Having Big Lips Was a Choice for Kylie Jenner—But Not for Me
I was in fifth grade the first time it really sunk in that my full lips were viewed, to some, as undesirable. We were learning about minstrel shows in my performing arts class and the message of the visuals—white faces covered in black tar-like paint with exaggerated cherry red lips—were loud and clear: black features were a mockery; a cartoon form of entertainment. They most certainly weren’t something you wanted to, say, walk around the halls of a southside of Chicago charter school with.
No 11-year-old should ever possess an insecurity like this, but I didn’t like the size of my lips. They were big, full, and the first thing I’d notice when I looked into the mirror. I’d never smile without my teeth because it would show their “real” size. And now that I think about the correlation between minstrel shows and big, bright lips, it’s not all that shocking that to this day there are still certain lip colors I won’t wear, like light pink or red, because they draw too much attention to my mouth.
I ended up going to my dad, from whom I inherited the majority of my facial features, to tell him I was embarrassed by the way I looked. “Baby girl, your lips are beautiful,” he replied. It’s a memory I’ve replayed time and time again when white woman like Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian, and—of course—Kylie Jenner are celebrated for features black women are chastised for.
The issue has been written about by women of color ad nauseam, but now that Jenner, the woman who changed modern beauty standards because of our culture’s obsession with her cosmetically enhanced lips, has announced that she’s gotten rid of her injections, the topic—and frustration—is back in the spotlight.
Fans rushed to the comments to share their thoughts on her “new” look, with responses ranging from how great she looks to whether or not this means fillers are officially dead. And while it’s arguably a good thing that the move may encourage more women to embrace the features they were born with, the comments—as many women of color are pointing out on Twitter—are cause for concern. Jenner might have the choice to make her lips smaller, but women like me don’t. As one user, @doitfordior wrote, “Kylie Jenner removed her lip fillers and y’all are suddenly saying big lips are ‘out.’ Black people have always had big lips. Stop treating people’s features like a trend.”
From black models being discriminated against by casting agents because “having full lips and noses just doesn’t work” to a black woman being accused of copying Kylie Jenner for embracing her full lips, women of color still face hate for what white women are paying up to a $1,000 per syringe of filler for. (And mind you, most of the influencers you see on social media are getting two to three syringes for that “Insta” look.)
For example, during New York Fashion Week in 2016—as the lip filler craze was picking up steam, thanks in large part to Kylie—a photo of Ugandan model Aamito Lagum featured on MAC’s Instagram went viral. Instead of focusing on the lip color in the close-up shot, the comment section was flooded with nasty comments about the size of her lips. A few choice examples (that were quickly deleted by the brand) included: “wtf r these lips” and “Holy sh-t I thought this was Jay Z.”
Just this weekend, even, model Salem Mitchell was criticized by a commenter for appearing on Vogue‘s Instagram—in the photo, she’s wearing braids, with freckles and full beautiful lips. “What’s with these ghetto people Vogue‘s been showing lately? Is not like Vogue at all, lol,” it read. The implication here, of course, is that black women can’t be fashionable unless they’re assimilating into white culture or have Eurocentric features. Mitchell rose above the negativity but delivered a response so many women of color are sick of having to say. “Everything that I look like is considered ‘trendy’ in the media and fashion right now. The freckles, the braids, the big lips, etc. But on a black woman its ghetto and for NO reason and we’re tired of it.”
https://twitter.com/salemmitchell/status/1016094360734056449
At the end of the day, every woman deserves the right to do whatever she wants with her body. But it’s clear that for all the positive strides we’ve made for inclusivity in the beauty industry, we still have a lot more work to do. For starters, let’s stop deeming anyone’s physical features as “trendy”—especially when black women have had them all this time.
The author with her father.
Related Stories:
–8 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Getting Lip Injections
–Kylie Jenner Reveals She Got Rid of Her Lip Filler
–The Biggest Lip Mistake Kylie Jenner Ever Made and What She Learned From It