In Eastern Woodland cultures, centuries ago, Indian men wore full facepaint pretty much all the time. Women, not so much.
Johanna, I’m very much interested in your comment “In Eastern Woodland cultures, centuries ago, Indian men wore full facepaint pretty much all the time. Women, not so much.” and would like to hear more about it.
Tom,
Because the answer in that case amounts to “it just worked out that way”.
Men don’t wear makeup because it just interferes with the backwoodsman look they’re developing with they’re 5 o’clock shadow.
… or their developing with their 5 o’clock shadow.
Men wearing makeup just looks weird. It’s becoming fashionable over on this side of the world, especially in South Korea. I’ve started seeing it some in Thailand too.
Why do women wear dresses and Skirts and men don’t?
Short answer, Fashion.
Start by looking over George Catlin’s paintings, which should give you a pretty good idea. Catlin depicted mainly Plains people, but in his day the Eastern Woodland tribes had been largely disrupted, driven off their lands, or exterminated. Catlin arrived in the Great Plains while the cultures and societies were still whole and vibrant, so he depicted braves with their paint on. The stereotype of Plains warpaint from Westerns is a couple of lines under each eye, but the Eastern Woodlands braves of the old days, if contemporaneous paintings and accounts are any indication, preferred to cover either the whole face or half of the face with large blocks of solid color, most often red. They also used white and black a lot, or sometimes yellow or green.
They would also do designs too, but from what I can tell, solid colors were more popular. Sometimes they drew a line down the center of the face and colored in only one side, or used a different color on each side. Another popular design was to surround the eyes and extending over the bridge of the nose like a mask. The designs were pretty much up to the individual to express his individuality.
In Ohio where I was born, the name of the Olentangy River comes from Lenape ulam tanchi, which literally means ‘red face paint comes from there’. The Vermilion River too was named that for the same reason. The river banks exposed deposits of red ochre and colored clays. Indians were called “Red” people not because their complexion is red—it isn’t—but because of their fondness for red face paint and body paint. The Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland had abundant deposits of red ochre, and they were the first to become known as Red people.
Red or black paint was symbolic of war, and white paint, peace. I read somewhere that a brave would paint his face for courtship too, when seeking a wife.
They don’t wear full makeup, unless they’re in a boy band, but foundation for dudes has become more common (they call it “color lotion” or some such nonsense).
Takes notes
“No True Scotsman wears skirts!”
Johanna, thank you for your comment. I found all of it to be interesting and plan to look into it more, but in particular I am interested in your statement that “I read somewhere that a brave would paint his face for courtship too, when seeking a wife.” Also, did your interest in this come from an interest in native people or an interest in the history of painting or something else.
Tom,
As to what I feel is the connection between women now generally wearing makeup and men now not generally wearing makeup and women being second class citizens in the past, it’s apparent that women were clearly treated as second class citizens during the 19th century and as a result of this had little opportunity to earn significant amounts of income. Women worked hard both in the home and out of it, but generally not in jobs where they could earn more than a minimum amount of income. Both women and men had strong desires to marry, but women had the additional reason to marry and marry “well” because of the difficulty for them to earn more than a minimum amount of income. Also, in many ways a woman’s role in life was considered one of a married mother. I feel that this motivated unmarried women to make themselves more attractive to attract a husband and motivated married women to make themselves more attractive to keep a husband. Thus, women would wear more flamboyant clothes, wear dresses, grow their hair long and to some extent wear makeup. In terms of wearing makeup and showing their bodies women were stuck in a dilemma. If they wore too much makeup or showed too much of the bodies they might be considered “immoral” which would diminish their chances of marriage. I am not claiming that this was the case for every woman, but only that this was the general case.
On the other hand men were expected to be “good providers” and therefore tended to dress and present themselves in a practical manner. This led to men wearing their hair shorter, wearing trousers and not wearing makeup. Also I feel that there was a strong stoic trend through what some call western civilization and as such men tended to wear more sober colors. So, I feel that the role of men was “to do” and the role of women was “to be seen.”
Going into the 20th century this started to change. Women began to be able to earn more income and to enter different careers, but I feel that the general difference in the role of men doing and women being seen took longer to change, particularly in regard to men being more practical and stoic and women being more concerned with appearance. Women also started to became more assertive and so started to expose more of their bodies and perhaps wear more makeup, but it seems to me that men still clung to the idea that there is something wrong with them trying too hard to be attractive. This may have something to do with a fear among straight men that if they tried too hard they may be thought of as being homosexual and this fear may have increased as gay men became more outspoken.
So, I feel that women being considered second class citizens in the past is an important reason why women are more likely than men to make themselves more attractive (not only to the opposite sex) by being more likely to wear makeup, wear long hair, wear different styles of clothes, wear dresses and skirts and being willing to expose more of their bodies (particularly young women and particularly at the beach and in formal occasions). However, I am not saying this is the only factor involved, but that it is an important factor.
Tom,
One of my ancestors 250 years ago was Lenape, and I’ve been delving deeply into their history and culture (particularly the language, and by extension the Algonquian language family). I may not be much of an art historian, but I love learning about Indians.
As they say, if you accuse a Scotsman of crossdressing, you’re gonna get kilt!
It’s a pun, “kilt” vs “killed”
Also, the Picts of ancient Britain are primarily known by what the Romans wrote about them. They said that Pictish warriors painted their faces. Iirc Wallace’s makeup in the movie Braveheart is inspired by this. The ethnic origin of the Picts is unknown - some say they were Celts closely related to the Irish, Gaelic Scots, and Welsh, some say they may not have been Celtic at all. Most likely they were assimilated over time into the Gaelic, Brythonic, and/or Anglo-Saxon peoples.
Wodaabe is a great example, River Hippie. I love those guys. If you look closely, you can see some Wodaabe on the cover of Abraxas by Santana, one of the greatest albums of all time with one of the greatest album covers of all time too. The picture is *Annunciation *by Mati Klarwein. If you can tear your eyes away from the voluptuous nude ladies, you can notice the Wodaabe guys off to the side, next to the artist’s self-portrait.
Wodaabe women are really good-looking too, but they get by without much makeup. Instead, they go in for facial tattoos and copious ornaments. So perhaps the Straight Wodaabe Message Board is asking “Why do men wear makeup, and women tattoos?”
I’m going to guess you’ve never seen a toupee that looked natural.
Agree on Abraxis, great album, great cover art! Still listen to it once in a while.
Damn it, but aren’t they a handsome people? If my daughter brought home a Wodaabe (male or female, she’s been rather undiscriminating) I think even my father-in-law would be okay with the relationship.