Male Beauty Blogger Attacked by Conservative Pundits Gets Vocal Display of Support from His Dad
Manny Gutierrez is a beauty blogger, makeup artist, influencer, wildly successful YouTube and Instagram star, and Maybelline’s first male brand ambassador, so of course a certain segment of conservative America thinks he’s the poster boy for everything that’s wrong with America. (Forget racism, inequality, and lack of access to health care, the real problem in America is clearly that a man is wearing mascara.)
Conservative blogger Matt Walsh–the guy who claims ownership of the “if one Skittle in the bowl would kill you, would you eat a handful?” analogy to explain the refugee crisis in a way that equates human lives to pieces of candy, and who says that poor people shouldn’t have access to birth control because if they’re poor then they aren’t mature enough to be having sex in the first place–took photos of Gutierrez from his Instagram page and used them to write a vile blog post entitled, “Dads, We Can’t Expect Our Sons to Become Real Men If We Don’t Teach Them How,” about how men need active fathers in their lives, otherwise they’ll grow up to ignore established gender norms and be their own people with their own likes and interests.
More famous conservative pundit Glenn Beck then picked up Walsh’s post and went off on a tirade of his own about how Americans need to get back to the traditional values of adhering to rigid gender norms for no reason other than that they make people like Glenn Beck and Matt Walsh happy.
Walsh tweeted a photo of Gutierrez, looking spectacular in his makeup, and wrote: “Dads, this is why you need to be there to raise your sons.”
At that point, Gutierrez got involved. He snapped back at Walsh that “being a man isn’t about how ‘tough’ or ‘masculine’ you are …. it’s about taking care of the people you love.” He also followed up that wisdom and maturity with a tiny dash of pettiness, adding that his father works for him and his beauty empire, and that his dad is both present in his lifef and extremely proud of him.
(Twitter/@MannyMUA733)
Not only is Gutierrez’s dad extremely proud and supportive of his son, he was really angry when he saw what Walsh and Beck were saying about him. Gutierrez’s dad doesn’t have his own social media accounts (can we get him some, please? I’d follow that dad blog.) but he prepared a statement to Matt Walsh and asked his son to share it.
“Mr. Walsh, this is Manny Sr.,” he wrote. “Let me first begin by telling you that I’ve always been there for my son and will ALWAYS be there for him. Not only am I proud of what he has accomplished but I’m more proud of the person he has become. I know the words you speak are from lack of knowing anybody from the LGBT community. If you did, you would soon realise they are some of the most real and kindhearted individuals that walk this planet of ours. Going forward, I would choose your actions and words wisely. Just like you would do anything for your family, I would do [anything] for mine. Good day Sir.”
Way to go, dad!
(Twitter/@MannyMUA733)
Gutierrez told Teen Vogue that when he first started working as a makeup artist and baby Instagrammer, his parents were a bit hesitant to embrace his new plan, but not because they thought it was “unmanly” for a guy to wear makeup. They loved their son and supported his interests, they were just worried at first because Gutierrez had been planning on going to medical school, and when he said he was going to cancel the med school plan to work at Sephora and take pictures of his face for Instagram, they were a bit like, “Uhh, that’s not a job.”
It sure is a job now, though, and Gutierrez’s parents couldn’t be prouder of their risk-taking, trailblazing, wildly successful son. And Gutierrez has some pretty spectacular parents, too. He says that his biggest beauty inspiration is still his mom, and his dad clearly has his back.
