Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian Klan, has taken the world by storm. If she changes her hair color, we hear about it. If she gets a $320,000 car from her boyfriend, we hear about it. If she gets lip injections...I think you get the point. Kylie Jenner has become a household name almost overnight. Her pouty pucker that launched her to stardom has now caused people all over the globe to strive for her full lip look.
The first fad inspired by Kylie was the #KylieJennerLipChallenge. For this challenge, fans of Kylie would stick their lips into a shot glass and suck (sounds reasonable enough, right?). After you finished this step, your lips would increase in size, and voila! Kylie Jenner lips achieved...at least for some people. Others got more of a fish lips result, possible bee sting pout. Either way people continued partaking in the challenge. the #KylieJennerLipChallenge only had temporary results, so people looked for a more permanent solution. No, not lip injections like Kylie chose to do. People, some inspired by Kylie’s full lips, and some saying due to the new “full pout trend”, are tattooing their lips so they can appear full and plump.
This trend of tattooing lips has been around for a while, but has recently gained popularity. Media headlines credit this to Kylie Jenner’s lips. Tattooing lips is no easy process. The process for the pout can cost up to $1000 and allegedly can take 8 to 10 hours. The lips are outlined around the border and then the actual lips are filled in with a pigment two shades lighter or darker than the person’s actual lip color.
While Kylie Jenner and her full lips have become quite popular in the past year, some African-Americans are claiming trends like the #KylieJennerLipChallenge and other techniques used to plump lips shines a light on how America can applaud full lips within one race or culture, and not another.
In his article, The Big Problem With Our Fascination With Kylie Jenner's Lips That Nobody Is Talking About, Derrick Clifton wrote, “the fanfare surrounding Jenner plays into a white fascination with plumped lips, a feature commonly associated with stereotyping and fetishizing black bodies.”
USA Today writer, Alexandra Samuels, also wrote an article addressing Kylie Jenner’s lips. “So my issue with the #KylieJennerChallenge extends far beyond one girl and her lips. My problem is that history has mocked the natural features of black people, namely women, for a long time,” Samuels wrote. “ My biggest in concern is that Kylie is hailed for her big lips and for making them trendy whereas black people have been historically ridiculed for them.”
Amandla Stenberg, who portrayed Rue in the Hunger Games, wrote a statement on twitter that she claims illustrates the views of black women and white women in American culture. “This, at least, seems to be the mentality surrounding black femininity and beauty in a society built upon eurocentric beauty standards,” Amandla wrote. “"While white women are praised for altering their bodies, plumping their lips, and tanning their skin, black women are shamed although the same features exist on them naturally.”
Regardless of where you stand, having full lips is nothing new. Full lips have been around forever and may possibly continue to be around forever. There’s nothing wrong with wanting full lips, but obsessing over them, or idolizing someone who has full lips is never a good thing.
