Not all Asians are monolids. Not all monolids are exactly the same.
So, when Rasilla discovered that renown cosmetic company Maybelline had lumped all of us Asians into a single type of eye shape on their promotional website she was rightfully outraged.
Check out Rasilla’s blog for details.
UPDATE: It looks like Maybelline finally corrected this issue. Ras has the details. Thank you, ladies, for your responses!
Asian eyes as defined by Maybelline. Photo courtesy of rasilla.wordpress.com
I’ve said this before and Rasilla exasperatedly says it again. Many Asians of certain ethnicities have monolids. However, there are MANY Asians who have naturally creased eyelids. We don’t all have to get surgery to acquire supratarsal folds and we’re not all born with epicanthal folds. I was born without a supratarsal fold and I have an epicanthal fold but I don’t represent an entire fucking continent comprising Middle Easterners, Far East Asians, Southeast Asians, Indians, etc… Even within one country that is known for having a population of monolids, such as Japan or South Korea, there are many of those who have naturally creased eyelids.
“Why does this matter?” one might ask. Do you know how it feels to realize that many people never really see us past their own stereotypical assumptions? It’s actually quite dehumanizing.
Any generalization made about Asians is extremely problematic because this generalization is being made about a varied spectrum of ethnic attributes that comprise the world’s biggest continent and take up the majority of the world’s population. What pains me more is how Asian people themselves acquiesce to broad and ignorant stereotypes. Lumping us together based on what continent we come from might as well equate to lumping us together based on what hemisphere we’re from.
I have to give Rasilla a lot of credit for bringing this up in public. Furthermore, when Maybelline refused to heed her objections, she sought other means to spread the word. Calling someone out on racial discrimination or prejudice is not as easy as people might think. It’s not some card we wave around to get special treatment and, believe you me, we could try waving it around but it wouldn’t make life any easier. When we do muster the courage to point out racist behavior, we get shot down and humiliated for it. We are told we are being too sensitive and that we need to lighten up, it’s just a picture or it’s just a joke, etc. Sometimes, we are told this by members of our own ethnic communities. It is SO much easier, yet more damaging, to just sit quietly and let others assume it is acceptable. In our warped society, it is actually more taboo to call someone racist than to actually be racist.
So, when she is trying to bring up this issue with you guys, how about you actually listen, Maybelline?
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Wow, that’s outrageous! When I freelance, I work on clients w/ various eye/lid shapes who are of diverse ethnicities/backgrounds. Like you said, there are individuals of Asian descent who have natural lids/creases (like me) and those who don’t; however, there are also people of other ethnicities whose eyes “have a distinctive lift at the outer corner and very little lid.” Do they really have to pull out the race card? If Canadian Maybelline’s focus is really on the eyes, why not just go by eye shapes (duh!)?
This reminds me of when I was a teenager, and I was on the CoverGirl website. They had “tips and tricks” for asian eyes, and it mentioned that asian eyes were heavily hooded and to use black/dark eyeliner and draw a very thick line so that it is visible even when the eye is open. At that time, I wasn’t offended because, I was like “it works!!!! woooo no more “hey chink!!”
Of course, it got me “hey goth” comments, urhhhhhgggg
I’ve been on other make up sites, not specified towards asians, and they all seem to be along the same lines. Being the only monolid within 100 miles, I snap on anyone that has a comment about stereotypical monolids. “oh, you’re pretty, cause you don’t have chinky eyes like people in NoVa”
!!!!!!!!!
but I DO!!!!
;_____________;
I can never decide on whether I should go into a long goldfishesque beat down on how they’re being ignorant, or just sigh and say “yeah, aren’t I lucky?”
Whew long comment, I haven’t even started my paper on formalism that’s due in 2 hours :’( :’( :’( Damn facebook.
That irks me. Like you said, not all asians are monolids, and not all monolids are exactly the same!!! I’m lucky to have what little crease space I do have, but I am never able to follow ANY asian makeup tutorials because my eye shape is distinctly different. Doing the makeup like how they suggest makes me feel weird. I have to do my eyes in my own specific way, that fits me, personally. It’s unfair to lump all asians into one one category and assume we ALL can follow the way they do it. Maybelline def. needs to consider this.
Ugggh this makes me so angry! “Asian eyes”? That covers all eyes from Japanese to, say, Nepalese? That’s just ridiculous.
In fact, that’s just like all the talk about “North European skintone”. I’ve read about it for like thousand times. “North Europeans have pale skin with cool undertones”. Well, I’m Finnish, I’m as North European as a North European can ever get (well, my grand-grand-grand-grand-grandmother or something like that was Spanish, but I don’t think it affects anything), and I have golden undertones. Ugh D:
Oh dang, RT RT RT RT!
This is blasphemy, yo! While I have what MNY called “Asian eyes”, my mom and dad don’t. I just roll Azn like dat, yo!
*throw the hands in da air*
Ok, I just talked nonsense but most people in my country don’t have that kind of eyes. And so are people in Laos and Cambodia, aka Indochina. It’s like concluding white people have alabaster skin.
Let’s see how MNY roll with this.
I stumbled across your website during a night of random clickery on reddit. I read the about section on your website and I was saddened a bit by your self-deprecating description of yourself.
Most women I’ve known spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the way they look. I’ve even dated perfect 10s who find things about their looks to be miserable about. All women obsess over the way they look, and you know what: men care a lot less about the flaws you see in your looks than you do yourself.
You’re a pretty girl. There’s nothing wrong with your eyes.
(Since I arrived here at random I probably won’t check back on your blog, so if you want to yell at me and call me an idiot you can do so via email
)
Wow! I wasn’t even aware of this. Wtf is wrong with MAYBELLINE? You would think that if they were trying to sell their products to us, they should ACTUALLY try to get to know us as the consumers. Trying to “lump” all Asians together is a detrimental act on their part. Don’t they realize that they are competing with so many other cosmetic companies?? I could easily declare myself NOT to ever buy anything from them again, and it wouldn’t even hurt me one bit. There’s hundreds other companies that might actually not be as ignorant! Shame on you, Maybelline…honestly…shame! Thanks for bringing this up to my attention. I think I will look at them in a different light. Granted, I’m not saying that everybody who works at Maybelline may be that ignorant, but still….it’s still a reflection on them as the greater whole of a corporation.
hey~
I think its because of your post, that I didn’t react too ‘crazy’ to a YT comment that was made. (Well I did block his sorry ass, but still…)
Anyway I had completely forgotten that Maybelline was owned by Loreal US, so tried there using a fake address (serioulsy they ask for way to many things, in order to leave a comment :T why do you need all that information? Are you gonna hire an assassin to take me out??!?!?)
lol
It’s sad, but almost EVERY cosmetic company non Asian of course… Lump us into one single eyelid shape!
what about stoopid hooded lids like me?! LOL! What to do?!
I don’t know what to say about this that hasn’t already been said by you or the other comments above…I’m on serious angry girl rage right now, having just posted a terrible return process on my blog (it’s been a day and I still get worked up when I think about it). Why do companies seriously continue to lump all Asians into one group??? It’s really sad to see something like this still happening.
Even in this day in age where “diversity” is celebrated, I still think that there is still this idea that Asians are one homogenous group of people. My sister is Japanese, but her eyes are very large and most people think she is Hispanic. So people like her don’t fit the stereotypical image of Asians obviously. All ethinicities have many variations in facial features, why can’t we for god sakes! I seriously believe that people are so careful not to stereotype every other race of people except for Asians! There is still a long way to go for us
Well, I’m one of those non-Asian looking Asians, and people think I’m from way north of India, and I resent the sterotyping (I am actually half Japanese, and my mother has huge deep-set eyes and high cheekbones, and looks nothing like the stereotype).
Bobbi Brown’s makeup books have excellent sections on Asian makeup techniques, and her Asian models are not stereotypical.
I avoid Maybelline products anyway….
An e-mail I sent to Some Guy:
Thanks for dropping in at GoldfishCake.com. I’m sure you left this comment with the best of intentions but I felt I needed you to understand something before you just leave after having made your mark here.
Much of my blog focuses on accepting the monolid and not letting societal and family pressures of Asian communities influence our decision to undergo the knife. I don’t know where in my “About” section you gathered that I think there is “something wrong with my eyes”. Describing my eyelids as being fatty and monolids is factual, not a self-deprecating opinion. In comparison to most other types of eyelids, I have more fatty tissue and it bulges out more than others. I have a description of my skin type and eyelid type there because not all makeup techniques and products work for everyone, so it helps others to know for whom a technique or product does work or does not.
Furthermore, if you had taken the time to read any of the blog entries, including the one where you left that comment, you’d know that I am quite happy with having monolids and I’d much rather see others be more understanding about them. In fact, in that very blog entry, there are links to related posts where I declare war against anyone who believes a person is ugly just because they have monolids. Read a few more entries back and you’d also see that I believe men are delusional in thinking that we wear makeup solely to impress them.
Not that I expect you to take interest in any part of my blog at all, since it is targeted towards an Asian female audience. However, I find it rather brazen of you to come in here, take a brief and misunderstanding glance at the smallest portion of my blog, and then try to reassure me that I am validated because “men think I am beautiful”. Again, I appreciate that you meant well by this, but PLEASE, for the love of all good things, do not assume that this is the highest form of validation that we women seek. There are so many pressures that we women face to look pretty enough to be accepted by society and, for Asians, even our own families. In the guise of a shallow and vain makeup-related blog, I seek to address all these issues from a very cautious standpoint. Pleasing men is not as high on our list of priorities as you think.
Sorry if this e-mail was a bit harsh. It will also be posted on the comments page under yours, so if you wish to discuss this further here on e-mail or on the blog, you are more than welcome to do so. I appreciate that you took the time to leave a comment, anyway, and I also do appreciate your good intentions.
Hey, ladies! Thanks for responding to me and Rasilla in regards to this Maybelline issue. Let’s hope she finally gets through to those people and have them edit that awful website. If this is something that truly outrages you, please retweet or share this blog or Rasilla’s! Or give the issue a mention on your blogs. If you read some of the comments on her youtube, you know it’s not easy for her to press the issue with such harsh criticism thrown thoughtlessly at her. Please show support!
You would think Maybelline would know more about Asian face, because, as a cosmetics company, it should be their business to study and be experts on faces! Duh!
Reur email to ‘Some Guy’ — I don’t get these people. Really, that’s our validation? How much more conceited can they get, to think (in this day and age) that women beautify themselves for men, and that if they find a woman attractive, it is her validation? How utterly… neanderthal. I’m with you all the way on your response.
I posted something along this line, too.
Omg, that is so racist! HAHA idiots!