WHERE ARE THE BOYS?!

What a sentiment, is it not.

This TikTok creator named Lonnie Hammons made a TikTok saying, “Where Are The Boys?” in regards to Eadem, which is a skincare and beauty brand. He does have a serious on his page where he does it do countless other brands but he is mainly doing it do brands that known to be women owned. Which is kind of weird, because makeup has been something that women have been widely know to use across the world and are biggest consumers of. Yes, men do use makeup as well, but women will always be the biggest consumers of makeup.

In this case, it has become an uproar on TikTok the past few days, even I shared some opinions about it, since it felt very tone deaf on his part. Given that Eadem is a brand founded by a Black woman and an Asian woman, who are apart of marginalized communities who are not usually catered to when it comes to terms of skincare and beauty in Western society. So, for Eadem to be a brand that caters to the skin types of Asian and Black women or people, is the inclusivity that we have been fighting for, for years with many major skincare and beauty brands. Anyone can take 2 minutes to look at Eadem’s Instagram, TikTok or their direct website and can see how they showcase their inclusivity.

The overall concept of his saying “Where Are The Boys?” makes it seem like Eadem is not an inclusive brand, when it reality they are extremely inclusive considering they are not a big beauty and skincare brand. He also is diminishing the men who actually use and are marketed by Eadem, hence they are Black, Brown and Asian men who resonate with the brand maybe more than he can. It still does not diminish the fact that men are still apart of the audience that use Eadem. I have many Black, Brown, and Asian on my social media timelines raving about how much they love the Eadem lip balm, maybe they do not showcase on his side of social media, but they definition exist.

Something else, that is thought provoking is that men have always been in skincare and beauty spaces for years from youtube all the way too pre YouTube eras, so his statement is just baseless, in my opinion. Moreover, why are Black and Asian women not allowed to have a space where they are catered to without men or other racial communities having to interject themselves. Especially, given the political climate we are facing where we are going backwards, DEI does not exist, and you have to fight 100x harder to be seen and heard in spaces that are formed around white patriarchy. If Lonnie truly wanted to make his statement stick he should be going after the beauty and skincare brands that are owned by men and how they represent men from all different races and sexes through their brands. Brands like Patrick Ta or Makeup up Mario, should be under the limelight not just women owned brands that are not on the same level as they are in terms of societal ranking.

Women should be allowed to have an outlet for themselves, where men should not feel the need of interjection, if they are having FOMO (fear of missing out).