Boys R Us
An Adapted Base Layer
Blush, concealer, and eyeshadow in a new light doesn’t have to emphasize feminine features. Switching it up brings to light an inherent masculine side.
Depending on how your TikTok algorithm has clocked you, as close as your “for you page,” you might have seen videos where people try to look feminine the way boys are. Not necessarily super new or a recent concept but through TikTok has come around to be used almost exclusively as thirst traps, only sometimes with a very brief makeup tutorial. These videos give an aesthetic voice to crafting beauty through its power to elicit embodiments. Instead of the traditional role of blush to sink cheeks, boyhood is created with blush on one's jaw and under the eyes. With only a few quick brushes these TikToks emphasize entirely different sections to make the face more square. The popularity of this trend coincides with the decline of traditional uses of makeup over the pandemic. Makeup is used for expressiveness now more than ever.
“So why not show your masc side? Paint your eyebrows darker and brush them wider. Contour darkened circles under your eyes.”
Makeup is by no means gendered but gives a tool on your facial canvas. Shade away. Reveal a little more of yourself how you feel comfortable. The popularity of this style on TikTok is so heartening to see the widely positive reaction. TikTok is just breaching the tip of how traditional forms of feminine makeup and dress can combine with distinctly masculine emphasized facial structure. Makeup can build femininity on any facial structure. This trend is just normalizing applying makeup to a more traditionally ‘boyish’ structure. And even then, the trend stops at applying any type of more colorful or heavy makeup. This TikTok trend has the power to do more, and it should. Don’t further limit what femininity boys can perform.
Want to look femme the way boys do is desire for underlying masculinity. Makeup should be affirming and is by not any means limited to femininity. If anything this trend shows ways makeup can be empowering.
As a trans person, watching videos where creators fantasize about their desire to look more [insert gender here] is extremely irritating.
“No one is stuck in their bodily aesthetic from birth. You get to change your appearance. ”
You have autonomy. Use it.
