Men appearing in makeup advertisements A visual study of masculinity representation in Chinese make up advertisements

Women used to act as spokespeople for cosmetics advertisements. Nowadays, in China, more and more Chinese male celebrities are involved in endorsing women’s makeup advertisements. This new form of advertising makes consumers feel refreshed and makes it easy for consumers to remember the advertising products. Different from the traditional impression of masculinity, the male images presented in these makeup advertisements have some feminine characteristics, which makes the masculinity in advertising show a diversified trend. In the makeup ads, these men are the ones being gazed at. When men are viewed as objects, the power relationship here is worth discussing. At the same time, women as the target group of this kind of advertisement, the existence of the female gaze and how these makeup ads are related to the female gaze are also worth exploring. This paper is written based on the Cornell’s opinion that masculinity is not single but diverse. Through the insight into this phenomenon, the characteristics of Chinese male images, gender relations and power relations can be revealed. This can help us better understand masculinity and its future change. To answer the main research question: How is Chinese masculinity depicted in women’s makeup ads circulated on social media in China?, this study has analyzed 100 advertisements of 10 international and Chinese makeup brands which inviting male celebrities to endorse their makeup products. This study focuses on the social media advertisements and is performed in a qualitative manner. Through the visual critical discourse analysis of the social media advertisements on Weibo, the results show that both hegemonic masculinity and subordinate masculinity are reflected in Chinese men in the makeup ads. The male spokesmen’s hairstyles are mostly medium length hair with bangs, no beard, thin figure and low degree of nudity. Their social status is very high judging from their clothing wear. They look warmer, softer and kinder. Their external appearances are basically clean and tidy, and the clothes are fashionable and decent. They show feminine characteristics in their image and disposition, but masculine characteristics in their social status. This proves that the male image shows a diversified development trend. Although men are sexualized and objectified in the makeup advertisements, the power relations derived from the advertisements have not been broken.