Hi, I'm Victoria, I'm Greek and Korean. While I didn't know about 'Eurocentric beauty standards' as a 15-year-old, I look back and realize I certainly felt them. Case in point: I used to use eyelid tape and glue (I thought I was so sly and got them from H Mart) to give myself a double eyelid.
But before I get into that, let's take a second to talk about Eurocentric beauty standards, wherein Eurocentric features — such as big blue or green eyes, small and narrow noses, straight hair, and lighter complexions — are seen as the ideal standard of beauty. Naturally, such a standard excludes features of Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Arab folks.
We've all, at the very least, seen the stories of Black students being forced to cut their hair on the spot in school or extracurricular activities (here, here, and here are just three examples). We also know women are told that interviewing with straight hair improves their chances of being hired over curly hair. (Studies actually show that Black women with natural hairstyles are less likely to get interviewed.)
While Eurocentric beauty standards might seem like something limited to the cover of a magazine, they clearly permeate throughout society — from places of work and education to social dynamics and internal worth. They manifest in concepts of colorism and mejorar la raza, in procedures like nose jobs and double eyelid surgery, and in products such as skin bleaching creams and chemical hair relaxers.
Unfortunately, the messaging to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards starts young. Children in elementary school feel the pressure to fit in with their peers or even learn at home how to assimilate from family. It extends beyond personal preference or insecurity to social advantage. So, I want to know: If you're a person of color, how have you conformed to Eurocentric beauty standards? What kind of pressure were you feeling? How did you come to find whatever method or product you used to do so? Do you still do so, and why?
Like most teens of the late '00s/early '10s, I was obsessed with cat eyes and double wings and smokey eyes — you name it. Except, when you have hooded eyes or monolids, you learn real quick that those YouTube tutorials don't work for you. So, when I learned about eyelid tape and glue to force my eyelids into a double lid and let me keep up with all these makeup trends, I was hooked.
Sure, I was pretty nervous people would be able to tell and all, but I didn't care. While I did stop using it during high school, it actually wasn't until after college that I really began to appreciate my natural eyelid and eye shape.
That's just one of my examples, and as I've gotten older and we've reflected on beauty standards more as a society, I've talked to others who also felt alone and struggled to conform to beauty standards — often without even realizing how harmful the standards and the methods for conforming to them were. Alternatively, some people continue to apply these beauty methods out of necessity, so as to fit in at work or school.
Maybe you've tried skin lightening or bleaching creams to "brighten you complexion," aka whitening your skin. Or, perhaps you've resorted to chemically straightening your hair out of frustration. Did you religiously live in colored contacts to hide brown eyes, or regularly dye your hair to look blonder?
