In an era of constant renewal of contemporary media, appearance is the key to making an impression. Because of the emphasis on appearance, make-up has become an important part. In the process of urbanization, people pay more attention to the quality of life, and makeup can change people's temperament and appearance. At the same time, make-up has also become a technology that penetrates contemporary media. The media has a great influence on people(Firth, 2012). The previous literature has emphasized the impact of contemporary media on life or the impact of makeup on people, but few have proposed the impact of makeup on contemporary media. This article will complement this deficiency. It aims to analyze the impact of makeup on contemporary media. This article first proposes the role of makeup in film, secondly illustrates makeup-induced femininity in social media, thirdly emphasizes makeup-induced benefits in social media, and finally proposes the use of makeup in contemporary media with negative and positive effects.
The film is one of the most dominant mediums of contemporary media, presenting tens of thousands of actors to audiences every year. Make-up and modeling design is an important parts of artistic creation. It uses cosmetics and tools to render, smear, organize, and describe the face of the human body using certain methods and procedures(Kim and Kim, 2021). To cover up the flaws of the characters, or express the spirit, to achieve the effect of beautifying the visual experience. Actors are closely united through makeup and film roles (Kicheung, 2013). In movies, the image of a character can often reflect the character's character traits and inner thoughts. Due to a large number of characters in each movie, to allow the audience to quickly grasp the characteristics of the characters, makeup has become the most critical step (Rustenholz, 2003). Before film creation, it is necessary to analyze how to apply makeup for the characters in the play from three aspects. The first is the performance of the physiological characteristics of the characters. Due to the different skeletal development of human beings, each person's appearance is also very different, and there will be a certain gap in face shape and facial features. When people describe another person's appearance, they usually describe that person's distinctive features (Trekels and Eggermont, 2016). Therefore, in the makeup and modeling of a movie or TV series, some features need to be reflected on the actor's face. Meanwhile, Matured Makeup Technique helps roles in movies present rare features in real life or even features that don't exist(Powell, 2013). Mystique is a fictional female character growing blue skin in the American comic series ‘X-men’, yet a film producer can't find an actress who grows up with blue skin in nature. To present the character successfully, it took six girls about seven hours to paint the actress's full body, and the role became vivid with the advantage of matured Makeup technique. The second is the embodiment of the life experience of the person. Even at similar ages, the gaps between people can be stark because everyone experiences different lives and environments (Chen, 2011). In the American movie 'The Parent Trap', a pair of twin girls live in different places with their parents from birth. Girls living looked more ladylike and quieter, and girls living in the US looked livelier and more active. Even though the twins are played by the same actor, they look totally different, which is what makeup does. Makeup can shorten the description of a character's life experience in a movie and can effectively create a shape that matches the character's life experience (Casey, 2004). The third is the projection of the social environment in which the characters live. Due to different eras, ethnic differences, and educational attainment, these factors can cause changes in a person's air quality. Make-up should take in objective reality, allowing the audience to feel the real image of the characters.
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In the era of booming new media, makeup is considered by some to be a manifestation of the decline of women's status. Makeup is an essential part of many women's daily lives (McCarthy, 2015). Relatively speaking, men pay much l account for the age division of the characters and the aesthetic trends of the public(Jang, Park, Lee, and Hong, 2019). Character images should emphasize the authenticity of the objective nature and the authenticity of the subject's psychological feelings. Makeup art is derived from reality, emphasizing the presentation of less attention to makeup than women. That's because, in contemporary society, culture, media, and businesses are constantly promoting the beauty and physical value of women. Bind the value of women to looks, and the ability to have and raise offspring(Hillary Chute, 2018). The value of men is reflected in their ability to produce and create social value. On some short video platforms such as TikTok, many women will record makeup videos, put on makeup, and dance or sing in front of the camera. As a result, they get traffic and thus get certain benefits. Therefore, some people argue that female make-up is a manifestation of pleasing men, and that make-up unconsciously internalizes the concept of patriarchy, so women should be called on to wear less make-up. But other people believe that beauty is a human instinct, and that makeup is to make oneself happy, it is a voluntary act, and it has nothing to do with male power (Barberet, 2014). Many media outlets have merged women's values and fashion for years (Almila, 2015). In daily advertisements, many advertisements are similar to buying a certain product to get self-improvement and forcibly instill it in many people. Makeup is seen as a high-value enhancement in various media. Many women are afraid of wearing makeup because they are uglier than their homosexual counterparts, and women who wear makeup may also be more likely to be recognized by other women. The TV series ' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel', is most notable for the makeup and styling in the play. The woman and her husband have been married for several years, but she has never let her husband see her plain face. This TV series is based on a shield, and its story background is the era of the 1950s when the male protagonist is outside the mother and the female is in the house. Generally speaking, it is a male-dominated society, and the social status of women is not high (Mahaseth, 2017). On the one hand, it promotes the female consciousness of the pioneers, and on the other hand, it allows the female protagonists to constantly change their makeup and clothes according to male aesthetics. The audience only saw the delicate makeup of the woman but ignored that the plump breasts and slender waist represented not male aesthetics, but health and vitality. The woman dresses beautifully in her daily life because she comes from an elite Jewish family. Many people miss the opportunity to understand the inner nature of the woman because of her beauty of the woman. In an era of widespread media dissemination, women's sense of self-identity should come from themselves, first of all, and then from their wives and mothers. Makeup is supposed to give women beauty, not a process for women to cover up their flaws.
The presence of makeup causes both positive and negative influences on audiences and bloggers through social media. Makeup is usually associated with words like ‘beauty’, ‘gorgeous’, and ‘perfection’, makeup becomes a common way to pursue beauty and a shortcut to people's desired self-image(Emerson, 2000). With the freedom of building an account's content and viewing others' work, users found out that being beautiful and being the one other people envy is the key to ‘likes and subscribes’. This obvious mechanism prompts bloggers and producers to present better works through more delicate makeup and outfit because the primary goal of bloggers and producers is to satisfy the audience and fans and win more attention and admiration from the audience which leads to higher income and greater fame. Rational people make decision for their own benefit, the audience have the right to watch posts and videos which meet their preference and taste, bloggers have the right to try different approaches to develop their own business, and the concept of ‘right and wrong’ should be discussed on this topic, yet the phenomenon indeed starts making some people attach greater importance to their appearance. Some people think that appearance should not be overestimated, more time should be spent on other activities in our life, like inner personality development, knowledge acquisition, etc. (Lim, 2015). In this essay, the opinion isn't entirely agreed with, as the life will-being consistently increases with the development of modern society, less effort is required for survival, the proportion of cost on basic living demands decreases as time progresses, people can spend more time and money on entertainment, the importance of appearance should not be considered as overestimated when it can actually bring senses of happiness and silicification(Jiang and DeLaCruz, 2010). To some degree, the importance of great appearance and the role of makeup was underestimated before because of unabundant basic life demands. Social media is one of the most popular tools for entertainment, it is no doubt that the makeup technique is causing a significant on social media in many ways as well.
The technique of makeup potentially helps some users get positive feedback on social media which helps boost their self-esteem, spawns some new job occupations which bring them extra income, and changes people's lifestyles overall. The main body of social media is the user instead of the software, software aids to provide a platform where the user is demanding for any purpose, a place where the user can share daily life, and socialize better(Lomborg, 2015). The essential demand for the majority of users on social media is to socialize, get to know interesting people, explore the grace of the world better by viewing other users' posts, and share their own daily life via uploading content. Definitely, appearance is the first factor people notice in others no matter on social media or in real life, good look face and neat image can always draw other's attention and make a good impression in the first place, especially on social media where people scroll and browse tons of posts and stories of others. Some teenagers, they might deal with more social relationships online compared to their daily life, for example, a shy girl in high school might only know classmates in her classes and some teenagers in her neighborhood, but she can have thousands of followers on Instagram or friends on Facebook. She might only talk to a bunch of friends in school and her family in daily life, but she can browse as many users' accounts as she wants and starts a conversation with any of them, meanwhile, many ‘stranger’ users could send her messages on social media as well. With such a huge amount of user, everyone becomes shallower and care less about others' personality, gorgeous appearance, and delicate daily life presented in posts become the only way user showcase themselves and fascinate others at first sight. Appearance becomes one of the few synonyms of high values on social media, it's reasonable that posts with greater appearance are more likely to receive likes and positive comments than those with ugly appearance, everyone has a pursuit of beauty. This phenomenon indicates to users the importance of a good profile for efficient socializing, more and positive social feedback, makeup is obviously the most efficient way to approach such a target at a low cost, our appearance is not unchangeable anymore; nowadays, everyone can wear better makeup or outfit to improve our profiles on social media, change the first impression other people have on us. People tend to feel more self-esteem when receiving compliments, and social identity, however; people are all apt to give out obscure feedback and expression about their opinions on others in daily life because the over straightforward expressions and feedback are likely to cause stress on the subject, not only it takes time to give out feedback, but also it is easy to scare others and considered as ‘rude manner’. For example, when one sees some gorgeous girls and boys on street, it's inappropriate that heshe comes up to everyone heshe meets and tells them how pretty they are, and how much heshe likes their style, the intention is essentially nice, but the action is considered weird and creepy, compared to the ‘weird approach’ action, such intention can be expressed on social media in a much more proper way - clicking like or dislike, all users can give out feedback about a post with 1 click in few seconds, the great number of likes under selfie posts with makeup can boost the bloggers' self-esteem about their appearance, with common utilize of makeup skill, many social media become a platform where people can share their daily looks and seek for social identity and compliment. Makeup skills can't change people's appearance essentially, yet boosted self-esteem can make bloggers find self-recognition and feel confident. Because of the benefits that makeup can bring to the user on social media, more and more companies aid to satisfy market demand by building platforms that facilitate users sharing their delicate appearance with makeup, there are even specialized sections tutoring the audience on various makeup skills for gaining more admiration no matter on social media or in daily life, introducing and sharing different cosmetic products from personal experiences, posts related makeup topic generally receive many likes and views on social media. Such market demand spawns many new job occupations related to the cosmetics industry, many people earn extra cash by sharing their daily experience with cosmetic products and the latest makeup skill, and some people gain considerable income via making posts about makeup full-time. The presence of makeup has a significant role in the development of social media.
Makeup can also lead to negative direction on social media. Makeup techniques can be abused because of the great amount of interest can attention that beauty brings on social platforms, great makeup skill seems to become a shortcut to ‘likes and subscribes’, and everyone can use makeup to hide defect and amplify the appearance advantages(Kakar, 2016). Nowadays, people generally recognize the importance of being pretty, many bloggers wear heavy makeup, and present wonderful, perfect but fake daily life in the camera to attract others' attention, they tend to convey information about how pretty they are and how excellent their life is. Even the same activity conducted by a beautiful protagonist can always win more views and clicks. The issue is that, when people make an appearance on social media at the center of their life, it turns into their essential inspiration. Individuals never again photo what they run over yet look for spots and opportunities only to take selfies. Large numbers of them likewise spruce up to show an image of it to the world. The positive feedback from audiences satisfies their self-esteem and makes them pursue a social media lifestyle, even more, they are dedicated to creating a wonderful image in the camera instead of making themselves really being that wonderful in real life. Meanwhile, innumerable audiences enjoy browsing videos of teenagers with delicate appearances doing interesting activities, the demand motivates bloggers to pursue great appearances more. However, rare people were born with good-looking faces, they tend to abuse makeup techniques to make themselves look perfect and beautiful in the camera. Video producers utilize a more immaculate appearance to please audiences and win the attention and clicks of their competitors. This phenomenon of over-admiring pretty appearance caused some negative social influence and even induces some young teenagers to undergo plastic surgeries because of the sense of displeasure they have with their appearance even with makeup. Such a trend of abusing makeup really should be eliminated, the responsibility is on online celebrities and social media officers. However, few of them are willing to convey such an opinion because of the huge benefits from the trend of pursuing appearance with abused makeup, the sales commission and the huge views, and internet stream on related topics. Some online celebrities advocate for accepting and showing our real appearance with plain makeup on social media, one of the most popular tags on TikTok recently is reconciliation with plain makeup. Many beauty bloggers have removed the thick liquid foundation and beauty contact lenses. They hope that everyone can accept their own makeup and take care of it. But there are still some people who wear fake makeup and tell the audience on TikTok that they are without makeup. Such behavior is hypocritical and boring. And some viewers developed appearance anxiety when they saw their pseudo-plain-makeup videos. Appearance anxiety refers to the fact that individuals worry about their appearance and fail to meet the expectations of the outside world for beauty, so they will be negatively evaluated by others, resulting in nervousness, tension, and anxiety (Kurhan, 2021). Makeup abuse which increases appearance anxiety really should be eliminated, people should get rid of the notion that their appearance 100% defines them.
In the media age, make-up has become an indispensable part. It has created many opportunities, but to a certain extent, it has negatively affected society and the media. This article delves into some of the negative and positive effects of makeup on contemporary media. But to a certain extent, it will cause controversy about makeup and gender, and it will induce feminist or patriarchal thinking. Through the continuous development and progress of the media, the influence of makeup will be greater. There are still very few articles that note the impact of makeup on contemporary media, and the prospects for both contemporary media and makeup are very promising. Future research should further dissect the relationship between the two so that the benefits between the two can be exploited. Make-up should not be a cover-up for the media but should be an assistant to the media and play its greatest role. The impact of makeup on the media always depends on the way it is used.
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