PopSugar Honors Traditional African Face Painting But Tells White Readers Not To Wear It

Pop Sugar

This week, entertainment site PopSugar published a slideshow titled, “9 Tribal Makeup Tutorials That Honor the Beauty of African Culture.” The post showed several makeup tutorials inspired by traditional African face paint. Its author, Brinton Parker, noted to PopSugar readers: “Remember, it’s important to respect others’ backgrounds without erring on the side of cultural appropriation — if your heritage is not African, it’s possible to learn from and appreciate these culturally significant makeup looks without donning them yourself.” Although Parker warned readers not to appropriate African culture and face painting, it’s interesting to see PopSugar show appreciation towards the tradition now when the majority of their content revolves around euro-centric beauty standards.
PopSugar, I see through your thinly-veiled PR move. On the heels of Allure, Elle and countless other outlets receiving backlash for deeming afros and dashikis in style, PopSugar decided to get in on the “Black people are cool” trend much in the way a closeted racist brags about having Black friends. It’s like hey, give us credit for being faux- diverse instead of full-blown ignorant like our competitors! No thanks. If Black culture didn’t become so mainstream within the past few years, I’m sure PopSugar would never “honor”African face painting.
And yes, the argument here very strongly lends itself to a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” rebuttal, but the one word that shuts all of that down is: authenticity. PopSugar, are you covering tribal makeup because you really care about honoring the beauty of Black women or because it’s the safest way you could jump on the cultural appropriation trend, but not really? Only time and their Beauty and Fashion pages will tell.