feel that psychological explanations can always be rooted in the genitalia, and my lipstick-wearing interviewees found the suggestion too hysterical to take seriously.

Over the last five years or so, glitter has made a notable comeback in the fashion world – behind eyeliner, it appears to be the most common fashion-cosmetic for men, with one of my interviewees, Emil Andrews, dubbing it ‘the next logical step after eyeliner’. Whilst some would place the ‘blame’ for this squarely on the shoulders of a Seventies Revival, others feel that sparkles – whether in the form of make-up or diamanté additions to your clothing – lends the wearer the feeling that he or she is a star, giving you ‘an out-of-this-world twinkling beauty and an out-of-reach glamour’ ( Bartley, 1998 ). For around two pounds a tube, this sort of ‘glamour’ is very easily accessible, and its fetching appearance coupled with its low-price is probably the main reason behind its popularity. Indeed, make-up wearing as a whole can be explained by that rationale; as one of my interviewees - Ian Cockburn – put it, when it comes to looking good, ‘buying makeup is an easy step in the right direction; it costs so much less than new clothes’. However, make-up is not solely a symbol of vanity of narcissism. Luella Bartley’s Telegraph article ( 1998 ), also described glitter’s ability to transform the wearer into an ephemeral being; it allows escape from the flat grey world of work and routine. She writes of girls seeking solace from the mediocre by dressing themselves up – surely then this attitude is also applicable to boys. When asked to explain in his own words why he wore make-up, one reason Ian Cockburn ( 2000 ) proffered was: ‘The desire to experiment with my appearance, so I'm not so ugly.’

“Even the most challenging beauty problem can be solved by tastefully emphasising the positive and concealing the negative.” ( Miss Piggy, 1981; p13 )

Make-up has a long history of being used to make the wearer what he or she is not – more attractive to the beholder. Those whom are rarely seen without make-up are often termed as vain, but in fact they may be suffering the inverse of vanity. Such an aesthetic insecurity of self leaves them with such a low self-opinion that they feel to not be wearing be wearing make-up would be unfair on the watching world, as the public would then be forced to witness the naked horror of that person’s face. Confidence is often tied up with a feeling of personal beauty – as more and more emphasis is laid upon the external within our society, using make-up to look good enough to face the world could swiftly become an issue of pertinence for both the sexes.

© Isabelle Adam, 2000

Last revised: 15/03/02