When thinking of the beauty and lifestyle communities on YouTube, my mind instantly goes to content creators such as Zoe Sugg (Zoella), Kathleen Fuentes (KathleenLights), Tati Westbrook (GlamLifeGuru), Carli Bybel (CarliBel55), and the like. Any recommendations for channels to watch from my friends are usually run by a female. Most channels that I watch related to beauty or lifestyle are run by a female. While makeup and beauty are overtly feminine, I still know that male beauty gurus are out there (although a lot of which are only mainly talked about because of scandals/drama they're involved in) and I know that there is a place in the makeup market for men. From my point of view, I have always thought that if there was more acceptance and participation of men wearing makeup or using skincare, then the harsh standards of beauty that are placed on women would lessen and it would become more about the creative aspect instead. This is not a solidified opinion of mine, per se, but rather just an idea I enjoy exploring the more I consume media, especially on YouTube. In this post, I just want to explore the types of beauty and lifestyle videos on YouTube, focusing on how females and males, femininity and masculinity, are represented within these communities.
Makeup Tutorials:
PatrickStarrr, Desi Perkins, and Manny MUA
Patrick's video is quite short, but manages to give a pretty decent tutorial on how he achieved this look. While he didn't go into much detail about techniques and his techniques did seem sort of sloppy, his personality and comic relief are really the stars of the show anyways. I don't normally watch his content, but he seems very genuine and seems to have a passion for what he does. Something I find quite admirable about Patrick is that he works very hard to live and model the message he gives to his viewers: "Makeup is not a one-size-fits-all." (starts at 8:45 minute mark in video)
Desi's video is much more editorial, longer in length, and more detailed in instructions. While Desi is also known for being quite talkative and funny, she also stays quite professional for the most part. Her looks are always impeccable and detailed, and she is exceptionally good at explaining techniques she uses. Her filming and editing (which she has help with from her family) are usually clean and professional, as well. Despite the professionalism, her personality still shines through and she ends up with a genuine, beautiful, educational, and enjoyable video every single time.
Manny's video is much more improvised and unscripted, which is a usual habit for him and his videos. It's always very evident when he doesn't have a plan for the look he's creating for his viewers. He uses a lot of strong language and is very outgoing, both of which can make his videos pretty enjoyable. Compared to Desi, he is much more inappropriate and crude, but there is definitely a market for more rebellious creators like him. While I don't watch a lot of his videos because they can sometimes feel a little repetitive, I can appreciate what he does and brings to the beauty community. He does seem to get caught up in a lot of the "drama" of the community, and tends to follow trends despite it not always being what he wants to create (like he mentions in the beginning of the video, where a lot of channels are churning out review videos for crazy or weird products rather than creating tutorials and meaningful reviews).
Interestingly, although all three are beauty gurus, they exhibit different degrees of femininity and masculinity. Manny is by far the most masculine of the three, Patrick being the middle-ground of feminine and masculine and Desi being the most feminine. This, for me, just goes to show that makeup can be enjoyed by many different people.
The most important thing I noticed for all three of these YouTubers was how much they genuinely had fun with the makeup they applied in their videos. It's clear that they are passionate about makeup and don't focus on achieving one specific look but on having fun with it and feeling good in their own skin.
Haul/Favourites Videos:
Zoella, Mark Ferris, and Jim Chapman
Zoe's video is essentially following the standard of haul videos made by females. She spends the entirety of the video showing her viewers what she's purchased from shops like Urban Outfitters, Homesense, and Next (the latter two are UK stores). Most of the home decor she talks about seem to be typically feminine items or things that are quite trendy for women to buy (such as the peach bed sheets or the fairy lights). Overall, she gets a lot of excitement and fulfillment over decorating her house, especially for holidays, which is something typically thought of as feminine.
Mark tends to challenge the status quo with a lot of the videos he makes. He is unapologetic about what he enjoys and what he purchases; he constantly shows a mixture of clothing, jewelry, skincare, home wares, and other knickknacks in his haul videos. He enjoys decorating his flat as much as Zoe enjoys decorating her home. He even enjoys face masks and astrology. Despite these interests being mostly associated with femininity, Mark continues to film what he wants, and I find it refreshing.
Jim's channel itself, I find, is quite unique. He incorporates everything from television/film to cooking to fashion to cars in his videos. In this favourites video, he has a wide range of items to talk about, including clothing, gadgets, books, and grooming/beauty items. While definitely a masculine guy, Jim has no problem talking fashion or grooming without worrying about his masculinity being threatened. In this video, he talks about a face mask, similar to Mark's video. I think it's great that he is unapologetic about the things he enjoys, as well. Despite the type of video being something more women post on YouTube than men, Jim has no problem contributing to the long list of favourites videos online because it's something he enjoys making.
Again, with these three Youtubers, I picked someone very feminine (Zoe), someone sort of middle-ground (Mark), and someone masculine (Jim) to show how a female-dominated style of YouTube video can be created and enjoyed by males as well.
Overall, because there are examples of males and females making similar content to one another without it feeling out of place within the communities, I think the ratio of men to women is going to start changing (evening out, really) even more when it comes to who is making what kind of content. At least, that is what I'm hoping to see change. Gender-driven content always seemed weird to me, anyways. Why not post about what you enjoy, rather than post about what you feel you should because of your gender?
I feel like you underestimate how far along it really is, rather than the progess its making, there are already an incredible amount of channels for men as well as women in this category, and there are countless of both, while women do still outnumber the men in this scene of youtube. As more men in this scene rise on youtube, they'll slowly be mixed into one large group that won't be cut out of a group because they define as one gender doing the same thing as their fellow biologically different humans. Especially with so many that don't even define as the one gender, or as a different gender.
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I love that makeup and beauty tutorials are not basing the acceptance of makeup artists by gender but by their passion and talent. In fact, it blows my mind how some of the men that do makeup tutorials do some magic! We need more acceptance in our society. Our world is filled with stereotypical attitudes towards gender and sexual orientation. I also liked how you brought different specifics to each artist and that the criticism was based on their level creativity and criticizing because of the fact that some of those artists are male. I have seen plenty of times on social media of viewers (specifically men) making fun of men and even younger boys doing makeup tutorials. The fact that these men are so used to masculine scripts, they refuse to accept that men and boys should do makeup. I actually have a friend, who is a male makeup artist, and he is straight. But everyone assumes because he does a "feminine" kind of job, that he is gay. Which is why I love that more guys are doing makeup tutorials because it is slowly, but surely breaking that boundary and becoming more accepting.