Media Response: Face to Face

Video available here: https://vimeo.com/203386332
For password please email me at pjt255@nyu.edu

Male make up vloggers on Youtube command a unique presence. As men, they benefit from the privilege of having a digital presence that is not put into question because of their gender: there is no question why they are online, speaking to the viewer, as this is what men do. The make up tutorial is also an established construct within Youtube, as millions of individuals post videos of themselves guiding their viewers to a desired look. Success within this construct is measured first by followers and second by endorsements: as such, many Youtube make up vloggers attribute part or all of their revenue to Youtube-related income.

All of this exists at the larger scale, the capitalist economic system of product and customer. This relationship occurs within the space of screen and user. Within this relationship are hairy power dynamics: while the viewer is the Youtuber's raison d'etre, the Youtuber is the viewer's guru, advises them on what products to use, and how to achieve that desired look.

The agents in this relationship: viewer and Youtuber. The viewer is an avatar, a grey silhouette of a head and shoulders, because the viewer is everyone. The Youtuber is individual.

Image (c) Jeffree Star Cosmetics

Here, I have focused on Jeffree Star, for personal reasons: I admired Star in 2010, when he was producing music. Two years ago, he launched a make up line, and at roughly the same time, began producing make up tutorials. While viewers follow him through a tutorial, they may or may not be aware of his history of transphobic, misogynistic, and racist comments: from peppering sentences with transphobic slurs to suggesting a woman of color use bleach to improve her complexion.


But would a grey silhouette know that? If they did, would that impact their viewership? And whether or not we do know that, is viewing the tutorial an endorsement of these actions? What if we took it a step further and followed the tutorial - is that an endorsement?


And, finally, who on this blue earth can actually keep up with these tutorials?????