PAINTED FOR THE BACK OF THE ROOM

by Maddie Hall

Unique

makeup looks and campy fashion have become increasingly popular in the mainstream and on runways. While some people explain these trends away as symptoms of social media or high fashion, they are actually built upon years of influence from the drag community.

Although drag, a gender-bending art form, has existed for centuries, it was further propelled into the public eye in the 1990s as RuPaul gained fame. She became the first drag queen to be a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics and she had her own talk show on VH1. In 2009, she completely shifted drag culture and its acceptance with the debut of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show gave an unprecedented national platform to drag queens across the country on live TV.

The show has not only introduced many to the art form but has provided an example of the infinite and transformative possibilities of makeup. Drag has always been at the forefront of pushing the limits of what people do with makeup and fashion.

The last ten years of makeup trends have been defined by full coverage foundation, color correction, thick eyebrows, cut creases, baking, contoured cheeks and noses, excessive highlighter, overdrawn lips, and false eyelashes. While more recently makeup trends have included the no-brow look, graphic liner, overindulgent blush, drawn-on lower lashes, and experimentation with colors.

All of these trends, new and old, can be attributed to drag queens.

Before social media and makeup influencers, many of these makeup techniques were employed by queens in their dressing rooms. The purpose of the makeup was to completely transform typical male facial features into something female-presenting. In a similar fashion to theater makeup, the looks also needed to stand out in the stage lights to be seen by the audience in the back. This is how the terms “paint for the back of the room” and “beat face” came to be. The makeup needed to be exaggerated.

Full coverage foundation and color correction were used to cover facial hair shadows. Contour was used to transform masculine noses and jawlines while highlighting was used to emphasize cheekbones. Baking was used to ensure a performance-proof look. Cut creases, eyelashes, and big lips were used to further effeminate the face. This was the generational makeup knowledge that was passed down from drag mother to daughter and among peers, all by word of mouth.

However, many in the drag community reflect that the acknowledgment of the technique isn’t fully there. Most people still credit the contouring-baking-highlighting technique to Kim Kardashian and her makeup artist– who have both since expressed their inspiration from drag.

The “Instagram Baddie” and “snatched” styles became a major staple in pop culture makeup because of heightened online exposure. Yet, unbeknownst to many of their followers, and even the creators themselves, drag informed many of the looks that dawned during the makeup tutorial era of the 2010s: especially the cut crease eyeshadow and arched thick brow look.

Just as much as “Instagram” looks have taken from drag, so have the avant-garde semblances. We continue to see many celebrities, influencers, and makeup artists pulling from drag with the popularization of the no-brow look, graphic liner, aura blush, and experimentation with bright colors and placement. These were all concepts explored by Club Kids.

The NYC drag scene of the late ‘80s through ’90s was strongly correlated with the Club Kids who pushed the boundaries of queer aesthetics. Moving beyond female impersonation, Club Kids like Leigh Bowery, Waltpaper, Jennytalia, It Twins, and Richie Rich created extremely imaginative looks. Their campy aesthetic broke many of the social constructs that modern fashion and makeup are beginning to question, presenting many new possibilities for self-expression.

Famous makeup artists like Pat McGrath and Peter Phillips have pulled inspiration from these times. McGrath, arguably the most famous makeup artist, lived through the Club Kids scene of London. In 2015, she did a Kellogg’s Diner takeover to launch her new campaign where she cited their makeup as a major influence on her looks. While Phillips, creative and image director of Christian Dior makeup, actually created makeup looks for a 2021 editorial photo shoot in V Magazine, titled “Club Kids Revisited,” also exploring similar ideas.

Drag and the Club Kids era have influenced many aspects of popular culture, and as they continue to make significant waves in modern beauty and fashion, the artists are starting to be credited for their work. While we all don’t paint for the back of the room every day, it’s important to acknowledge those that created and refined the craft.

Digital

discourse is exhausting. Across all media platforms, it seems increasingly impossible to consume something positive or hopeful. Historically, media holds a predominantly nihilistic stance when expressing popular notions of purpose. The outpouring impression of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and overall lack of direction and meaning verbalized as a common subject matter within this digital bubble serves as a time capsule of popular philosophical thought. This speaks to the overwhelming human condition– and we are tired.

Nihilism is the thought that life is meaningless and that our scope of knowledge and creation is unattainable. A breaking point has been reached as the collective thought process has grown fatigued of loathing and yearning for something greater. Through contemporary media presentation, we can watch in real-time as popular philosophical thought shifts and evolves within our online bubble to reflect an anti-nihilistic movement. This is pertinent as new notions of life and purpose discovered online often permeate into everyday life. This transformative era of democratized media mirrors the historical progression of philosophy within an accelerated digital bubble. It is best exemplified by ‘core-core’ or ‘hope-core’ trends that often display the triumph of mundaneness and the resilience of the human spirit.

The difference between core-core, hope-core, and other media presentations I would describe as anti-nihilistic is that they are constructive. Even in our programmed solitude, we are connected by our want and need to share experiences with each other. An anti-nihilistic wave of digital media presentation has elemental implications for increased freedom of artistic expression through a new pathway of creative thought. Anti-nihilism is categorized by philosophically rejecting the notion that life is meaningless and therefore has no purpose. Instead, the purpose resides in the finding and creating of one’s own individual morality, values, and direction. This accounts for the monumental shift in popular online narratives and trends.

The concept of core-core and hope-core is hard to articulate as it is primarily expressed visually and auditorily. These compilations can be described as cathartically aesthetic experiences that take random videos about the reality of living and match them with an emotional response that reflects the world around us. It primarily speaks to the determined journey and destination of life and purpose which is connection. As bare-plate as it might sound, the most relieving part of life is realizing that the journey really is the destination (who knew?). The anti-nihilism trend in new media is almost cleansing as content is purging itself of its disdain for life by creating positivity out of the industrially depressing modern human experience.

Aside from hope-core and core-core, this can be seen in online discourses surrounding self-care, meditation, mental health, and holistic medicine. It is also pertinent in recent discussions that involve dismantling unattainable beauty standards like drawing attention to photo and video editing, embracing ourselves and our bodies, and finding purpose and meaning through hobbies, connection, creation, and bottom line ourselves.

The digital bubble can be an echo chamber of desperation for something more. Nihilism feeds the fire by chaining the mind to the meaningless rabbit hole. The antinihilistic movement best represented by elements of hopecore and core-core content not only frees us from the pit but from ourselves. Acknowledging that life is meaningless is the easy way out; finding and creating personal meaning and order, or lack thereof, makes the life. So clean your room with the window open, watch the clouds float by, appreciate the way the sunlight hits the bricks on campus, and spend time with those you hold dearest. Perspective grants the agency to experience– and that’s about all that life has to offer.

by Kate Goodwin