Just weeks after the favored gay hockey romance series premiered, star Hudson Williams’ elaborate skincare routine has gone viral. In a now viral video for the 24-year-old walks viewers through her “five-step Korean beauty routine.”
Her multi-faceted regimen includes an in depth shave, a cleansing, pore-minimizing treatment, a “super-brightening” toner and serums geared toward “rejuvenating” the young star’s face and body.
The nearly 20-minute routine, stuffed with self-deprecating humor and an irony against vanity, has amassed nearly 500,000 views (and counting), nearly 2,000 comments and 36,000 likes. Only on YouTube.
Williams’ routine, and its public broadcast online, is an indication of a wider shift in our highly visual and virtual culture amongst men. From style guides and extreme exercise routines to skin and hair recommendations, men are investing of their appearance.
But, in a curious paradox, they call their work the fantastic thing about anything (and every part) on the face and body.
Understanding the cultural force of beauty
As one The researcher is studying the cultural force of beauty And in its various presentations online, I take questions on appearance and attractiveness seriously.
I draw on online-based trends—images and advertisements in addition to viral video clips—and their reception amongst audiences to know how young people engage with and reply to beauty, and its various privileges and penalties.
The cultural force of beauty has long weighed on women, who’re invited to switch their appearance in keeping with difficulties, often contradictory, Beauty rules. But in a recent and curious change, beauty norms and appearance pressures have intensified amongst men.
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The rise of men’s beauty habits
Male bodies are increasingly featured in product advertisements and Mainstream campaignswith the addition of cosmetics targeted towards men.
Mandane Invest in skincare and grooming Not uncommonly, young men double down on efforts to enhance their face and body through multitasking routines, not unlike Williams specifically.
Driven at the least partially by the influence of social media and the rise of platform personalities who communicate the importance of looking good, “Update” And keeping sharp, men are investing of their appearance just as women have long been.
Along with these investments, boys and men are ordered to bulk up to attain a muscular and well-defined look. A large influence and celebrity following followed, with a spread of endorsements Compound exercises To improve one’s body and “Science Based” Changes in growth promotion.
A drive towards muscle is being called for, with many recommendations including the importance of strict weight-reduction plan and intensive exercise regimes.
In the name of beauty
While a few of the recommendations are fairly innocent, men have entertained more extreme, sometimes dangerous, ways to switch and improve the looks of their faces and bodies.
sometimes called “It seems, “ Attempts to usurp a term to boost men’s appearance, methods similar to “meowing” and the way more dangerous practice of “boning” are sometimes advocated to advertise facial symmetry and a powerful jawline.
What the advancement and recognition of online appearance-focused methods has produced Medical researcher Daniel Kong And what his colleagues have described as an “almost pathological obsession” with attraction, with significant consequences for boys and men.
Public reporting on men’s relationship with their appearance suggests that an increasing variety of men are affected by body insecurity and low esteem, which is reflected within the rise. Muscle dysmorphiabody image disorders give attention to lack of physical size or strength.
In an analogous vein, the UK Sexual abuse of youth The report shows that online, boys are increasingly under pressure to “display their bodies in hyper-masculine ways that show off muscles and are advertised as powerful and dominant.”
Why do men resist calling her beauty?
In my ongoing research with young people enrolled on the University of Toronto and Mesowan University, I’m documenting an analogous set of pressures.
The young men I’ve spoken with insist that when appearance weighs heavily on everyone else, men are increasingly subject to a culture’s demands for what looks good.
(Getty Images/Inplash+)
For the boys and men I speak with, social media platforms, and the celebrities and influencers who populate them, are a very thorny subject. They invite a powerful sense of comparison between men and their physiques and, for a lot of, a way of not being adequate.
Still, many describe these pressures in aesthetic terms. As one A historically feminine domainbeauty has been considered frivolous and unimportant. But as many men are checking out, the fact is way more complicated. Beauty returns rewards to those that are thought to own it or perhaps to those that are willing to pay for it.
Selling beauty to the masses
Men represent a growing and profitable ground on which to sell services designed to enhance their appearance.
This previously untapped market segment is ripe for business exploitation, with an increasing variety of men spending on beauty services.
In 2024, the market researcher Mantle More than half of men are reported to make use of facial skincare products, with members of Gen Z accounting for the most important segment of growth in skincare products—especially “high-end” and “clean” products.
It is estimated that the worldwide marketplace for men’s beauty products, including skincare and grooming, 5 billion by 2027adding to the already impressive industry A valuation of US$450 billion.
Men’s interest in dearer and extreme beauty treatments can be on the rise. American Academy of Plastic Surgeons There are reports that an increasing variety of men are pursuing non-invasive procedures similar to body augmentation and cosmetic surgery, in addition to dermal filler injections and facial neurotoxins similar to Botox.
Under each the knife and the needle, the cultural force of beauty is certain to be felt.