By: Tracy Gong
When I let out a shrill squeal heard in every corner of my house, my mom assumed the worst and ran to my room, predicting a twisted ankle, cut finger, or stubbed toe. However, despite the dastardly scenarios which she had predicted, she found out that I screamed, not because I was in pain, but because I was frankly overwhelmed by my excitement when I realized the new BTS music video had dropped.
After an exasperated sigh, my mom recovered and asked me what on earth I was screaming about. I showed her the music, then promptly muffled another excited scream when I realized the choreography was out of this world—literally—heir recent concept was a mix between fantasy and sci-fi.
“You think…they’re handsome?” She asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, looking even more bewildered when I let out a smaller scream as one of the members gave a charming wink to the screen.
My excitement dampened when she remarked that they looked like girls, an unfortunate but common phrase heard by every K-pop boy group enthusiast. Instead, she pulled up a picture of her favorite actor from her childhood, a ruggedly handsome man with squinty eyes and a smoldering facial expression. With an air of pride, my mom proclaimed that he was the most handsome man on earth.
While I deeply disagreed, it’s clear that the differences in male beauty that were propagated in her childhood and the ideals set by Gen Z, my generation, were largely at fault for our differing opinions. In the 1980s, when she grew up, Chinese television favored traditionally masculine men with smoldering eyes, which she later adapted to her beauty ideal. Conversely, because of the growing popularity of anime and Kpop, Gen Z ideals instead skewed to a softer masculine beauty that was commonly seen on the screens of Gen Z media.
Gen Z focuses on a more gender-neutral type of beauty, favoring androgynous-looking men, or more simply put, “pretty boys,” a sharp contrast to the many years of masculine ideals for men as physically strong and fully bearded “manly men.” While the preference for more “effeminate” men is stronger in East-Asian countries, where the majority of K-pop and anime media come from, the West has also been catching up to embrace this new kind of beauty. According to Sourcing Lab, a K-beauty manufacturer, companies such as Chanel “launched its first cosmetics range for men during 2018 and they named it Boy de Chanel.” Instead of a heavier, more obvious makeup look, “this product line features a tinted foundation, a two-in-one brow pencil and brush, and a transparent matte lip balm. Those cosmetics are perfect to create a natural look and look fresher.”
The reason for this new trend, Sourcing Lab explains, is because “New generations are part of a gender neutrality movement.” In conjunction with breaking the rigidly defined barriers of male beauty in the past, “young people want to wear what they want and make-up as they want without being affiliated with any sexual orientation.” In addition, celebrities who are knowledgeable of the dangers of an overly macho environment such as A$AP Rocky and Lil Nas X gave their support to the genderless movement so that young boys can feel more secure in their masculinity, no matter the products they use and however they choose to define “being a man.”
Ideals of beauty, especially male beauty, have remained rigid and unchanging for long periods of time. However, thanks to the digitally-savvy generation, known as Gen Z, the beauty standards for males have changed drastically, and, I believe, for the better.