Voyeuristic pleasure, as Mulvey argued, where the man is the bearer of the look (active) and the woman the image being looked at (passive), is a heterosexual pleasure. It assures heterosexual masculinity because it demands the male spectator’s identification with the male image in order to look at women. For Mulvey, this is an easy and natural process for men. However, Bryson argued that this process is not necessarily easy, and men could face extreme difficulties. Bryson views this relationship as “enchanted” and argued that it is a simplification and pacification of the mechanism of intermale identification.
The same goes for masculinity. Through the eyes of voyeurism, masculinity is a given fact, an interminable code. Rather, masculinity is a continuous construction (like gender). Therefore, in order to be a male subject, a “masculine masquerade” that flows out of voyeurism is demanded.
“Deviation or failure to obey that constant injunction risks instant and severe penalties. This censorship already points to ways in which the masculine masquerade is directed not only towards women but towards other males. It points, thereby, to the anomaly in the model that I mentioned just now: that the male is not only bearer of the gaze but is also object of the gaze.” (Bryson 231).
Someone who deliberately positions himself as the object of the gaze and does not wear the masculine masquerade is James Charles. He is an eighteen-year-old so-called ‘cybercelebrity’ and a male make-up artist. He became famous because of his YouTube channel where he posts make-up tutorials. Since 2015, Charles has gained over three million followers on YouTube and Instagram. Striking is that Charles posts videos of applying make-up onto himself and not onto women. He also became the first male spokesmodel for the make-up brand CoverGirl in 2016. Charles does not wear make-up because he wants to identify as a girl or transgender, he just likes the art of make-up. Therefore, he adopts a certain type of masculinity that breaks with traditional heterosexual masculinity. This comes with crucial difficulties as Bryson argued, since his type of masculinity does not fit the current norm of the masculine masquerade. He no longer is the subject but becomes the object of the gaze, because the audience of his social media channels are largely women who are interested in his make-up looks and skills.
Men wearing make-up is gaining popularity on social media platforms and there are many men posting photos and videos of their make-up looks online. What is special about this phenomenon is that these men did not gain popularity because of the fact that they wear make-up. This would actually reduce their popularity since it does not fit in a heterosexual masculine environment. Rather, admiration amongst women (and men) of their skills in the art of make-up and an interest in their created looks is the reason for their high numbers of followers. However, because these boys look highly “feminized” (Neale 14), it may also confirm the argumentation that only women can function as objects of an erotic gaze.
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