Is this what I think it is...Rimmel trans?

[takemeback]

Is this a trans advert for foundation? Don't know what to think. Eradication of women?

Men can wear slap.
I think we covered this 3 or 4 decades ago, kids
Is it time for a recap?

No actually "we did not cover this 3 or 4 decades ago" A tiny number of men in the music industry wore slap as part of their stage acts.

The idea 3 or 4 decades ago of campaigns like this or the ones Jayden Smith is involved in would have been unthinkable.

Time for a re-cap without the rose tinted glasses.

Lass, fwiw, the image in my head of men wearing make up isn't Bowie, I tend to think of bewigged Dandies

Fair enough but Bowie being used to support the idea of gender non- conforming makes me cringe.

Yeah no one likes bowie

I do like a man in eyeliner though

It’s the 80s all over again!

I guess so, but I tend to read it as an excuse for people to post pretty pictures more than 'All men in the 70's were like this!'. But tbf, while I agree with your point about men wearing make up as a mark of rebellion and counter culture as opposed to something men regularly wore down the working men's club over a pint, there has still been quite a prevalence of it culturally in the past few decades in the day to day.

Again, maybe not in the working men's club, but I've certainly been part of a number of social spheres where men wearing smudgy eyeliner or concealer was just everyday stuff.

binglebong that's a good point about the lack of make up for darker skin. It's kind of surprising as cosmetic companies are usually pretty quick to push every marketing opportunity. Just surprised they haven't used more men in make up ads already.

Men have been wearing makeup for decades. Saw a Cure video from the 80s the other day, Robert Smith and co were all slapped in the stuff.

They didn't need to define themselves as Gender bollocks queer or whatever in those days. They could be regular bog standard men.

@takemeback you’re assumptions are oart of the problem

He looks fab.

Make up is for whoever wants to wear it.

I went out with a beautiful chap a year older then me when I was 15. It was early 80s, just as hair mousse became a thing but obviously he hadn't quite got there so he used the old lady style setting lotion . He was heavily into Prince.

We went for a big walk and when it rained, his eyeliner ran down his face, half blinding him. Not a good thing for a first date.

No idea why kids think they invented this shit

Is it time to mention the wonderful John Maclean again. A man in makeup who is still a man

He is wonderful but again be honest - 3 or 4 decades ago other than in certain parts of major cities he would have found it difficult or impossible to go about everyday life as he does.

im pretty sure that men wearing makeup is not the issue

Lass I was mates with and/or knew several teenage lads in the eighties who wore makeup, and they weren't part of the music industry! And this wasn't central London, it was in a Northern town.

No rose tinted glasses where I lived. A bit gritty and pretty deprived actually.

I remember conversations in 6th form with my mates about who fancied a bit of eyeliner on a fella and who didn't. It was the era where a teenage lad would sit in a hairdressers for an hour with perming rods in his hair alongside the blue rinse ladies, and where lads pierced their ears with gold earrings like Wham rejects and wore dayglo towelling sport socks and huge blouson shirts.

So, I'm happy to accept it may not have been everyone's experience of fellas in makeup but it's no lie that it was going on back then. You'd get pushed in a ditch for wearing the wrong brand of tracksuit so if a conform-or-die backwater like my town produced some rebels others must have too.

I've always seen plenty of goths/emos/whatevers wearing make up since I was a kid in the 90s. And I know plenty of men who wear it in a less obvious way.

Floral I didn't take it personally and I do see your point. And now I'm off to oil my hooves and put ribbons in my tail.

Oh and I'm talking small county town so not exactly cutting edge culture!

Something like this is actually good, it's being inclusive while not taking away anything from women.

So, I'm happy to accept it may not have been everyone's experience of fellas in makeup but it's no lie that it was going on back then

I was at university in the late 70s and early 80s and have lived in cities all my adult life. This may have been part of your set but I very much disagree that men routinely wearing make-up was commonplace.

Yes I have seen it, but to extrapolate from a few rebels/ goths / emos that it was commonplace and every one was cool about it is a huge distortion.

Yes but Lass, I'm not sure that's what is being said. I don't think anyone is claiming that in the 70's every man walked around like Ziggy Stardust. It just isn't new or Avant Garde or cutting edge for a man to wear make up. It is still fairly taboo, not least because of this stupid idea being promoted that if a man does wear make up, the reason may well be because he is actually a woman.

I agree with two posters who said that if it were more acceptable for men to wear make up as men then there might be less need adopt a female gender just to wear make up and style hair etc..

I was in Brown Thomas in Dublin yesterday and I couldn't believe the number of male make up sellers. I felt very prejudiced wondering at one point, bloody hell, is there a woman here who can sell me an under eye concealer!?

I'm not sure that's what is being said. I don't think anyone is claiming that in the 70's every man walked around like Ziggy Stardust. It just isn't new or Avant Garde or cutting edge for a man to wear make up

It is pretty cutting-edge for there to be a man in an advertising campaign for make-up for men.

I think, having been a teenager in the 70s myself, that this type of thread gives a very false impression of the acceptability of men wearing make-up.

What can I say. I think the responses on the thread were mostly in reaction to the idea that a man wearing make up is erasing women and so very, very shocking and the post looked like an attempt to veer into 'Eww, icky trans!' and instead everyone just responded that it had bog all to do with trans.

But I do always appreciate your efforts to keep us honest.

I'm not extrapolating though.
Not everyone was cool about it then, just as many aren't now.
And certainly it wasn't the majority of lads, it may have been only one or two out of twenty.

So I'm not exaggerating. However, you'd still see those lads every day, just as the one punk girl with a shocking pink Mohican and nose ring was there too, and the goths, and the metalheads and it was enough exposure for many of us to learn to shrug and just accept the variety as just part of life.

It didn't need to be a universal thing, nor was it ever going to be acceptable to all.

But for many of us, myself included, it was commonplace in the sense that it was something we saw every day and just...accepted. Some men wore makeup and it was ok, not really a remarkable thing, even something to be admired.

Just how successful can an advertising campaign be that essentially says ‘You too could look like a man in drag’?

Teenage girls used to like painting my nails at school (I'm male) I quite liked the Freddie Mercury one hand painted look....

These day I would probably be drawn into identifing as gender fluid.

I had a boyfriend with floppy hair who wore makeup as teen, I thought it was very cool. I knew loads of men who wore makeup in the 80s.