You've got a little gender on your face there

A few nights ago I attended the midnight release of the new World of Warcraft expansion pack: Wrath of the Lich King. Yes, I’m a big dork, and I promise this blog has a point besides that. One of the events going on for the release party was a face painting booth where you could get your face pointed to look like your favorite WOW character. A friend and I decided to go ahead and get our faces painted, and were each taken to director-type chairs where two ladies were equipped with all the face painting gear you could ever need. As I sat down, my friend was already embarking on his transformation giving the woman about to paint his face instructions for a more feminine version of the character he wanted. This sparked a conversation between the woman working on my face and I about gender and face painting.

She described a young girl in her neighborhood that whenever she did parties or events in the area would always ask for a scary dragon or bloody skull on her face, designs one might consider strictly for little boys. She mentioned how the girl was otherwise totally feminine and gender typical, and how she loved that the girl could play out whatever it was that she wanted in that moment. For her as an artist, a big part of face painting involves fantasy, and some might say performance. Gender is one of the many options that can be played with and created in that respect.

Her husband works in construction, a typically macho job she said, but every now and then, will end up going to work with just a tiny speck of glitter on his face, as their home is covered in glitter and paint. The guys at work give him a hard time for it, knowing what it is she does, but he paints faces also, and isn’t bothered by a little, or a lot of glitter.  

The whole event was just another opportunity to see how gender is weaved into (or painted onto) virtually every aspect of our lives, and that as a sexuality studies student, I never really ‘take off’ that particular hat, always taking my perspectives with me. It was actually really great to have this conversation outside of class, and just talk in a casual way about things I usually take rather seriously. Here’s to hoping she’s back in her hometown, painting butterflies on boys, dragons on girls, and not worrying about kids that don’t want either!