Did Guys Wear Makeup In The 1800s

Unlike our modernistic guild in which beauty and cosmetics seem to be clearly gendered and rather reserved to women, in the eighteenth century, men did article of clothing make-up. Indeed, the eighteenth-century Englishman was as well subjected to mode and brand-upward trends all the same this century seemed to witness a alter in the utilise of beauty product past men and in society's idea of masculinity.

The early eighteenth century: The "White Await".

In the eighteenth century, men (see fig. 1 & 3), women, and sometimes children (on fig. 2 Henry Bridegroom Stuart was simply 13yo) wore make-upwardly in order to lucifer their social status. The aristocrats at courtroom "painted" their faces, but likewise the bourgeoisie and even the middle-classes complied with fashion and followed the trend of the pale face with ruddy cheeks and lips (Laughran, 2003, 7). Indeed, eighteenth-century men adopted the fashionable three-piece suit, the big powdered wigs and they also used a range of cosmetics they had at their disposal to complete their appearance. In order to reach a pale complexion they whitened their faces with pb pulverization, then they applied "rouge" in round or triangular shapes on their cheeks and fifty-fifty on their lips. They too used beauty patches to contrast with their white skin and darkened their eyebrows. (Hunt, Fate, Dodds, 2011, 4)

Thereby, men took rather good care of themselves, in the early century some of them –called fops or beaus (Westward, 2001, 170)- used a big corporeality of beauty products such every bit anti-freckle night masks, tooth powder, cold cream (run into fig. 1) or even perfumed oral fissure water (Kirstin Olsen, 1999, 106) and were often targeted in dazzler advertizement. Moreover, the cosmetics and beauty products they used were very often home-fabricated. Indeed, in the eighteenth century brand-up and cosmetics receipe books were quite pop, there was for instance Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz' south The Toilet of Flora (1772) which was very complete and comprehensible, therefore one could brand his own rouge paste made of creuse or vermilion. All the same, these home-made products were toxic and independent lead or mercury and led to poisoning (Hunt, Fate, Dodds, 2011, 4).

Thus, in the get-go-half of the eighteenth century it seems that gender differenciation was not linked with the use of make-up or wigs. Yet, the 1760s macaroni phenomemon clearly challenged the thought of masculinity in England, and the employ of beauty products by men started to be linked with feminization.

Macaronis: merely an extravagance?

Figure 4- Philip Dawe, Pantheon Macaroni [A Real Character at the Late Masquerade], printed for John Bowles, 1773

In the 1760s the young British elite came back from their Grand Bout – a travel in Europe, mainly in Italy and France- with new and foreign stylish clothes. They dubbed themsleves the Macaronis and were characterized by their enormous wigs and their excessive use of brand-up (Kirstin Olsen, 1999, 107). As nosotros can come across on effigy iv The Pantheon Macaroni is portrayed in front of his mirrored dressing table in which at that place are unlike pots of cosmetics, he is plainly powdered ans has two beauty patches. With such an "effiminate" representation of macaronis, one may wonder if they took office in the emergence of an early on homosexual subculture. Nonetheless, macaronis were not specifically linked with homosexual practices since it also existed tales of their agressive heterosexuality. Therefore they didn't raise a sexual effect but rather a questioning on masculine identity (Rauser 2004, 107).

The macaroni phenomenon began in the aristocracy but too spread into middle-classes (Rauser 2004, 101) and even if it was an imperceptible trend (West, 1998, 170), the rejection of the macaronis may had contributed to the redifinition of masculinity in England.

Indeed, in the 1770s macaronis were widely caricatured in prints and even mocked in theaters, Robert Hitchcock wrote a comedy entitled The Macaroni (1773) in which he depicted macaronis equally an unpatriotic consumerist elite with excess frivolity. In its mocking epilogue one tin read that macaronis decorated their faces like the French, therefore underlining their unpatrioc spirits:

The world'due south and then macaronied grown of late,

That common mortals now are out of engagement;

No unmarried class of men this merit claim,

Or high, or depression, in faith 'tis withal:

For encounter the Dr., who with sapient wig,

Golden cane, grave phiz, ere while await'd more than big,

With French republic'south foretop decorates his face,

Describes and dresses with macaronied grace;

Then swears he hates of formal stuff,

For gravity in practice is a puff.

Macaronis were easily chosen "women", "monkeys" and even "hermaphrodites": they clearly threatened the stability of gender difference in England (West, 1998, 174). Thereby, for both men and women, mode exaggeration would shortly go socially unacceptable and at the end of the eighteenth century men experienced "the great masculine renunciation" (Laughran, 2007, 10). They radically inverse their view on beauty and by the nineteenth century they adopted a rather different style, their clothing became much more sober and heavily make-upward became unfashionable.

Thus, the utilise of cosmetics by men and to some extent the dogma of masculinity seemed to evolve in England throughout the eighteenth century. If in the outset office of the century the "expressionless white" await was still fashionable amid different classes – men used on daily basis brand-upwards to powder their faces, darken their eyebrows or wore rouge on their cheeks- all the same the rejection of the extravagant macaronis may showed that at the end of the century English society sought a more singled-out gender differentiation.

Bibliography:

-Hunt, Fate and Dodds. "Cultural And Social Influences On The Perception Of Beauty: A Case Analysis Of The Cosmetics Manufacture" Journal of Business organization Case Studies 7, no. i (2011): 1-10.

– Rauser, Amelia. "Hair, Authenticity, and the Cocky-Made Macaroni", Eighteenth-Century Studies 38, no. i, (2004): 101-117.

– Shearer W. "The Darly Macaroni Prints and the Politics of "Private Man"", Eighteenth-Century Life 25, no 2, (2001): 170-182.

-Olsen, Kirstin. Daily Life in 18th Century England, London: Greenwood Printing, 1999.

-Laughran, Michelle. "History of Manner from Head to Toe: Cosmetics from Ancient Times to the Present Day" Aspects of American Culture Serial, Saint Joseph'south College of Maine, November 24, 2003.

– Hitchcock, Robert. The Macaroni. A One-act. Equally it is performed at the Theatre-Majestic in York, York: A.Ward, 1773.

Source: https://18centurybodies.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/male-make-up-in-eighteenth-century-england/

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