Student Submission – Current Event SPR2025

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT26qLccD

This week’s current event comes from TikTok, specifically from the beauty community. In the video, Melinda Berry, a former Too Hot to Handle contestant turned beauty influencer, is trying on blushes gifted to her by a beauty brand. She begins with one shade of blush that complements her skin tone, already on her face, as she showcases a lighter shade that would not suit her skin tone. Melinda tried the lighter product, but it didn’t work as expected. She continues to make the point of the video that one suits her and the other doesn’t. She remarks, “That one is for fair skin tones, and both suit different skin tones, and that’s okay.” If this video were alone, it wouldn’t be that problematic, and the message would be beneficial, but I find a problem with the pick-me energy radiating off it. However, I don’t know if it was entirely intentional. Recently, there has been a rise in the content of Dark-skin beauty creators speaking up for expanding shade ranges in makeup and accurate depictions of those shades. As expected, when a Darkskin black woman stands up for themselves, their message is misinterpreted. It is received with negative and positive responses, such as tone policing in the comments or vocal support. Their message is clear: makeup should be inclusive, and when a shade is depicted as a particular shade, it should be the same in practice and as shown in the ads. So when Melinda comes out using a shade that wasn’t meant for her skin tone, only to reiterate that it’s not intended for her skin tone and “that’s okay,” it feels like an attempt to be different from other dark-skin makeup creators. Those creators never said that every shade is for them; they understand that shades are better suited for some tones over others, but when the shade is depicted to be suited for ALL skin tones, and it’s not, that’s where the problem lies. She was making a video shading other creators using a false narrative. This issue is also apparent within the comments, for example, “Yessss.. Appreciated different shades for DIFFERENT SKIN TONES and knowing that that’s okay???? Period. Coz THAT’S OKAYYYY”, or “THANK YOU OMG. UNDERSTANDABLE QUEEN.” and she responds with “i gotchu sis.” Instead of helping to change the misunderstanding of the overall message, she uses it to prop herself against other black creators.