If you are the least bit of a makeup enthusiast like I am (ex: shopping at Sephora, watching makeup tutorials, snagging the latest holy grail products, and/or looking up swatches for your skin tone), then you’ve probably heard about the “big” Kat Von D and Jeffree Star controversy that happened over the summer. Like one of my favorite YouTuber lovelyti2002 says when she dishes out the latest gossip, “the tea was piping hot” because of how the two MUAs’ (makeup artists) problems were aired out on a public platform like YouTube and social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter. The reaction from both camps generated a lot of attention and some of the criticisms were fueled by calling out the hypocrisy over “racist tendencies” in their past. Essentially, renowned tattoo artist and MUA Kat Von D publicly denounced her friendship with Jeffree Star, someone she had “brought in” to the makeup world, in a video on her YouTube channel.
Von D’s 14 minute video “Jeffree Star: It's so much easier to do the right thing” explained her hesitation to be affiliated with the controversial figure any longer due to his racist outbursts. (Mind you, there were clips of old footage snipped together that had “re-entered” the public sphere yet again and people who hadn’t seen this side of Star were still considerably shocked by his remarks.) Even though Star’s tirade were from his former Myspace days, Von D had finally got wind of it and pretty soon it became “popular” to publicly denounce Star’s makeup line in general for being racist to PoC in particular.
Other popular MUAs like Stephanie Nicole also publicly denounced Star’s behavior in a makeup review video by giving legitimate claims as to why she would no longer be supporting him or his makeup products anymore. Found in Nicole’s description box on YouTube, she has the following links posted below her video Jeffree Star Beauty Killer Palette, Ice Cold Skin Frost & Brand Review:
RockyRoadKill 1st video - http://bit.ly/24J0clE
Jeffree’s 1st comment to Rocky – http://bit.ly/28tSCjH
Jeffree’s apology - http://bit.ly/1WK2BNL
RockyRoadKill Apology - http://bit.ly/1PTyUaY
Battery Acid Video with Sharolaid - http://bit.ly/1UJpX2q
Full video with "Two neg***s and one tra**y hoe" https://youtu.be/VTK7ZgHQPEI
N word over multiple videos & "poor Mexican" "ape" etchttps://twitter.com/deaadsy/status/75...
Punching a girl in the face, banned from Pride Toronto - http://bit.ly/1PtWOUU &http://bit.ly/1XpAjYT
Snapchat rant against Makeup by Shayla - http://bit.ly/1YiQh6s
Blog that had the video posted where Jeffree was using the N word & using slurs for Mexicans - http://bit.ly/24J06KY
Description box from deleted video using the N word & slurs for Mexicans -http://bit.ly/1PTA7ip
Swatting at a fan at Warped Tour – http://bit.ly/1UJqotK
Jeffree pulls girls hair - http://bit.ly/1VT0RRp
More racist stuff discussed on a board, this isn’t new- http://bit.ly/28tS11s
Interview (he was only 17 at the time) where he said he'd go to Africa & rub glitter on starving kids bellies @ 5:15 http://bit.ly/29bDx0a
All recent mean tweets that have been deleted you can find on PostGhosthttp://bit.ly/29lSM6r
A bunch of horrible tweets
Issues with Porcelain Black - http://bit.ly/25UMr65 & http://bit.ly/1UJqXnb &http://bit.ly/28tSpgn
Unlike Von D’s hesitation to publicly address Star’s racist behavior in particular, Nicole has a “play-by-play” of all the controversial remarks that Star made in his past with videos as evidence. (Note how Von D suggests that her decision to stop talking to Star is more of a “business-related” issue between a mutual friend, and not so much about addressing his racist remarks. We’ll go back to this “hypocrisy” in a bit.) In the description of Von D’s video to Star: “To me, the subject matter of this video is not up for debate, as there is such a difference between wrong and right. Follow me, unfollow me, block me, love me, hate me -- up to you. I just want to live in a world where people are nicer to each other and stick up for whats right. X #payyourbills” she briefly mentions the business aspect as the primary hashtag on Star failing to pay his bills to a mutual artist friend’s design for the Jeffree Star makeup line. Star, of course, posted up a response video but not after tweeting about being “sorry-not sorry” and that people are always saying stupid things when they're younger… astonishingly expecting forgiveness even though his aggressive behavior against Black women still hasn’t changed after all these years (re: when he threatened to beat up another popular MUA @MakeupShayla a month before Kat Von D publicly denounced him).
What’s also interesting about this is the forum: why did Von D feel the need to “air out” their problems online instead of giving Star the courtesy to end their friendship in person? I think for one, Von D is in the public eye… she is a brand, an image; known for her tattoos and also her drawing abilities that are fully demonstrated in the quality of her work. If we want to “dig” up her past as well though since it’s “public information” now when you operate in this realm of the digital age, she’s also the “other woman” that was caught cheating with Sandra Bullock’s ex-husband Jesse James. Neither one gets out of this controversy “scot-free” because those reports of Star saying racist remarks are “old” news but does that give Von D the “right” to publicly air out their problems when she could have afforded to give Star a phone call or email? Then again, is it morally reprehensible that I brought up her past to dish out as well? I don’t know, there doesn’t seem to be a clear guideline for this other than “try not to post anything that might come back to bite you in the middle of re-branding yourself” or just don’t be racist and say ignorant, offensive things.
Granted, I don’t care for either one in terms of “being” on someone’s team. I’m on neither side after recognizing this notion of staying loyal to anyone that is considered a “problematic fave” has strongly influenced people to “blindly” follow their favorite celebrity through hell and back. And yet, I’m still intrigued by the way social media has shaped the way we “deal” with internal conflicts, interpersonal relationships, or even business-related matters. How much is “too much information” or TMI if you directly contribute to “exposing” someone and cost them their “brand” online? Does this controversy provoke even more intense reactions from both camps because of how they are going to be perceived online now? Or perhaps it has to do with how each party’s “portrayal” of one another goes against the perceived “social media” contract and crosses some ethical boundary of friendship.
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More and more “start-up” companies are relying on branding themselves and maintaining a good reputation nowadays to meet the consumer’s demands or expectations of how their business model ought to operate. There’s a lot of makeup brands online nowadays that “start” their company from interacting with their customers on Twitter and contacting them directly through a DM and basing the trends of likes or retweets to create more products or discontinue it. What’s also interesting to me is this notion of “social” surveillance and perceived transparency in social media. For example, one of the more popular vegan, cruelty-free makeup brands on Twitter posted this somewhat recently in the beginning of Fall quarter to “push back” their new releases till 2017 due to personal reasons re: school and managing priorities:
This is, quite frankly, unheard of in the “new” age of digital consumerism and not necessarily in a bad way. If anything, I think it’s great that the brand was honest with their customers and a lot of it reminded me of how I’ve had to take time off work myself due to personal reasons. Likewise, I crafted a professional letter to my boss and told him I wasn’t going to be able to work over the summer. And if he wanted to fire me on the basis of my absence or if that posed as an inconvenience to his business, then I would quit. Simple as that. In Bahi’s case, makeup is just makeup and their ambitions might have ran wild after seeing the uproar in their “overnight” success on Twitter. Bahi has had customers raving about the makeup brand and compared to other makeup brands, they have not yet failed to lack in quality.
Which brings me back to how businesses manage their brands online nowadays. There are many companies from our readings that mention how customer representatives contact people if they express any frustration with a product or service, but a lot of them were also “corporations” who could afford to appease their customers with a “free” gift or provide an alternative. Bahi, on the other hand, like many other “small” indie brands cannot afford this luxury if they had actually screwed up big time and shelled out a defective product or pissed off a customer. Even though it is admirable that Bahi was transparent with their clientele, money is still involved and I wonder if Bahi’s target demographics (young college students or teenagers) had anything to do with it. Would an audience of older women be understanding to Bahi’s delay? Or worse, would “bigger” brands publicly decry their behavior as a starting business for not being able to handle the pressure?
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In the makeup world, word goes around fast. Any brand that is associated with not having enough colors for their foundation to match a wide variety of skin tones may be automatically deemed racist (Hey, Kat Von D). Even trying to “promote diversity” can provide some sort of backlash depending on who your audience is. For example, Von D posted a photo on Instagram of her team and talked about how diverse it was… even though they were all “white-passing” and/or of European and Latin descent. Despite promoting ethnic diversity, the real complaint here was that Kat Von D’s makeup line did not promote enough makeup products for those of a deeper shade and not having enough choices for darker skin tones became a larger part of the issue: “Would be cool to see more ethnic diversity represented in the artistry team!” one woman pointed out.
It also didn’t help that Von D personally responded to any backlash by saying “...as for true diversity, I have put together an artistry team that is diverse in each artist’s approach to makeup. This group’s experience, talent and hard work in the beauty world speaks for itself and covers the entire spectrum of style and technique. I’m sorry, but I don’t judge or hire people based off of their skin tone. I don’t care if your black white or neon green (PRETENDING NOT TO SEE COLOR IS KIND OF INHERENTLY RACIST… BUT GO ON…) I select my crew by what’s on the inside...Ps. Based on the comments left on this thread, no one has voiced feeling ‘left out’ or ‘not being represented.’ So I find it a bit strange that you (someone with a lighter tone) is trying to voice an issue on behalf of those you say may have a problem, when the reality is, that there is no problem. Don’t take this the wrong way, but the only reason I’m responding to you, is that I believe your sort of commenting is counterproductive to actual real issues out in the world today...as an extremely fair skin Latina myself, it’s hard not to take offense to those kinds of comments — and hope you can understand where I’m coming from. Hopefully in the future you won’t look at a photo of an eclectic mix of girls and bring up non issues again.”
And that’s the frustrating part about having a large enough social media presence to the point of ignoring or even dismissing people’s genuine concerns about not having enough options for individuals who have darker skin tones. This is a “real problem” in the beauty industry where Black high-fashion designer runway models have to do their own makeup and bring their own foundation because their MUA didn’t carry any “dark” foundation or lipstick colors that were better suited for their skin tone. (YOU HAD ONE JOB! AS A “PROFESSIONAL” MUA AND YOU DON’T HAVE THE MAKEUP NECESSARY TO PUT MAKEUP ON YOUR MODEL?!?)
Kat Von D should not be exempt from hearing these criticisms about her makeup line out, especially when WoC who are not white-passing and Black women have specifically said this time and time again… Direct quotes from the Yahoo article: “She has 50 shades of white and only 5 dark skin tones,” one commenter noted. “She just needs a little help from an expert on black skin tones and then she’ll be good. It’s probably embarrassing for her to ask for that,” another said. “I’m fed up of no shades for the darkest black women...I want this to change,” yet another echoed. “The issue is the EXTREME range of nearly identical white shades and the tiny range of dark shades offered. People are upset because of the discrepancy… Unfortunately we don’t seem to see eye to eye but that is ok. You taught me a little about makeup and pigment. I hope you can at least agree that making darker shades is not an impossible feat. And it’s something more companies need to look into,” yet another explained.
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MUAs who go to Beautycon have to act a certain way; any disappointing encounter from a fan can fuel outrage amongst supporters and being blacklisted from future events. Even the monetization in makeup tutorials have a lot to do with how an audience views the MUA (if you take on too many sponsored products, then you are considered a sell-out) as a corrupt crook who no longer has the same kind of enthusiasm that initially drew fans in to subscribe.
With that being said, however, do MUAs or brands still have an obligation to take a stance on social justice issues? Is there a realm in which makeup or beauty can coexist with a particular view on politics? After the Orlando nightclub shooting, many MUAs took it upon themselves to align their sentiments with the LGBTQ community and those who passed away before starting their makeup tutorial. Sometimes the tone was somber, even when the YouTuber patted glitter eyeshadow onto the inner corners of his/her eye. NikkieTutorials, for example, felt the need to address what happened and also dropped a link where her fanbase of over 5 million subscribers could donate money to those affected by the tragedy in her PRIDE Tribute Rainbow Eyes Makeup Tutorial. Even after the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, many MUAs expressed their sentiments before a makeup tutorial while continuing to roll the camera in the midst of grieving.
How is it that something so admittedly superficial can gauge the political weight of having to “speak on” issues that affect the MUA’s audience, despite talking about expensive makeup products or how to blend your contour better? It’s what shocks me to the core every time because I think there’s a realm in almost any field that has to do with some form of politics… (un)fortunately, there’s no way to “back out” of an issue. I don’t think you can just “leave” politics off the dinner table anymore when everything online is almost connected to each other in some sense… we’re all connected together and that’s why I continue to stress how it is our duty to maintain some kind of social responsibility to each other.
We’re sort of all in this together, whether we like it or not. I think it’s important to gather a safe space on the Internet for self-exploration, but also to give a sense of community to those who do need it and seek it without fear of dismissal or outrage.
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