QUEER SELF EXPRESION THROUGH MAKEUP
Written by Jessica Eagles 22nd Sep
Edited by Charlie Killen
Makeup is a way everyone can express themselves; it can also be a mood enhancer and confidence booster too. Queer people tend to have a closer connection to makeup as we tend to experiment with different ways to express ourselves. For example, I feel more myself when I wear graphic eyeliner and glitter as it just feels like me. It took me a longggggg time to find myself in my queer journey and express myself, I started off with grunge style makeup, then changed to bright bold coloured eyeshadow and finally landed on my graphic eyeliner. This happened over years of experimenting with makeup even before I realised I was queer. Everyone has their own journey or are still figuring out where to begin and that’s totally fine.
Another reason queer people wear makeup is to help them identify with their gender on a physical level. The trans community use makeup to push back or pull forward features to enhance their gender too. Using makeup isn’t always about being creative or experimental; it can be something as simple as creating a 5’o’clock shadow or pushing back an Adam’s apple. These small changes may completely change how someone feels in themselves and how others perceive them. Even if it’s just getting referred to by the correct pronouns or not getting questioned when walking into a bathroom. It can be so euphoric for trans people and can be life changing for someone. These little things all add up and then they don’t seem as small at all.
Dazed Digital conducted an interview with people of all sorts of careers to talk about genderless makeup and here is what a few people had to say about why makeup is important to them:
“Makeup is important to me at this point in my life because it’s helped me find my people. New York can be a lonely town, and when I first started going out it was hard to make friends because most of the people I’d run into were cisheteronormative art students who didn’t know Divine from Diana Ross. They treated me like their personal clown, their source of entertainment. Slowly but surely I started coming across people who got me. My makeup looks sift through society for me, and steer me clear of all the people who would treat me like shit. I was bullied a lot growing up, even had to leave school because of it, so I’d rather not waste my time trying to act normal in order for people to like me.” -Grey, genderfluid musician
“In today’s cultural climate, I seek any opportunity I get to make a statement, to appear boldly and politically in a faggy earring, a deep red nail polish, or pink highlighter. The more the general public sees men or masculine-of-centre folks wearing makeup in their everyday, the closer we get to blurring the lines of gender in this oppressed culture we live in.” Fran Tirado, Writer and editor for Hello Mr magazine.
These are just some of the uncountable ways makeup helps express queerness and the different ways queer people can incorporate makeup into their everyday lives. So however you choose to use makeup, it is always the correct way. There is no right or wrong way to apply makeup. As long as you feel good that’s all that matters.
