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Hey let’s talk about why the ace attorney series constantly links male femininity in general and the specifically use of cosmetics with villainy and weakness.
(spoiler it’s homophobia)
I would also argue that AA also has a casual but noticeable link between male cosmetics / haute aesthetics and concepts of manipulation / disguise, specifically in the villainous characters. The ways that kristoph, bratworth, and manfred have a very manicured aesthetic isn’t mocked directly in the same way it is with caricatures like Armstrong, but it does serve as a visual signifier for both an inflated sense of self importance as well as (in kristoph and Manfred’s case) hidden villainy. It always felt to me that with these characters, the specific care of their appearance serves as a shorthand and metaphor for a manufactured sense of identity. It isn’t mocked outright, but it is conflated with “fakeness” and has a pretty negative connotation throughout the franchise. There’s more examples I’m sure but those are the ones my brain jumped to first
You’re absolutely right, and this goes for Florent L’Belle as well. Though his use of makeup and his fakeness IS outright mocked directly.
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