Read on Twitter
1) This is a quick thread on moisturizing and gender, inspired by the tweet below & the fact that I hate going to the pharmacy and looking for face lotion that isn& #39;t branded as something like & #39;FACE ARMOUR!!!& #39; or & #39;eye creme FOR REAL MEN& #39; or whatever. https://twitter.com/LenMandy/status/1200248116902912002">https://twitter.com/LenMandy/...
2) Skin type varies; mine gets really dry and will crack in winter, so I moisturize. Shaving irritates the face; it& #39;s smart to moisturize. Exfoliating the face feels really good. I& #39;m also prone to waking up with dark circles under the eyes bc I& #39;m allergic to dust mites.
3) If I don& #39;t put lotion on my arms and legs, especially in the winter (I live 6-7 months / year in Maine) then my dry skin will flake off on the inside of my clothes (I also wear black about 75% of the time, so).
4) Bc my skin (face and body) gets dry, I& #39;ve always taken skincare seriously. But I do think a lot of adult men are missing out just because it& #39;s not meant to be a thing for a man to take care of his skin. I& #39;m making this assumption based on marketing of & #39;men& #39;s& #39; skincare stuff.
5) In the UK major pharmacies (Boots, Superdrug) it& #39;s especially bad. There are & #39;men& #39;s& #39; sections with aggressively marketed and scented stuff (US readers think Axe body spray, but about 10 whole product lines of that), with comically aggressive names and packaging.
6) And I feel like: I& #39;m a grown-ass man, I& #39;m not buying a toy truck here, but you& #39;re kinda treating me like I am right now. So then I need to locate the good stuff, which is in an aggressively gendered & #39;women& #39;s section& #39; where makeup blends into lotion.
7) True story: a sales associate at the Aveda counter in Cambridge stared at me in confusion for a full 10 seconds when I approached her with a handful of skincare products and asked a couple of questions. & #39;For you or?& #39; & #39;Oh, right, yes, for me.& #39;
8) So yeah, I complain about this stuff because I find the corny gendering of all these products really patronizing. But the flip side of what I& #39;m complaining about is that for women, of course, all of this shit is assumed oppressively mandatory. So it& #39;s not good either way.
9) Nor is it equally not good. But my point is that the fact we can& #39;t get over ourselves enough to take care of our skin without being made to feel masculine in so doing is pretty sad. /end
Addendum: Can& #39;t believe I forgot this, but the sun is bad for your skin. Regardless of where you live or how much you go outside, I recommend (following my dermatologist) daily face lotion *with SPF*.
