while i sympathize with many of their plights, there is a point at which i stop having sympathy for male makeup artists

there is a point at which it just becomes the same old tale of "this is a women's sphere, only women can use this, but if you want to do it *professionally*, you'd better be a man because women can't be trusted with it now that it's important work"

you see it in cooking, you see it in sewing, you see it in teaching - a cook is female, a chef is male. a person who sews is female, a fashion designer is male. so on. so forth. only men are allowed to have influence and vision on the direction that things will take. women, as second-best, are expected to just consume and follow, as per the misogynist status quo.

at some point a man telling women patronizingly they are doing makeup all wrong and he's there to save them from themselves is just the same old tired song and dance.

and "but i'm not straight!" is not a get out of jail free card. you can be gay and still be a misogynist.

in fact, to get REALLY fucking spicy, there is a massive problem - especially in these sort of spheres of fashion, etc. - with gay men, usually white and cis, who feel that they never need to answer for their own misogyny because they are gay.

that's not how it works. being gay is not carte blanche to belittle, look down upon, and harass women. "it's ok honey i'm gay" is not a response to "wait no, stop grabbing my breasts".

it's not a coincidence that many of these same dudes will wrap themselves in casual transphobia up to their eyeballs, because they think misogyny is fine, and therefore they're allowed - if not honor-bound, "cause i'm gay!" - to hate many things that are typically female. "ugh, pussies are so GROSS, can you IMAGINE even HAVING one? AWFUL, DISGUSTING... i'm so glad i'll never have to deal with one near me 'cos i'm gay!"

not even getting to the attitude that this can get magnified into in some parts of the drag scene, where women are objects to be lampooned and mocked in hilarious caricature and not valued for anything else - except shutting up and sitting down because *they* know the *right* way to do *everything*, including *being a woman* better than women would ever think of.