#thotpond

i saw a post online discussing the color of eyes, brown eyes specifically. They talked about the darker color being seen as less attractive and this is due to racism and lighter beauty standards. it got me thinking, and I’d also like to input (add on, not diminish) that shape can also play a role in how we associate certain eyes with certain characteristics.

for example, monolids. when i was growing up, as an east asian girl in america, most of the makeup and beauty sections of the internet and also in person reading (such as magazines and beauty books) featured models with pale skin and double eyelids.

(when i was a little girl, i thought double eyelids were a sign of age, not race, and i thought i would ‘grow into my eyes’ as i got older) lol but im also adopted by white parents so. thats another story.

but in saying this, i just want to point out how deep this really goes. from growing up with disdain and contempt over my asian features, to thinking ( maybe hoping?) that i will grow out of monolids, to trying to replicate eye shadow techniques meant for double eyelids and being disgusted when it looked weird on my monolid eyes.

but nowadays, online i even see articles expressing positivity and beauty with monolids, i see tutorials on how to draw them properly, youtube channels featuring models with monolids. i see more east asians as models on posters instead of east asians as animalistic characters with eyes the size of a needle.

i was watching a new tv show, released last year, called its okay to not be okay. im not going to write a review on it, as im sure theres already numerous ones out there. i just want to talk about a very specific aspect of the show.

that aspect is the humanity and emotions displayed by the patients in the mental hospital. i know its not the first piece of media to put respect on psychiatric inpatients. but the characters are so vividly expressive in this show, it brought back memories and made me think.

the contrast is stunning when you look at pieces of work that depict psych hospitals as dismal and grotesque vs. the media (like this tv show) that shows the hospitals, and thus the patients, with multi dimensional characteristics. for example, in the show, most of the characters appear to be lucid, eat together at meals, and even joke around with each other and hospital staff. seeing the myriad of patients joyful, tearful, delusional, silly, fighting, reminded me of my realistic experiences in psychiatric hospitals.