Makeup giant goes to the dark side in brand-new marketing campaign

 'May be regretting whatever marketing 'genius' came up with this'

Two "men in drag" have been featured by top makeup company Ulta Beauty in promoting its lifestyle products.

And they've been in the bull's-eye for some online criticism.

"Ulta may be regretting whatever marketing 'genius' came up with this idea. In a recent post on Twitter, Ulta highlighted a podcast with two grown men in makeup and wigs chatting about what it’s like to be a 'girl.' The makeup giant’s target audience is obviously women. It’s probably a safe bet that over 90% of Ulta’s customers are women. The choice to put men in drag in the marketing material for a company geared toward women is backfiring big time," explained a commentary at PJMedia.

"#Womanface and #BoycottUlta are trending on Twitter, and the ratio of angry women telling Ulta they’re taking their business elsewhere is off the charts. It got so bad that Ulta turned off commenting on the thread."

A Lifestyle story posted on MSN explained Ulta put on its podcast called "The beauty of…" a transgender influencer.

"Its most recent episode released on Thursday features transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and gender-fluid host David Lopez, who both discuss their journeys with gender, beauty, and life," the report said.

They discussed, according to the report, "femininity and beauty on Twitter, Instagram, and other social-media platforms."

Ulta said, in a statement, "We believe beauty is for everyone. And while we recognize some conversations we host will challenge perspectives and opinions, we believe constructive dialogue is one important way to move beauty forward."

But at PJMedia, the report explained, "The headline 'Trans Girls Can Do It All!' really irked many women who see grown men pretending to be 'girls' as a weird sexual fetish that has nothing to do with being female and everything to do with men appropriating femaleness for their own titillation. This is straight-up autogynephilia, and it’s obvious and not amusing to women in any way."

It continued, "Teen girls have been punished for asking males to leave their locker room while they are changing. Women are being told we are not allowed to listen to the instincts that tell us when danger is near or we are 'transphobic.' And now makeup companies want us to roll over and buy their products as they put these money-grubbing frauds in the spotlight and demand we agree with them that the emperor is wearing fantastic threads when he is really naked."

Some of the criticisms were captured on video:

"Last I checked, makeup, ponytails and nylons do not make someone a woman, and adult men definitely cannot become little girls. #boycottulta #WomanFace #TransWomenAreMen,” tweeted “FemaleAthlete.”

“One of the things that bothers me the most is that these men want to claim womanhood and oppression but they have no problem marginalizing women who have a problem with it. No one gets nastier to women than a man claiming to be [a] woman who gets called out. #boycottulta #womanface,” said CaitieCat.

Makeup giant goes to the dark side in brand-new marketing campaign (wnd.com)