Impact of Gender Stereotype on Makeup and Beauty Products: Analytical Essay

The cosmetics and beauty business has in every case typically been seen as being ladylike, and a large portion of the companies and brands are normally focused around set sexual orientation generalizations. Nonetheless, these generalizations and conventional sexual orientation roles are becoming a thing of the past, at an expanding rate, making gender neutrality not only a device for strengthening in society, yet in addition a bigger cultural move particularly in numerous Western societies. In spite of the fact that the social job of the two sexes has changed radically in the previous years, numerous beauty care products ads despite everything depict ladies and men in conventional settings to advance brands and items. This new move towards less gendered social orders calls for changes in the manner items are promoted to current purchasers in the makeup business. I have examined these sexual orientation and gender stereotype impacts in makeup and beauty products, and discovered ways utilized by brands to become more unbiased and gender neutral by leaning towards more unisex, and attracting the other sex and selling ways of life rather than genders.

Gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles are disappearing at a fast rate, making gender neutrality not only an instrument for liberation and empowerment, yet in addition a bigger cultural move particularly in numerous western societies. Sexual equity is re-moulding social orders and customs in different manners, influencing the current utilization of language, clothing standards, and shopping patterns among others. An expanding number of people and current buyers are seeing sex as non-parallel, in basic implying that sexual orientation or identities don’t fall solely into man or lady, or male and female classifications, or that sex is certifiably not a fixed element and can change after some time. In spite of the fact that the social job of the two genders has changed definitely in the previous years, numerous brands particularly in the beauty products industry despite everything still depict men and women in conventional sex jobs to endorse their image and goods.

However, there have been quite a few new brands and products that have done the complete opposite, and instead promoted their products using branding and designs that are not typically said to be gender stereotyped. The first case study I am going to be using to look at this is the products that were released by Youtuber, American internet personality and makeup artist James Charles. Now, James Charles is not your usual female working in this industry and is in fact one of the most successful and popular male figures that has stepped into this field of work. The star has since recently partnered with a makeup brand called Morphe and released a line of makeup which has turned out to be very successful. The use of James Charles, not your average gender stereotype to promote and brand this product has definitely been very effectively advertised to its consumers.

Gender stereotypes are slowly becoming non-existent and we can see this from the many male figures popping up and making their way into the beauty and cosmetics sector. Makeup is now being said to not just be a thing for women, but is seen as products that can be used by even men, straight or gay and throwing all these gender stereotypes right out the window. Makeup brands are now slowly but surely progressing in terms of getting rid of social norms and gender stereotypes and moving towards genderless products. Morphe did this successfully by incorporating a popular male figure to help market and brand their products. I think this definitely was something that not many brands or companies have done before, but it has worked well and has certainly shown that beauty products themselves can be used, or even advertised by a male as well as a woman can.

In recent years, beauty brand CoverGirl stood out as truly newsworthy for appearing its first ever ‘Cover Boy,’ which was the one and only YouTube and Instagram star James Charles. The move was appropriately hailed as dynamic and open-minded by numerous news sources. Also, Charles’ CoverGirl status is likewise featuring the expanding number of men who are utilizing their make-up abilities to increase their reputation and popularity on social media. In addition to James Charles, there’s also Patrick Starrr, Jeffree Star, Manny Mua, and Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen who have all risen to fame and up the ranks in the beauty, makeup and cosmetics scene.

James Charles himself has come out and said makeup for men isn’t just about drag queen aesthetics or the dramatic and flamboyant styles favoured by himself. Although, can likewise be utilized in subtler, and less obvious ways, to improve your appearance while as yet exhibiting a more ordinary and natural look. Normal things that men think we have to just live with can be fixed with a little bit of makeup, and more men are slowly coming towards implementing a bit of this into their lives. For example, acne, your skin breaking out, or even managing dark circles under your eyes. Women have been utilizing cosmetics and beauty products to cloud their flaws for a long time; it’s about time that men were allowed in on a couple of these excellent mysteries.

If we look at the general packaging and branding used for this product we can see that James Charles has been a sole highlight and main factor of the whole product. We can see that his face and his name have been used to promote and advertise this particular line of makeup and brand as a whole. The use of a male for this to promote and brand their whole product instead of a female is definitely something that was not of the social norms you see today, and it has come out to be a very successful with it being a sold-out release. Below are a few screenshots that you can see from the advert and reveal that included the star James Charles in a series of looks that were created using the product itself.

Usually, cosmetics and beauty products have been exclusively centred around an extremely restricted perspective on the ‘perfect buyer’, a female client. Also, more frequently white and youthful. So why have all of these brands been disregarding the remainder of the people for such a long time. Especially when those very individuals present a fantastic opening for more cash and to boost sales.

The appropriate response to this question is a difficult one. Most products can be seen following the conventional gender stereotypes. Study has also showed that most purchases and sales from this is made by the female population, and unfortunately, there are not a lot of choices and selections for the rest of the population that do not fit into these categories and stereotypes.

Conversely, in the course of the most recent years, we have seen an enormous upsurge in gender neutral companies and products, for example the greater players in the industry like Milk and Fenty. What’s more, this most recent purge isn’t just about cosmetics. Unbiased and non-conforming stereotypes in advertising and branding is likewise interrupting the huge cosmetics and beauty businesses. Even coming into the day to day skincare, hair and fragrance departments. Indeed, even luxury and exquisite companies like Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford, CK and Chanel have moved into a ‘cosmetics and beauty for men’ section. Also, Louis Vuitton have even as of late announced and put on market its first unisex cologne.

In spite of the fact that it might appear that we are arriving into an exciting and modern lifestyle of gender neutrality. The truth of the matter being that we are essentially establishing lost harmony. The possibility of the male population wearing makeup and using beauty products is definitely not something that is only being done in the present day. Studies and research actually shows that the male population’s use of beauty products was more or less similar to a woman’s one hundred to two hundred years ago. Prior to the nineteenth century, this sort of extreme separation amongst people wasn’t generally present in many civilisations and cultures. However, during the nineteenth and the majority of the twentieth hundreds we stalled out with extremely different separations and discords amongst how the male and female populations dressed, looked and acted. In the present day today however, we are returning to a place and time where society and the people were at for an extensive prolonged stretch of time, in terms of the use of beauty products. Therefore, on the off chance that men are just as likely to women and as quick to wear cosmetics, at that point for what reason are companies not promoting and branding their goods towards men.?

Now looking back at Louis Vuitton. They have released their first, historically speaking unisex cologne line. They have called this new release Les Colognes, which means ‘The Cologne’ or ‘The Fragrance’. We can straight off the bat see that this line of perfume, just by judging off the name isn’t targeted towards any specific gender or doesn’t represent any gender stereotypes. Famous perfumer Jacquees Cavarllier-Belletruud was enrolled by Louis Vuitton to make a set of fragrances to catch the pith of California, which is known to be one of the most modern and welcoming places in terms of gender stereotypes and sexualities in society.

The subsequent compilation of these fragrances is intended to encompass you with pictures and imagery of desert flora, cacti, sand, the beach, ocean and moving tides. The collection incorporates three particular fragrances: Cactus Garden – a new mix of mate, bergamot and lemongrass, Afternoon Swim – a creation of bergamot, orange and mandarin, and Sun Song – a summery blend of orange bloom, citrus and musk.

Furthermore, to accompany the set of perfumes, the brand worked together with an artist from California called Alex Israel on a series of carrying cases, also the branding, design and packaging for all of the perfumes. All of the designs include the artist’s very own wave theme, proceeding the sandy, Californian visuals and aesthetic.

Just by looking at the aesthetics and general look of these three perfumes we can see that they do look very fluid and not specific for any set genders. No gender stereotypes can be brought forward from the packaging or branding of the fragrances, and you can get a unisex feel off of them. The colours used are very natural, and can’t really be said to be neither masculine or feminine. Simple imagery is used on the packaging that connects with each of the perfumes and it gives off a very artistic feel to the product. The theme is very natural and focuses on lifestyles and nature rather than it being a fragrance simply being directed or targeted at a man or a woman.

The packaging and carry case itself is designed to be unisex and doesn’t give off any feminine or masculine vibes, and can be suited for a consumer of any gender. This is a great idea to have brought into the brand as it opens up doors for even more customers from different and non-biased sexual backgrounds. Unlike most other perfume or fragrance brands that use models to advertise and market their products, Louis Vuitton has chosen to use no people or genders to promote or sell the unisex perfume. Instead, they have chosen to use nature and the Californian lifestyle to build the image of this particular line of perfumes, which has definitely paved a way for other brands to incorporate and brand non-gender stereotypical cosmetics and beauty products too.

The underlying target of this essay was to look at and depict how sexual orientations and genders as normal mainstream gender stereotypes and roles influence beauty care products and the branding used to advertise and promote it. Furthermore, my point was to contemplate whether the fate of beauty care products branding and publicising is moving towards sexual equity and non-binary. This idea depicts the changing idea of sex from being carefully paired to turning into a progressively modern and liquid structure. I looked the impacts of sexual orientation and gender stereotypes on two unique beauty care products and their branding; makeup and cosmetics, and scents and fragrances. The second one incorporate items that are broadly utilized by men and women, though the first one is still for the most part utilized only by women.

In spite of the extraordinary cultural patterns identified with gender stereotypes of the previous decades, genders despite everything has been pivotal in many companies and branding accounts particularly in the beauty industry. However, beauty care products have been viewed as ladylike for such a significant stretch of time, and it appears that it is slowly but surely moving towards impartiality and fluidity within gender stereotypes. Consequently, it appears that the beauty products business is making a stride towards sexual equity and gender neutrality by offering items that were generally seen as ladylike, to male buyers, and that there’s an expansion in men’s utilization of beauty products. They are also moving towards bringing out products that are unisex and no gender specific to appeal to target audiences of any background or genders. So, in conclusion, most of the cosmetics and beauty products industry is still at the phase of acquainting items with male customers and inviting the new portion. However, after looking at these brands such as James Charles, Morphe and Louis Vuitton, we can see that the only effective way to advertise beauty products isn’t just by following and using gender stereotypes – and that they can be branded and marketed towards any genders, regardless of the product.