By Sukhmani Dev
“And of course, we’re starting with the darkest shade first. “Transition shades”? Terrifying. Probably because it’s got the word trans in it. But hey, who needs soft gradients when you’re too busy fighting culture wars and Making America Great Again, one heavily contoured eyelid at a time?”[1]
This viral statement from a TikTok mocking the similarity in looks of American Republican women in politics largely captures the phenomenon now dubbed ‘Conservative makeup’, or the ‘Mar-a-Lago face’ by the internet community. Conservative makeup – with its off-shade foundations, exaggerated and often smudged mascara, long blonde hair, with a modest yet sexy outfit – has become symbolic of a broader ideological performance. But beyond the makeup brushes and eyeliners lies a deeper question: what does this generally uniform aesthetic tell us about female identity in right-wing spaces?
At first, it is easy to see the use of ‘hyper-feminine’ styles among conservative women, which over-emphasise female features in a way that looks almost superficial [2]. But this reflects a shared performance of gender tied down to cultural and political values. This ‘conservative makeup’ functions as a personal expression of this ideology, and as a visual performance that plays up the traditional, hetero-normative femininity that is often aligned with right-wing politics. It projects an archetype of the ideal conservative woman: attractive, modest, loyal—and most importantly, non-threatening to the deeply patriarchal status quo.
Valerie Walkerdine’s (1989) work on gender performance helps show how such repetition of idealised femininity produces a hegemonic standard that ultimately works for the true benefactors of this structure – men [3]. The femininity portrayed is carefully curated. In emphasising domesticity, controlled sexuality, and beauty, this femininity in a way subjugates itself to the idealised female fantasy of the conservative man – a docile woman who submits and doesn’t rebel. In this sense, make-up acts as a tool through which women perform and try to prove their loyalty to the patriarchal ideal inherent in conservatism – participating in a structure designed to block one’s rise is seemingly better than being outside any structure at all.
Additionally, Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony offers a lens to understand how these norms become entrenched [4]. The logic of conservative makeup is not imposed through coercion, but emerges as a natural product – as common sense – within right-wing cultural spaces. Through repeated depictions of women such as Ivanka Trump, Tomi Lahren, and Karoline Leavitt, this aesthetic becomes aspirational, and expected. The performance of hyper-femininity – voluminous blonde hair, form-fitting yet modest clothing – signals alignment with a broader cultural ‘script’. That is, while appearing independent and self-determined, these women ironically reproduce norms that maintain a gender hierarchy.
The satirical TikTok trend that poked fun at the general homogeneity in conservative makeup has its roots in this very observation. It reflects a recognition of a shared aesthetic that is fundamentally political. The similarities in make-up indicate ideological conformity, also disguised as ‘beauty culture’. The now infamous ‘Mar-a-Lago Face’, popularised through fillers and Botox, showcases this. The visual similarities in the women who attended Trump’s 2025 inauguration also showed that these women did not just support conservative values, but were actively embodying it as active participants.
This also raises the question: for whom is this beauty performed? Clearly not for women themselves, who are at a fundamental disadvantage by design from this structure. The conservative aesthetic appeals primarily to the older, white male constituents who benefit from the essence of the structure being reinforced, particularly through these women themselves [5]. It grants their structure a sense of legitimacy. Hence, ironically, conservative women often see their performances of femininity as a tool to gain some sense of power in the structure.
Additionally, as Freeman (2017) notes, white women often navigate the tension between racial privilege on the one hand, and gender oppression on the other, by aligning with whiteness and patriarchy – which are fundamental to the American conservative system [5]. This can be seen as a form of seeking political shelter, where a better place in the hierarchy is secured through loyalty to one group.
Ultimately, the conservative makeup trend reveals the deep entanglement of gender and political identity. This aesthetic serves as a visual reinforcement of traditional roles by operationalising beauty as a tool in repetitive gender performance. In this case, it becomes clear that makeup is not just cosmetic – it may determine belonging and place in a broader structure.
Word count: 725
Bibliography:
[1] Jennifer Sandlin, 2025. “‘Conservative girl’ makeup tutorials mock the brutal aesthetics of MAGA”, boingboing.nethttps://boingboing.net/2025/04/03/conservative-girl-makeup-tutorials-mock-the-brutal-aesthetics-of-maga.html
[2] Wong, A. 2025. “How Foundation and Eyeliner Became a Political Battleground.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/style/what-is-republican-makeup-tiktok-trend-33371e2f
[3] Walkerdine, Valerie. “Femininity as Performance.” Oxford Review of Education 15, no. 3 (1989): 267–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1050418.
[4] Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks. Edited and translated by Joseph A. Buttigieg and Antonio Callari. 3 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
[5] Freeman, H. 2017. “Why Do All the Women on Fox News Look and Dress Alike? Republicans Prefer Blondes.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/feb/20/women-fox-news-dress-alike-republicans-blondes-pundits-ann-coulter-kellyanne-conway-rightwingers
Identity Hunters 