“Does men wearing makeup has anything to do with their masculinity?” - Speech Writing

Course Code: MSJ11346

SPEECH TYPE: Persuasive Speech

Hello everyone. I hope all of you are having a great day. I am Raisa Naushin & today I’m going to talk about “men wearing makeup and does that have anything to do with their masculinity?” The term men wearing makeup is frowned upon in the society till to this day. In many cases this makes a lot of people uncomfortable. But do we ever ask ourselves why this makes us uncomfortable? Think about it.

Morning consultant, a market research company, conducted a study of more than 2000 men. Among which 30 percent men said that they would consider wearing makeup (Stanhope, 2020). But when I go out, I don’t even see 5 percent guys wearing makeup on the streets. Why is that? Is it because they don’t want to or they don’t like it? - Which is completely fine. Or is it because they are not allowed by the society to wear it? We will go back to these questions in a while. But for now, let’s go back in history and the current situation of men wearing makeup all around the world.

From as early as 4000 BCE, in ancient Egypt, men used black pigment to create elaborate cat eye designs. After a few millennia, the use of kohl eyeliner, green eye shadow, lip and cheek stain made from red ochre were also popular among men. During Queen Elizabeth I’s rule, makeup was widely popular among men where they used to make their skin ghost-white using a powder made of lead. During the 18th century, men who were somehow related to royalty loved wearing lots of makeup and extravagant wigs. They also used to paint beauty marks and many of them wore high heels. But it was the early 20th century when the idea of men wearing makeup started to become a taboo (MONTELL, 2020). It started to become something only girls would wear. And the idea stayed like this for a long time.

However, in the recent years we see more and more men in the beauty industry. James Charles, Bretman Rock, Manny MUA, Patrick Starrr, is global icons in the industry. From Bangladesh we have Saad Bin Rabi who is an absolutely amazing and talented artist. But do you ever go through their comments section on their social media? If you never did then let me tell you a few of the comments they frequently get.

Ø He’s so gay/trans

Ø He wears makeup because he “wants” to look like a woman

Ø Mentally disabled

Ø Men are not supposed to do this; this is unacceptable, etc., etc.

Now, why is this unacceptable? Why this is considered a taboo? According to my analysis and research, I found a few possible reasons.

Firstly, makeup makes them look like a “woman.” Madonna once said- “For a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think being a girl is degrading.” The association of makeup with femininity is a source of shame for some men, as if it threatens their masculinity. It’s so degrading for so many men that men’s beauty products don’t have the term “makeup” on it. For example: a men’s concealer is called “war paint” just so that it sounds more powerful and manly.

The second most important point is deeply psychological reasons. The idea of an ideal, attractive and masculine man in engraved in our minds in such a way that we cannot see past that. Possessive, messy hair, deep voice, broad shoulders, six pack abs and so on. Because this is what we were trained to believe from our childhood. As humans, we tend to stick to beliefs we are used to. Accepting new ideas creates a level of discomfort in our minds. And this is where the term “motivated reasoning” comes in.

What is motivated reasoning? How does it relate with the topic we are discussing today? Motivated reasoning is the tendency to find arguments in favor of arguments we want to believe in, while completely ignoring contrary data that doesn’t support our desired conclusions. And exactly due to this tendency we keep ourselves in this small bubble of beauty standards, that doesn’t include men wearing extravagant makeup.

That brings us to the third possible reason to why we don’t see a lot of men wearing makeup. It is because they cannot wear makeup even if they want to. The society doesn’t allow men to wear makeup as it is beyond the traditional standard of men’s beauty. Due to the fear of getting harassed, humiliated and bullied, most men don’t get the courage to wear makeup in public.

I’m sure many of you are wondering- why am I defending men who wants to wear makeup for the last five minutes? As a makeup artist myself, I know how much this form of art means to me and how passionate I am about this. I cannot imagine a guy, with the same or even more passion for makeup than me, not being able to express themselves with is art just because of the fear of being humiliated by the society. I mean, it’s just makeup! It washes off. I think masculinity is not so fragile that it will wash off with the makeup as well.

So dear audience, please, let’s appreciate makeup as a form of art and self-expression, no matter who is wearing it. Thank you so much.