Danielle Kim || Scholars ePortfolio
Media, Self and Society
Mid-Semester Research Project
Midway through the Spring 2021 semester, we completed a research project on a topic of our choice relating to media, self, and society. Here is my paper on beauty trends that are associated with racial physical features that analyzes the question: "How do physical features become popular and stylish through the media?"
In the summer of 2020, the “fox eye” gained a lot of traction as a popular trend on social media. High profile celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid are associated with this angular aesthetic, and influencer Emma Chamberlain was one of many to participate in this fad. It uses makeup to create elongated eyes and straight, angled eyebrows to produce a “sultry” effect; additional means to emphasize this look include wearing a high and tight ponytail, taping the skin near the eyes backwards, and most notably, the “migraine pose” (Lee). The pose involves physically pulling the temples back with one’s fingers to create a more lengthened eye shape. This drew a large amount of criticism towards the fox eye trend, primarily because of its resemblance of the quintessential mockery of Eastern Asians involving a similar motion.
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While its peak in the mass attention was somewhat short lived, the rapid growth of this kind of trend through the media, the development of how certain characteristics are portrayed in the media, and its visible impact on self-presentation and self-perception is what media, self, and society is all about. The fox eye today has ties to old, historical trends and is a prominent example of the power that famous and influential people in the media can have on modern beauty standards.
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The fox eye trend parallels many other beauty standards that are comparable to historically offensive phenomenon. For example, the minstrel show, which featured white performers in blackface portraying offensive stereotypes of Black people, was once an extremely popular form of entertainment in the United States. The typical blackface getup included painting skin darker, exaggerating lip size, and wearing wigs that mocked Black hair types and styles. Today, having a deep tan and plump lips are an integral part of western beauty standards, and traditionally Black hairstyles are often donned by non-Black people for fashion.
Emma Chamberlain posted this image with the "fox eye" pose. It was removed briefly after due to backlash.
Luise Rainer and Paul Muni as O-Lan and Wang in The Good Earth (1937).
A somewhat similar path can be traced with the fox eye. Yellowface was once a common practice in Hollywood (but can also be found in a major film as recently as 2012 in Cloud Atlas), oftentimes as a loophole around laws forbidding the portrayal of interracial romance onscreen. It generally involved taping the eyes and using prosthetics and makeup to create thinner and longer “Asian” eyes on white actors. Yellowface or not, Asian characters in film were often portrayed through a select few lenses. For instance, there was the “lotus blossom” or “geisha girl” trope that depicted a passive and docile wife devoted to serving the man, or the diabolical “dragon lady,” a sexy and fierce villain (Gee). Some of these roles were ultimately intertwined with the western perception of Asian-ness. Many other negative portrayals directly aligned with international relations at the time of the films (ex. Second Sino-Japanese War, attack on Pearl Harbor, communist takeover in China) (Gee). The association of the fox eye with “sensuality” reflects the ideas created with the dragon lady. While the vast majority of people who participate in the fox eye craze are not necessarily trying to portray an Asian caricature, these relationships show how modern concepts can have roots coming from long ago.
With this historical context, features reminiscent of old-fashioned yellowface is seen as a slap in the face to many. Asian characters were typically wrought with negative stereotypes. Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese silent film actor, was typecast as either a villain or sexually dominant lover, and often had trouble finding more unique roles (Timeline). Anna May Wong, a Chinese American actress, was offered the role of Lotus in the 1937 film The Good Earth (despite being an anticipated choice for the lead), but she refused because it meant she would be the only Chinese American cast member playing the only evil character in the story (Lim 62). Additionally, yellowface was used to discourage successful interracial relationships or to replace Asian actors with more beloved white actors. In The Good Earth, Luise Rainer, a white actress, was given the lead role of O-Lan that Wong was expected by many to receive; Rainer went on to earn an Academy Award for best actress for her performance (Lim 62). Through this lens, yellowface is symbolic of the success of white people in place of and at the expense of Asians and Asian Americans. Back then, manipulating one’s eyes to appear thin and sharp could mean putting on the façade of seductiveness and ingrained the meaning into that image, and now a similar mask under the guise of the fox eye appears once more.
Given the rocky journey of such practices, there is certainly more to the fox eye’s (and many other trends’) popularity than just race, so how do specific looks become so widespread? A large factor of trend setting originates from celebrities and even other influencers of varying degrees of fame. For example, after the announcement of Kylie Jenner’s lip augmentation in 2015, there was an upwards spike in online searches for terms relating to lip enhancement (Tijerina et al. 1671). Of course, it is no surprise that personalities like Jenner embody current beauty ideals, one must look no further than any kind of fashion, makeup, body types, etc. seen on many celebrities. Applying this same concept, celebrities and social media influencers that adopt a certain look, such as the fox eye, can leave an impression on millions that this is the most desirable appearance to have at that time.
Kylie Jenner c. 2011 and c. 2015
Social media itself is definitely another huge factor in spreading trends and is also another way that celebrities communicate such ideas to their fans and audience. The advent of the internet gave people the ability to stay hyper connected with their personal community and a world of others. It is undoubtedly an amazing stride in technology, but it has created a gigantic and unprecedented channel for people to amplify their conscious and unconscious insecurities. According to a 2016 study by Trudy Hui Hui Chua and Leanne Chang, peer comparison is a largely unavoidable result of the prominence of social media (194). These people are also keeping up with famous people that can act as another source of comparison, and as discussed previously, their decisions regarding their appearance can raise a lot of interest and attention to that style or look. This creates an enormous, intertwined network for each social media user comprised of their own community (their family, friends, and acquaintances) as well as celebrities, influencers, and other stars. With such a large, persuasive circle, there is an underlying expectation to show off the best of one’s life online that feeds into silent desires for validation from others. Participating in the newest trends that high-profile people are setting is just one way that people can express that they are in touch with the times and feel like an accepted part of the ingroup that is society.
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The criticism of the fox eye has certainly stirred up a very convoluted discussion. Like other trends over the years, its primary features appeared in a very different context once upon a time, and the pain associated with that environment is still present today. Despite this, the sheer power that other people, big and small, can have through the media is overwhelming, and the model of what is beautiful spreads like wildfire, even faster than it ever did before the information age we live in now. While nobody is completely immune to these pressures, one can still be wary of them and learn to consider how some phenomena come to be.
Works Cited
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Chua, Trudy Hui Hui, and Leanne Chang. "Follow Me and Like My Beautiful Selfies: Singapore Teenage Girls' Engagement in Self- presentation and Peer Comparison on Social Media." Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 55, 24 Sept. 2015, pp. 190-97, doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.011.
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Gee, Deborah, dir. Slaying the Dragon. 1988.
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Lee, Alicia. "The 'Fox Eye' Beauty Trend Continues to Spread Online. But Critics Insist It's Racist." CNN Style, 11 Aug. 2020, edition.cnn.com/style/article/fox-eye-trend-asian-cultural-appropriation-trnd/index.html.
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Lim, Shirley Jennifer. A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Public Culture, 1930-1960. New York UP, 2005.
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"This Japanese Actor Dominated the Silent Film Era—and Went on to Fight Asian Stereotypes." Timeline, Medium, 10 Oct. 2017, timeline.com/sessue-hayakawa-hollywood-video-3d11481eb944.
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Tijerina, Jonathan, et al. "Celebrity Influence Affecting Public Interest in Plastic Surgery Procedures: Google Trends Analysis." Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, vol. 43, 7 Aug. 2019, pp. 1669-80, doi:10.1007/s00266-019-01466-7.
Images Used
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Emma Chamberlain Fox Eye. Buzzfeed News, Buzzfeed, https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/emma-chamberlain-asian -instagram-blackface-apology
Good Earth. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luise_Rainer_Paul_Muni_The_Good_Earth_1937.jpg
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"Kylie Jenner Reveals the HEARTBREAKING Reason She Got Lip Fillers." YouTube, uploaded by Hollyscoop, 11 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqADU65L3cc.