Pink or Blue?

I've spent a lot of my life, forever explaining the meaning of the future. The future how I see it. Sounds super corny, I know. But I am inadvertently a part of Generation Z, the tech-savvy, ever forgiving and constantly changing generation, whether I like it or not. We blur the lines of every social boundary in the rule book. But I'm pretty damn proud of that.

One of the things that I've personally never understood, is why one thing is for girls, and another for boys. At this point I know you're probably rolling your eyes but you don't understand, and maybe if you're a young male you really don't understand how as a woman, I'm expecting a struggle to be successful in my work, that at some point in my life I will probably have to work for less or even beg for the job in the first place. Surely that's not fair?

This sexism has been evident throughout my life, whether people were actively doing it or not, I've always questioned it. Why couldn't I play on a football team at primary school (aside from the fact I was probably terrible at it) no girl could be on that team, a team played for a primary school - PRIMARY. The teaching level where you're only just learning your 12x table. Or why Santa thought I'd prefer a Barbie campervan over the really cool Ninja Turtle car my brother got. Or even why I let a stupid boy make me cry nearly every week in high school. Although I identify these struggles as a female I can't imagine the struggles for a male who sees the world how I do.

And this is why I love what I can see happening, now, today.

People are the most accepting that they've ever been. There's now a stain on those who expect certain things of females, and the opposite of males. Who ever had such power to determine that males couldn't wear make-up like women do? Who ever had the audacity to tell a woman that a short hair cut is for men?

"...56% of Gen Z knows someone who goes by the genderneutral pronouns of they or 'ze'..."

- WGSN

The beauty sector, as a collective, is the strongest visual example of the genderless movement. It no longer matters to these brands and companies what genitalia their consumers have. In fact, they are just as welcoming of it, surely seeing rises in sales: mrporter.com seeing a 300% rise in their men's beauty products and grooming products sales in 2015 and China, year after year seeing a rise of over 20% of men's toiletries sales since 2010.

My activity on social media obviously fuels this fire I have in me to heroically change the world and join this rebellion of social guidelines. It doesn't help that the likes of instagram now uses their explore pages to introduce you to images similar to those you're already looking at, or at what your friends are looking at; connecting all of the dots.

And don't we just LOVE Youtube. If I'm stuck on my make-up look, or even when I'm just bored, I will almost always youtube a makeup tutorial. And my search will bring up thousands of options. All mostly girls. But what I love is that this is soon to be a thing of the past, with youtubers and dedicated vloggers such as Manny Gutierrez, Patrick O'Brian and Patrick Star paving the way for any male who wants to slay in the latest makeup craze. James Charles being a vlogger who was recently a Cover Girl. Jake-Jamie's #MakeupIsGenderless movement went viral, and helped destroy gender stereotypes in a comprehensive way. Marc Jacobs is also responsible for a platform that facilitates the posting of men's manicured hands, with their hashtag #MalePolish taking over the internet on their hunt for beauty vloggers. Marc Jacobs made a statement about the hunt via an Instagram video starring artistic drag queen 'Milk' from season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race, who Marc Jacobs casted in his previous S/S 16 campaign. Also the likes of Jefferee Star, who is not only a beauty line, but is a man who practises his own makeup look and features in his campaigns, someone who has revived the definition of drag and given it a makeover (no pun intended).

From a consumers point of view I think the consensus is that we just want killer eyebrows. Doesn't matter who tells us how to achieve this, man or woman; brows are life.

Would you just look at THEIRS.

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The recent Shiseido Highschool Girl? campaign, was largely based at a Generation Z audience, but this brand is typically associated with a conservative output. The campaign however features a classroom full of flawlessly manicured, prepped pupils who all turn out to be boys.

You get the jist. So where really is that line between male and female? Because as far as those pictures prove, we're literally just human beings, a blank canvas for our own personal identity.