Maybe ze’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline.”

Well, that’s not the way you remember the advertising tag line, but it’s 2023, Baby. One MUST be inclusive, yes? Maybelline has been using men in makeup in ads for several years now. Not only that, but I am old enough to remember the 1980’s when men wore makeup (Boy George, Adam Ant, Prince). Those men came off as best friend types and non-threatening. It all felt a little low-testosterone.

Maybe it’s toxic masculinity.

This new Amazon Prime Day-Maybelline ad by influencer Ryan Vita should remind us of those androgynous men-boys of the 80’s, but it doesn’t. It feels threatening and violent. On my second watch, I figured out why. It’s not the bald man with a tarted up beard and makeup. Although that’s not my cuppa. It’s the shiv-like nails, knocking the bottles together and shaking the bottle violently for 3 full seconds. Watch this:

Maybelline AD pic.twitter.com/NEnXcgRiXb

— (@OopsGuess) July 13, 2023

That feels like toxic masculinity. Not the current wave feminist version of toxic masculinity: men who hold doors, protect the fairer sex, watch football and own firearms. You know, the kind of masculinity that is desirable. The kind of masculinity that provides for his partner and offspring. Ryan Vita might protect someone with those nails. On the other hand, he’d most likely cry if he broke one. Here is how the NY Post describes this “influencer”:

Maybelline is under fire again for hiring a bearded makeup artist to star in its latest ad — just weeks after the brand fielded calls for boycotts over tapping Dylan Mulvaney to promote its concealer.
Maybelline — the world’s largest cosmetics brand — posted an Amazon Prime Day advert, and it stars mustachioed, bearded and bald influencer Ryan Vita.
In the ad, Vita sports a full face of makeup and a beaded barette in his beard while applying bright pink shades of Maybelline’s “Super Stay” liquid lipstick.

He then blows a kiss, showing that no gloss has tranferred onto his hand.
In less than 24 hours since Maybelline shared the ad with its nearly 12 million Instagram followers, the video was viewed more than 1.2 million times.

The caption denotes that Vita — who has 49,000 followers and uses the pronouns “she/he/they” — is a Maybelline Partner, and nearly 2,000 comments show that many consumers aren’t pleased with the casting.
“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” one user wrote, while another commented: “Really don’t want to be seeing MEN doing makeup tutorials!!! Nonsense.”

That’s nonsense. It’s not the men in makeup. It’s the man. The late artist Prince did amazing eye makeup. I wish he had done a tutorial. Take Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. He is so hot. He’ wears makeup. Like this:

Steven Tyler feels non-threatening in a truly masculine sense. Not in a woman-face, wear your skin kind of way. Men have worn make-up according to the styles and customs of the times for about 4,000 years. Ancient Egypt, some periods in France and some in England. I take exception to this Tweet:

Why care if a man wears makeup? I don’t see why it matters. Men have worn makeup ever since it was created. The founding fathers were literally grown men in wigs, tights, makeup, and heels. pic.twitter.com/FYrRcGe6Xu

— Neo-Confederates Posting Their Ls (@FuckDemRebs) July 14, 2023

That was the custom and fashion at the time. The British made fun of Colonial American men. Have you ever thought about the words to Yankee Doodle:

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.

The Colonists “Yankees” were considered backwards because they did NOT wear makeup or have polished, effeminate manners. They were NOT macaronis:

A macaroni (formerly spelled maccaroni[1]) was a pejorative term used to describe a fashionable fellow of 18th-century Britain. Stereotypically, men in the macaroni subculture dressed, spoke, and behaved in an unusually sentimental and androgynous manner.

Women don’t want macaronis doing tutorials on makeup. We don’t want bald, bearded men selling us makeup. Especially not when it feels angry, toxic and violent. The same with Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. That ad felt toxic and hateful. Why can’t the advertising executives and Brand Managers see that the American people are not stupid. We are more intuitive. We feel the hate and toxicity pouring out of Instagram. We know how they feel about us. They hire Dylan Mulvaney and Ryan Vita to mock us. And, when we react, they mock us harder. Dylan, Ryan and the Brands don’t give a fig about their Brands. They care about being cool and having a good ESG score.

There is only one way to reject this: Stop buying products that insult us.

Featured Image: Vicki Burton/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons