A Letter To Someone Important

This week we had to create a letter to someone important regarding a topic that was important to us. I chose Michelle Lee, the editor of Allure magazine about the topic of men and makeup. Here is what I wrote:

‘Dear Michelle Lee,

Did you know that according to a survey conducted by designer secret sales website www.hushhush.com, 11% of men secretly wear makeup. I personally find this statistic quite surprising and upsetting. Knowing that 1 in 10 men feel the need to hide the fact that they want to express themselves through makeup, doesn’t it upset you too? I believe that as a society we should be pushing more to encourage men to feel comfortable being who they want to be and to not feel the need to hide it. The male suicide rate seems to be forever increasing and could this be due to the society we live in constantly encouraging men to conform to a standard of being ‘masculine’ and to behave in a certain way?

As a highly popular and diverse women’s beauty magazine, I feel that it is partly your responsibility to make men feel just as included and comfortable as women to express themselves through makeup and beauty products. Take a look at the positive influence James Charles as the first cover boy for CoverGirl had. There was such a strong impact across the internet that showed how men can be empowered through makeup and that they shouldn’t feel like it is something to be ashamed of. Including more inclusive articles as well as using more male models could be a really great start to create some change in the community.

I believe that the world has a long way to come in terms of abolishing gender stereotypes and conformity, but as a society we can work together to make the world an equal place.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Elliott’

I think that it is really important to address the issues that men face with pressures to act and behave a certain way. I think that magazines and advertising agencies hold a huge responsibility to reduce this stress on men and that is why I think this letter to Michelle Lee is incredibly important.