Easy, breezy, beau- tiful, CoverGirl. We all have heard it and seen the commercials, but this time the new face of CoverGirl isn’t what the name suggests. CoverGirl has its very first Cover-Boy after 60 years of the company’s history.
His name is James Charles, a 17-year-old high school senior from Bethlehem, N.Y., who does make-up on the side for friends and family at no charge.
Charles went viral after he posted his senior portraits on- line.
He retook them because he didn’t like how the high- lighter on his cheekbones looked in the originals.
Every time I talked to someone about this a lot of them asked me the same thing, “so you agree with trans- gender?”
The thing is, that’s not what this is about.
It’s not about being transgender, gay or straight.
First of all, Charles is not trans-gender. He may be gay, but at the end of the day, he is just a guy that likes to wear make-up and is pretty darn good at it.
It’s about getting rid of society’s expectations for what a woman or man should do, be or wear.
Will Smith’s son, Jaden Smith, was seen wearing a dress at Coachel-
la. After this, Vogue used him in one of their photo shoots to promote a new line.
We shouldn’t be afraid of being unique.
Expressing yourself and being comfortable in your own skin with- out fear of rejection or judgment is what really matters. It’s something we all need to do more often.
Besides, men have been wearing make-up for years. Actors, news cas- tors, sport personalities and many more add make-up to their daily routine.
Cov- erGirl is nothing more than a brand name.
I think giving this 17-year-old teenage boy the chance to show the world what make-up on a guy could look like is a step in the right direction for the beauty industry as a whole.
No one ever said that make- up was just for women.
Yes, the only people we see in make-up commercials are women, but that’s because women, for the most part, are the only people buy- ing make-up, therefore that is who companies try to attract with their advertisements.
Now that CoverGirl has put Charles in the spotlight, other young boys, gay or straight, can be more con dent in wearing make-up if they want to. ey will see that it is ok.
Some people are saying that CoverGirl needs to come out with a line speci cally for men.
I think that defeats the purpose. Why do there have to be male and female versions of everything. Why does there have
to be clothes for men and clothes for women? Why does there have to be shoes for men and shoes for women?
Why does a man have to pro- pose to a woman?
Why can’t we all just do ev- erything and anything we want to do as long as we are com- fortable doing it?
Gender roles are nothing but a trick that our society has been controlling us with for a long time.
No, I probably wouldn’t walk around in make-up and a dress but if our society didn’t look down on it, and it was more acceptable
for a man to do that then maybe I would. I think Charles is a beautiful human being, and not just because of the make-up. He is completely ok with who he is, and he
is ready to show the entire world.
