Faith Buenaventura
Art & Women
Prof. Caçoilo
4/29/17
Beauty, Makeup, & The Male Gaze
Introduction:
As the semester steadily comes to an end, I finally found out the true meaning of art and women. Art and women is about the trials and tribulations women faced in order to be deemed worthy, creative, and knowledgeable. I found it so shocking how just because you were a woman you were closed off and limited to so many opportunities all because of the standards and cultural norms set by men during that time. Our first lesson that really captivated my attention consisted of the male gaze and patriarchy. The power men held over society compared to women was sickening. By allowing these men to become the dominant beings in their lives, I wanted to see how the male gaze and patriarchy still affects us personally.
The Inspiration:
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| Personal Photo, taken 2017 |
I’m not as crafty or artistic when it comes to drawing, painting, or sculpting so when the professor mentioned a semester project I was slightly panicked. I wondered, what can I possibly do that not only fits the requirements of the proposal, but also have fun with it too? Then I remembered makeup. If you know me on a personal level, you’re most likely dragging me out of Sephora and telling me to “don’t put on a face, we’re only going to the store”. I usually don’t do my makeup for school because I simply don’t have the time. At most I’ll just throw on some eyeliner and call it a day but during the weekend, my face is BEAT. (if you don’t know what the term means, you can click the link to my project and find out :) ) I love the idea of applying makeup and buying makeup- I simply just can’t get enough. Sometimes my friends and family ask me to do their makeup and without hesitation I always say yes. So this was my art. This was how I was going to contribute to the class, world, and audience while also having fun with it.
The Concept:
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| Personal Photo, taken 2017 |
Aside from the fact that I was heavily interested in the art of makeup, what sparked this proposal was that so many people had their own opinions as to what it was, why people wear it, and how its concept is accepted/unaccepted in today’s society. Keep in mind, these were coming from the people I interviewed- people that were close to me. Not saying I didn’t agree with some of their opinions but one them really had an issue with a girl wearing makeup. I found that some individuals were taken back, if not insulted by the amount people wear and deemed it unappealing or not beautiful when a girl decides to apply on make up. With that being said, I asked them why, why did they find such intricate and let’s not forget, expensive work so beautiful/ not beautiful. Why were they able to accept it/not accept it?(To see these answers click the link to my project ) However, the common answer I found was that most individuals agreed that make up is accepted to a certain extent. Furthermore, once it starts to alter your true appearance is when it becomes an issue. And personally I agree, I’m no expert but I’ve seen a lot of people who mysteriously have those eyebrows or that sculpted jawline but once they take it off, their original form is way different.
Makeup and the Male Gaze:
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| Friends Makeup, Taken 2016 |
In order to correlate information I learned from the class, I made a couple posts pertaining to the male gaze. It is no shock that the male gaze is prevalent in the movie/entertainment industry but when I found out it still affected us on a personal level, I was blown. The whole concept by John Berger on “men act and woman appear” was pertinent in my discovery. When I asked my male friends a couple of questions about makeup, they started to list how they preferred a woman to look like. I cannot stress enough how it solidified the whole concept of men act and women appear. By stating their personal favorites on how they preferred their women, I concluded that these were the type of females they were interested in. For example, if someone preferred a girl who didn’t wear a lot of makeup, that person wouldn't go out with someone who professionalized or made it their career. Of course other factors may come in as a deal breaker or not but by only looking at this evidence then it is a reasonable conclusion.
Instagram:
To capture the beauty and opinions of numerous people, I dedicated an Instagram page entirely to the concept of make up. The topics range from:- The History of makeup
- How was it applied back then
- When it became popular
- The correlation with the male gaze
- Male and female opinions
- Feminist point of view
- Why wear it
- Beauty influencers
- Recent trends
- Men in the industry
- Personal opinions.
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| Michelle Phan , Video on her version of the Alter Ego Beauty Influencer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKxkQ_lny0s |
It will flow better if you start off with the first post created on the account (start with the pictures all the way to the bottom right and work your way up). If you notice in most posts, I included makeup quotes and hashtags. The quotes were given to make the page a little more comical yet inspirational however most quotes correlate to the pictures/ captions provided. The hashtags used were something I thought were important. I used hashtags such as #treatyourself2017 to inspire people to do whatever it is your mind sets you to do.. Be creative in whatever way possible regardless if people will judge. I also used these hashtags so that whoever in the world is searching it, they’ll stumble across my page and see the work I’ve done. I made the page public and opened it to all my friends and family in order to reach a wider audience. Surprisingly, many people viewed the videos I posted and liked my feed. The pictures I posted are not only taken from google but also my own personal pictures/ videos along with some of my friends.
Conclusion:
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| Friends photo of her highlight, 2017 |
LINK TO PRJECT: https://www.instagram.com/art_women_2017/
or search @art_women_2017 on IG.
*****PSA: WORK CITED ON THE INSTAGRAM POSTS CAN BE FOUND HERE*******
(quotes taken from Pinterest cited on IG)
Works Cited
Cellania, Miss. "Why Did Women Start Wearing Makeup?" Neatorama. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Connell, Alle. "6 Reasons Why Loving Makeup Doesn't Make Me a Bad Feminist." Revelist.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
"Dancember 2016 – WIth Judy and Benji Travis." Dancember 2016. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
French, Christy Tillery. "The History of Makeup." The History of Makeup. Medusa's Makeup, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
"History of Makeup." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Sandeen, Del. "History of Makeup in Egypt." LoveToKnow. LoveToKnow Corp, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Weiss, Geoff. "Michelle Phan Raises $105,000 To Fight Child Trafficking For Nonprofit Love146." Tubefilter. N.p., 27 Dec. 2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
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