June 15, 2011 • 14 mins
Historically, men have always worn makeup. But now, wearing makeup is seen as effeminate. Is it possible that more men will wear makeup in the future, given that cosmetics sales to men are rising? Tune in to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House Stu works dot com. Hello, welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristin Kristen. A few weeks ago,
(00:20):
there was a big brew haha about this ad that
Jay Cruise sent out in their email blast and it
showed a person who works at Jay Crew, a woman
with her young son and she said, like a perfect Saturday,
is hanging out with my son and he likes to
have his fingernails painted pink. It was it was his
tonnails to nails nails were getting pink, and everyone flew
(00:42):
off the handle. Oh yeah, everyone thought this was insane
that you know she was gonna I think one person
said that she should go ahead and start paying away
the money for psychotherapy. Now. Yeah. There was one conservative
media group that really had a problem with this Jay
Crew ad and linked it to like advocating transgender issues.
(01:03):
It was it was really interesting to see how something
that small, the image of a woman painting her very
young sons ton nails pink, set off such a public outcry. Well,
you know what we've got ingrained in our society for
better for worse, as this idea that men don't wear makeup,
and especially a young boy who couldn't choose whether he
was going to wear makeup or not shouldn't be wearing makeup.
(01:25):
So we thought we'd in'bust get a little more of
this connection between men and makeup. Did they ever wear it?
Why do they not wear it now? Might they wear
it in the future? Yeah? If we go way way
back to the Egyptians, and I feel like we start
with the Egyptians so often, but of course Egyptian men
wore makeup. They used the thick eyeliner to ward off
(01:46):
the evil eye. Roman men also used chalk based foundation
to brighten up the complexions. And then you have dandy's
like Louis the fifteen in his court, who where it
was uh in sad shan to where lots of lead
based makeup and rouge. And I think that we all
have an image in this country of the founding fathers
(02:08):
with their powdered wig, which, while not exactly makeup, shows
a certain vanity. But all things change with old Ben Franklin.
And while the American Revolution is going on, says, hey,
you know what, the people who are wigs, those are
our enemies. That that's what we left behind. The people
who are whigs are European, British, French. We're American European dandies,
(02:30):
and we're American men. We are what will become Marl
born men. These these ultimate symbols of masculinity. And he
threw away his powdered wig forever, and with that sparked
the great masculine Renunciation. Yes, and that term comes courtesy
of Teresa Riordan, who wrote a great book called Inventing Beauty,
(02:51):
which has what might be my favorite Martin van Buren
fun fact. Because there aren't that many Martin van Buren
fun facts, you've got to share this so when you
find one, you stick with it. And this is a
good one, all right. So it's eighteen thirty. Martin van
Buren is up for his second presidential term, and things
(03:12):
do not go well when he is the victim of
a snear attack when old Congressman Charles Ogle from Pennsylvania
quote accused the president of, among other vices, of feminacy.
The honorable Mr Ogul then proceeded to reveal the contents
of President van Buren's dressing table, which included double extract
of Queen Victoria, Corinthian oil of cream, concentrated Persian Essence,
(03:36):
and extract of Eglon time overnight. Then Buren became the
laughing sock of America. In his days of political service,
there a presidency brought down by face scream can you
believe it? I can't believe it. You know, we've flipped
(03:56):
out over you know, a certain presidential Canada pricey haircut. Um.
So those kind of things do come into scrutiny. So
the question is that was in eighteen thirty, so it's
fast forwards now, you know past David Bowie, uh and
glam rock and all that. Are men still scared of makeup?
(04:18):
GQ survey from two thousand five, which perhaps things have
changed radically in the past six years, but their surveys
is yes, they're terrified of makeup. Yes, Let's say that
you have to choose between makeup and great sex. What
do you think of men would pick sex? Well? The
GQ survey found that men would not wear makeup even
(04:40):
if it guaranteed them a more fulfilling sex life. They're
gonna not put on makeup even if they can have
great sex. But the same survey found that of men
thought plastic surgery was acceptable, but only fourteen percent would
consider using makeup for the same salary increase. So men
would rather go in with a knife than get paid
to put some makeup on. So clearly, what we've got
(05:03):
here from this survey of ad mainly not maybe the
most representative population of men, is that makeup is a
no go, you know, not even for good sex. They'd
rather have surgery than wear it. And this might be
more of an American thing because European retailers have had
more success selling men's cosmetics, and also um lines in
(05:26):
Asia have also taken off, so this could be an
American dude thing that we can all blame on Ben Franklin.
But all the same, some researchers are finding that maybe
men are the next great untapped makeup market because they
probably are the only people who aren't tapped yet. Um
And according to a New York Times two thousand ten article,
American consumers spent four point eight billion on men's screaming
(05:49):
products in two thousand nine. Now that's nowhere close to
what women spend. Um. Yeah, nowhere close. We're not saying
that all men are putting on the guyliner and the
man's gara. But people are thinking if they start emphasizing
that uh, cosmetics, you would never call it makeup when
talking to a man. Cosnives can help men cover up flaws,
(06:11):
whereas they sell makeup to women as a way to
enhance beauty. So I think it would be really interesting
kind of keep an eye on this and see if that,
you know, double way of selling makeup might work. And
different brands have played around with ways to make the
idea of makeup more palatable to the male. Ear. You
mentioned enhancement. Some uh, some products will be labeled enhancement
(06:34):
products for guys, whereas it's actually just kind of makeup.
There's also men's aesthetic enhancement, complexion enhancers, uh, and then
instant skin enhancement. It's all about enhancing and focusing on
things like covering up razor burn and just improving their skincare.
And really, when it comes to men's grooming products at
(06:54):
four point eight billion dollars that you're talking about, a
lot of it is skincare, which would be on shaving
products like facial cleansers, moisturizers and exfolience. So there's still
not necessarily buying tons of tubes of lipstick or blush
or things like that, but dudes are definitely paying more
(07:14):
attention to their faces. Yeah. I mean, you gotta wonder,
is it how how far a way of visit to
go to go from buying some I cream to buying
some mascara and make your eyes pop? Well, it seems
like the most traditional type of cosmetic. Like when I
think of makeup, you know, I think of foundation and
blush and things like that. It seems like concealer is
(07:36):
very popular to men. There were, you know, anecdotal stories
in the New York Times and other places that would
talk about the masculine husbands do you and consumer from
his wife? And you know the thing that we can't answer.
I mean, we can sort of speculate on American notions
and masculinity and the like, But for the guys out there,
would you ever wear it? And for everyone else, would
(07:56):
you want to date or marry a guy who spent
a lot of time putting on his face as the
ladies are known to do. I mean, that's sort of
the thing that a lot of these manufacturers are trying
to step lightly over this idea that men don't wear makeup.
But at the same time, there's a lot of money
to made there if some guy finds an eyeliner that
he loves. And I do think that it's become a
lot more culturally acceptable for men to demonstrate a little
(08:21):
more vanity than they would have in the past, back
in the days of the you know, the rugged Marlboro man.
You know, he wouldn't the probo man wouldn't, you know,
wouldn't he's an exfoliant. No, but yeah there, But um,
you know, we've talked before about how looking good in
the office can get you paid more, and we've all
been to bars where it's sort of a meat market.
So perhaps there's a little bit of equality coming into
(08:43):
play where just as much, um, just as many men
are spending time worrying about how they look as women
have been known to do in the past. And one
guy theorized that maybe this rise in male vanity is
linked to their loss of economic authority with the recession. Um.
He was saying that quote, the ascent of technology has
eroded traditional markers and masculinity, and now you know, men
(09:07):
typically don't have to perform physical labor, nor are they
the sole breadwinners. So it's now shifted I guess, to
these more superficial aspects of their appearance and making it
allowing them to uh to pay more attention to their skin.
And also we got to talk about plastic surgery. We
(09:27):
do because you know, I cited that thing from the
g Q survey that men would rather have cosmetic surgery
than wear makeup. I mean, if something's got to be fixed,
if some eyes are getting roopy, you're not going to
waste time with the creams and the lotions. And there's
a very um small bump that might bear out that statistic.
Again it's not anything like women in plastic surgery. But
in March two thousand eleven, it was reported that overall
(09:50):
cosmetic surgery procedures and men, so that includes both surgical
and just minimally invasive procedures, rose two percent in two
ten over the previous years. So you know, a small
percentage of men are in their getting their facelifts, some
bow talk, some lie bo suction, nose reshaping. Um, you know,
it's it's certainly not I do think we'll see a
(10:10):
lot more marketing and coming years geared towards men and
not just towards women. Yeah, even though women still get
of the cosmetic procedures, um, men's cosmetic procedures are absolutely
on the rise. And just for fun, you mentioned nose
reshaping that is the most popular surgical procedure by number
for men in two thousand five and number four breast production.
(10:33):
Yeah for men, Well, everyone's worried about their weight. So again,
it's not something that can definitively say whether makeup is
coming back, whether it's not. But the thing I'll be
interested in hearing, either on Facebook or on Twitter or
by email, is what you guys would do when confronted
with a man wearing makeup? Would you respect him more,
respect him less? Would you notice? Would you think it
(10:55):
looked good? Would you think it looked awful? Just you know,
it is our society ready for men in makeup? Or
is it? Or we too tied up in sort of
our traditional ideas of what masculinity is in this country,
masculinity and beauty. You know, does duty require makeup? Should
women wear less and you know, meet the men? Or
should men start wearing more and meet up with the
women's bascinating stuff? So we we turned over to you
(11:17):
guys to answer that question, and in the meantime we
shall read some listener emails. I have one here from
Kathy about the Love at First Sight podcast, and um,
I really love this story because it involves tacos, So
here we go. Kathy writes, I definitely experienced love at
first sight with my current boyfriend. Unfortunately, I was eating
(11:39):
a giant taco at the time he came into my
field of vision, so introducing myself right then didn't seem
like the sexiest move. Side note to some people, giant
tacos are huge, huge appealing factor. Inside note. He was
friends with other friends of mine, and I was lucky
enough to run into him again later that day and
outdoor Fourth of July Film Festival. I had gone home
(11:59):
and found love a little dress and refreshed my makeups.
That was game time. We were all standing around in
a group, and when our eyes met and introduced myself,
he said, let's go get a better seat and took
my hand and pulled me away from our friends and
through the crowd while fireworks burst overhead. How romantic. We
sat down and I accidentally bumped my knee on an
old set of railroad tracks that were in the back
lot where we were watching the movie, and it hurt
(12:19):
pretty badly. Nice thing though, is that that venue host
sweatings as well, and those very train tracks are what
they use as the aisle. Well. I have a love
at first sight story here from Eric, and it is brief,
but yes, very sweet. I saw a girl in engineering
class and the thought flashed in my head she looks cool.
(12:41):
I could marry that chick. The second thought was what
a stupid thought that was? Where did that come from?
So after meeting in class, I asked her to a
craft fair. We will be celebrating our seventeenth anniversary on May,
so happy belated anniversary, Eric, and you radical wife and
always trust your gut. That's your first boy. Yeah, sure,
(13:04):
go ask at And apparently women really did craft Ferris.
Just to hint two guys out there for looking for
something to do with the woman who caught your eye.
I retire from dating advice And if you would like
some wonderful insight on makeup that we've been talking about
in this podcast, I highly recommend going over to how
(13:25):
stuff works dot com and looking at the article how
Makeup Works written by that's you and we'd like to
hear from you too over on Facebook and follow us
over on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. And also during
the week, you can head over to our blog It's
stuff Mom Never told You from how Stuff Works dot com.
(13:49):
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
How Stuff Works iPhone up has arrived. Down with it
today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve Camry. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House Stu works dot com. Hello, welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristin Kristen. A few weeks ago,
(00:20):
there was a big brew haha about this ad that
Jay Cruise sent out in their email blast and it
showed a person who works at Jay Crew, a woman
with her young son and she said, like a perfect Saturday,
is hanging out with my son and he likes to
have his fingernails painted pink. It was it was his
tonnails to nails nails were getting pink, and everyone flew
(00:42):
off the handle. Oh yeah, everyone thought this was insane
that you know she was gonna I think one person
said that she should go ahead and start paying away
the money for psychotherapy. Now. Yeah. There was one conservative
media group that really had a problem with this Jay
Crew ad and linked it to like advocating transgender issues.
(01:03):
It was it was really interesting to see how something
that small, the image of a woman painting her very
young sons ton nails pink, set off such a public outcry. Well,
you know what we've got ingrained in our society for
better for worse, as this idea that men don't wear makeup,
and especially a young boy who couldn't choose whether he
was going to wear makeup or not shouldn't be wearing makeup.
(01:25):
So we thought we'd in'bust get a little more of
this connection between men and makeup. Did they ever wear it?
Why do they not wear it now? Might they wear
it in the future? Yeah? If we go way way
back to the Egyptians, and I feel like we start
with the Egyptians so often, but of course Egyptian men
wore makeup. They used the thick eyeliner to ward off
(01:46):
the evil eye. Roman men also used chalk based foundation
to brighten up the complexions. And then you have dandy's
like Louis the fifteen in his court, who where it
was uh in sad shan to where lots of lead
based makeup and rouge. And I think that we all
have an image in this country of the founding fathers
(02:08):
with their powdered wig, which, while not exactly makeup, shows
a certain vanity. But all things change with old Ben Franklin.
And while the American Revolution is going on, says, hey,
you know what, the people who are wigs, those are
our enemies. That that's what we left behind. The people
who are whigs are European, British, French. We're American European dandies,
(02:30):
and we're American men. We are what will become Marl
born men. These these ultimate symbols of masculinity. And he
threw away his powdered wig forever, and with that sparked
the great masculine Renunciation. Yes, and that term comes courtesy
of Teresa Riordan, who wrote a great book called Inventing Beauty,
(02:51):
which has what might be my favorite Martin van Buren
fun fact. Because there aren't that many Martin van Buren
fun facts, you've got to share this so when you
find one, you stick with it. And this is a
good one, all right. So it's eighteen thirty. Martin van
Buren is up for his second presidential term, and things
(03:12):
do not go well when he is the victim of
a snear attack when old Congressman Charles Ogle from Pennsylvania
quote accused the president of, among other vices, of feminacy.
The honorable Mr Ogul then proceeded to reveal the contents
of President van Buren's dressing table, which included double extract
of Queen Victoria, Corinthian oil of cream, concentrated Persian Essence,
(03:36):
and extract of Eglon time overnight. Then Buren became the
laughing sock of America. In his days of political service,
there a presidency brought down by face scream can you
believe it? I can't believe it. You know, we've flipped
(03:56):
out over you know, a certain presidential Canada pricey haircut. Um.
So those kind of things do come into scrutiny. So
the question is that was in eighteen thirty, so it's
fast forwards now, you know past David Bowie, uh and
glam rock and all that. Are men still scared of makeup?
(04:18):
GQ survey from two thousand five, which perhaps things have
changed radically in the past six years, but their surveys
is yes, they're terrified of makeup. Yes, Let's say that
you have to choose between makeup and great sex. What
do you think of men would pick sex? Well? The
GQ survey found that men would not wear makeup even
(04:40):
if it guaranteed them a more fulfilling sex life. They're
gonna not put on makeup even if they can have
great sex. But the same survey found that of men
thought plastic surgery was acceptable, but only fourteen percent would
consider using makeup for the same salary increase. So men
would rather go in with a knife than get paid
to put some makeup on. So clearly, what we've got
(05:03):
here from this survey of ad mainly not maybe the
most representative population of men, is that makeup is a
no go, you know, not even for good sex. They'd
rather have surgery than wear it. And this might be
more of an American thing because European retailers have had
more success selling men's cosmetics, and also um lines in
(05:26):
Asia have also taken off, so this could be an
American dude thing that we can all blame on Ben Franklin.
But all the same, some researchers are finding that maybe
men are the next great untapped makeup market because they
probably are the only people who aren't tapped yet. Um
And according to a New York Times two thousand ten article,
American consumers spent four point eight billion on men's screaming
(05:49):
products in two thousand nine. Now that's nowhere close to
what women spend. Um. Yeah, nowhere close. We're not saying
that all men are putting on the guyliner and the
man's gara. But people are thinking if they start emphasizing
that uh, cosmetics, you would never call it makeup when
talking to a man. Cosnives can help men cover up flaws,
(06:11):
whereas they sell makeup to women as a way to
enhance beauty. So I think it would be really interesting
kind of keep an eye on this and see if that,
you know, double way of selling makeup might work. And
different brands have played around with ways to make the
idea of makeup more palatable to the male. Ear. You
mentioned enhancement. Some uh, some products will be labeled enhancement
(06:34):
products for guys, whereas it's actually just kind of makeup.
There's also men's aesthetic enhancement, complexion enhancers, uh, and then
instant skin enhancement. It's all about enhancing and focusing on
things like covering up razor burn and just improving their skincare.
And really, when it comes to men's grooming products at
(06:54):
four point eight billion dollars that you're talking about, a
lot of it is skincare, which would be on shaving
products like facial cleansers, moisturizers and exfolience. So there's still
not necessarily buying tons of tubes of lipstick or blush
or things like that, but dudes are definitely paying more
(07:14):
attention to their faces. Yeah. I mean, you gotta wonder,
is it how how far a way of visit to
go to go from buying some I cream to buying
some mascara and make your eyes pop? Well, it seems
like the most traditional type of cosmetic. Like when I
think of makeup, you know, I think of foundation and
blush and things like that. It seems like concealer is
(07:36):
very popular to men. There were, you know, anecdotal stories
in the New York Times and other places that would
talk about the masculine husbands do you and consumer from
his wife? And you know the thing that we can't answer.
I mean, we can sort of speculate on American notions
and masculinity and the like, But for the guys out there,
would you ever wear it? And for everyone else, would
(07:56):
you want to date or marry a guy who spent
a lot of time putting on his face as the
ladies are known to do. I mean, that's sort of
the thing that a lot of these manufacturers are trying
to step lightly over this idea that men don't wear makeup.
But at the same time, there's a lot of money
to made there if some guy finds an eyeliner that
he loves. And I do think that it's become a
lot more culturally acceptable for men to demonstrate a little
(08:21):
more vanity than they would have in the past, back
in the days of the you know, the rugged Marlboro man.
You know, he wouldn't the probo man wouldn't, you know,
wouldn't he's an exfoliant. No, but yeah there, But um,
you know, we've talked before about how looking good in
the office can get you paid more, and we've all
been to bars where it's sort of a meat market.
So perhaps there's a little bit of equality coming into
(08:43):
play where just as much, um, just as many men
are spending time worrying about how they look as women
have been known to do in the past. And one
guy theorized that maybe this rise in male vanity is
linked to their loss of economic authority with the recession. Um.
He was saying that quote, the ascent of technology has
eroded traditional markers and masculinity, and now you know, men
(09:07):
typically don't have to perform physical labor, nor are they
the sole breadwinners. So it's now shifted I guess, to
these more superficial aspects of their appearance and making it
allowing them to uh to pay more attention to their skin.
And also we got to talk about plastic surgery. We
(09:27):
do because you know, I cited that thing from the
g Q survey that men would rather have cosmetic surgery
than wear makeup. I mean, if something's got to be fixed,
if some eyes are getting roopy, you're not going to
waste time with the creams and the lotions. And there's
a very um small bump that might bear out that statistic.
Again it's not anything like women in plastic surgery. But
in March two thousand eleven, it was reported that overall
(09:50):
cosmetic surgery procedures and men, so that includes both surgical
and just minimally invasive procedures, rose two percent in two
ten over the previous years. So you know, a small
percentage of men are in their getting their facelifts, some
bow talk, some lie bo suction, nose reshaping. Um, you know,
it's it's certainly not I do think we'll see a
(10:10):
lot more marketing and coming years geared towards men and
not just towards women. Yeah, even though women still get
of the cosmetic procedures, um, men's cosmetic procedures are absolutely
on the rise. And just for fun, you mentioned nose
reshaping that is the most popular surgical procedure by number
for men in two thousand five and number four breast production.
(10:33):
Yeah for men, Well, everyone's worried about their weight. So again,
it's not something that can definitively say whether makeup is
coming back, whether it's not. But the thing I'll be
interested in hearing, either on Facebook or on Twitter or
by email, is what you guys would do when confronted
with a man wearing makeup? Would you respect him more,
respect him less? Would you notice? Would you think it
(10:55):
looked good? Would you think it looked awful? Just you know,
it is our society ready for men in makeup? Or
is it? Or we too tied up in sort of
our traditional ideas of what masculinity is in this country,
masculinity and beauty. You know, does duty require makeup? Should
women wear less and you know, meet the men? Or
should men start wearing more and meet up with the
women's bascinating stuff? So we we turned over to you
(11:17):
guys to answer that question, and in the meantime we
shall read some listener emails. I have one here from
Kathy about the Love at First Sight podcast, and um,
I really love this story because it involves tacos, So
here we go. Kathy writes, I definitely experienced love at
first sight with my current boyfriend. Unfortunately, I was eating
(11:39):
a giant taco at the time he came into my
field of vision, so introducing myself right then didn't seem
like the sexiest move. Side note to some people, giant
tacos are huge, huge appealing factor. Inside note. He was
friends with other friends of mine, and I was lucky
enough to run into him again later that day and
outdoor Fourth of July Film Festival. I had gone home
(11:59):
and found love a little dress and refreshed my makeups.
That was game time. We were all standing around in
a group, and when our eyes met and introduced myself,
he said, let's go get a better seat and took
my hand and pulled me away from our friends and
through the crowd while fireworks burst overhead. How romantic. We
sat down and I accidentally bumped my knee on an
old set of railroad tracks that were in the back
lot where we were watching the movie, and it hurt
(12:19):
pretty badly. Nice thing though, is that that venue host
sweatings as well, and those very train tracks are what
they use as the aisle. Well. I have a love
at first sight story here from Eric, and it is brief,
but yes, very sweet. I saw a girl in engineering
class and the thought flashed in my head she looks cool.
(12:41):
I could marry that chick. The second thought was what
a stupid thought that was? Where did that come from?
So after meeting in class, I asked her to a
craft fair. We will be celebrating our seventeenth anniversary on May,
so happy belated anniversary, Eric, and you radical wife and
always trust your gut. That's your first boy. Yeah, sure,
(13:04):
go ask at And apparently women really did craft Ferris.
Just to hint two guys out there for looking for
something to do with the woman who caught your eye.
I retire from dating advice And if you would like
some wonderful insight on makeup that we've been talking about
in this podcast, I highly recommend going over to how
(13:25):
stuff works dot com and looking at the article how
Makeup Works written by that's you and we'd like to
hear from you too over on Facebook and follow us
over on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. And also during
the week, you can head over to our blog It's
stuff Mom Never told You from how Stuff Works dot com.
(13:49):
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
How Stuff Works iPhone up has arrived. Down with it
today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve Camry. It's ready, are you
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