Cultural appropriation: The Eye Pull Trend
- Sophia Wang
- Jul 25, 2020
- 3 min read
One of the most iconic trends in Western makeup in the past few decades is the cat-eye look. It refers to the make-up technique of lifting one’s eye shape with dramatic and sharply up-tilted eyeliners along with smoky eyeshadows.
In order to achieve this look on Instagram, many people are pulling their eyes up and backwards. Under the hashtag #cateyelook, you find countless pictures of makeup artists, models, and influencers posing like this.
The feature picture of Instagram’s #cateyelook is a model pulling her eyes back. Credit: Instagram
Many people find this the eye pull trend to be very problematic, and some call it cultural appropriation. A recent debate in the Facebook group subtle Asian makeup/beauty squad prompted a discussion about whether the phenomenon is racist.
Facebook post debating whether the eye pull trend is racist Credit: Facebook
Like the woman behind the debate, I sympathize with the discomfort when people show pictures or videos of them pulling their eyes up and back on social media. As an Asian person, I am reminded of when people pulled their eyes back on purpose, to mock me.
But some disagree, thinking it is okay to do it as they are only accentuating the cat-eye look. And suggesting that the gesture just happened to be similar with the mockery behaviour.
People often conflate outcome to mean intention, and few would argue that the models behind the cat-eye look / eye pull trend, are intentionally trying to mock Asians.
But if you look at it deeper, the trend is highly insensitive. There are undertones of racial – and cultural appropriation.
Credit: Getty Images
Why does the eye pull trend hurt?
It is undeniable that some Asians are mocked in ways similar to the eye pull trend. Pulling your eyes back to mock someone is racist, and many people have suffered from this behaviour in non-Asian settings.
I remember the countless times I had to prepare myself from going for a walk to the playground near me because I might bump into those kids who pulled their eyes back and said: “Hi Miss China, do you know Jakie Chan?”
That did not just happen to me, talking to almost all my East Asians friends who grew up in a Western country. They shared the common experience.
When I shared these eye pull trend pictures to my Korean American friend, Monica. She told me that she relates this gesture to racist slurs such as “chink” and she views these two equally discriminatory and hurtful.
“In middle school we obviously had policies punishing students for their racist behaviour, but very few people still pulled their eyes back. When they got caught, they just said they were lifting their eyes up so they can refresh themselves and look less tired. That was a ridiculous excuse back then so as the cat-eye look excuse now.”
Although people might do it whilie taking pictures to get the cat-eye look, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Many in the above discussion reported feeling nauseous at these images, associating them with bullying and racism.
Why is the eye pull trend a cultural appropriation?
Furthermore, the eye pull trend is related to cultural appropriation for many reasons. East Asians are regularly the victims of racism. One of the distinctive physical features about that population is what’s called monolids. Because of that, they are mocked for having long and slanted eyes, and there have been countless racist cartoons or other images, over-exaggerating these features.
Monolids refers to the the skin fold of the upper eyelid covering the inner angle of the eye making it look narrower. Credit: Getty Images.
But now, the make-up industry is trying to get non-Asians to get an over-exaggerated version of this feature, with the eye pull trend. For make-up brands, it is a way of selling eyeshadows or eyeliners.
Some go further and seeking more dramastic results by getting facelifts, to the benefit of cosmetic surgeons. Another huge industry. According to a study done by the organisation Plastic Surgeon Match, 131,106 procedures of facelifts were made in America in 2016.
It’s ridiculous that what has always been a racist, over-exaggerated caricature of East Asians, is now trending with the cat-eye look. What they previously mocked us for, is now culturally appropriated as pretty.
But Asian women are left out, and made uncomfortable by it.
But if you finished the article and still don’t think it’s that big of a deal here is one more reason for you to avoid the eye pull trend, remember: pulling your eyes back gives you wrinkles.
Just don’t do it.
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