September 11, 2019

"... a cute amount of sun damage..."

"In 2019, faking freckles is nothing new. It’s a great way to distract from pimples or make it look like you’ve been getting a cute amount of sun damage without actually putting your skin in harm’s way" (New York Magazine).

As a person of discontinuous color, I have special entitlement to opine on the "freckleface" trend. These wielders of eyebrow liner did not go through a childhood of teasing and know nothing of the burdens of passing through this cruel world with a natural freckled face. They show up belatedly and take only the part of it that's deemed "cute" — just the right amount of freckles and in the chosen places and only while it's trendy...



Am I supposed to say thanks for upgrading something I would never have chosen for myself?

40 comments:

rehajm said...

Wait. Freckles are sun damage?

Howard said...

What is it with you girls. The wife hates her freckles, but it's actually the cherry on top of her beauty

gilbar said...

These wielders of hot irons did not go through a childhood of teasing and know nothing of the burdens of passing through this cruel world with a natural curl. They show up belatedly and take only the part of it that's deemed "cute" — just the right amount of curls and in the chosen places and only while it's trendy...

made a corollary for you

Marek said...

Now I don't know which side of the appropriation issue Ann is on as she seems to detest those picking and choosing the aspects of freckled life.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The new blackface.

gilbar said...

These wielders of henna did not go through a childhood of teasing and know nothing of the burdens of passing through this cruel world with a natural carrot top. They show up belatedly and take only the part of it that's deemed "cute" — just the right amount of red and in the chosen places and only while it's trendy...

oh! here's another corollary that might hit home?

Ralph L said...

I blame Meghan Markle's freckles for this stupid fashion.

Since I was a teenager I've had visible blood vessels on my nose, like a drunk's nose. I had a dozen moles cut off my face and neck. Last year, I had a basal cell carcinoma sliced off the edge of my upper lip. He cut from my nose down to the back of my lip. Multiple pre-cancerous patches are frozen off every visit to the dermatologist.

Freckles are for sissies.

alanc709 said...

Another example of how deranged our culture has become. Tattoos and piercing are bad enough, but people now fake skin damage because they think it's cute? Why not open sores?

Fernandinande said...

Connect the dots, people!

iowan2 said...

Yes to the curly hair corollary.My mom had naturally curly hair. So much so when someone would ask "who do you belong to?" (a common question in rural America) and I named my parents, they would often remark, "oh, your mother has such pretty hair."
Mom longed for straight hair show could change the style of, on a whim. Grass is always greener.

tim maguire said...

There is a time when freckles aren't cute?

Well, I'll be. You learn something new every day.

AustinRoth said...

Ginger culture appropriation!

Roger Sweeny said...

Most redheads have freckles.

Redheads are gorgeous.

Have pity on the fools who teased you.

Bill Peschel said...

Jerry Seinfeld had a line along the lines of "isn't it amazing that newspapers have the right amount of space for news every day?"

You gotta fill the newshole every day with something. This drives in part what kind of news we see.

Result: fake news, nonsense, celebrity worship, and a destruction of moral boundaries.

(BTW: This was a funny post.)

tim in vermont said...

I remember once being drunk and judging a kissing contest between two girls, one of them had freckles and, tell you what, she apologized for them, but I still remember how delightful I found them. I think she apologized after I said how cute they were, IDK, it’s all a little hazy... Still, I wasn’t lying. People are their own worst critics.

Anonymous said...

These wielders of eyebrow liner did not go through a childhood of teasing and know nothing of the burdens of passing through this cruel world with a natural freckled face.

Really? To the extent I thought about 'em, I didn't like my freckles, but most other people (especially guys) thought they were cute. Maybe people just kept their opinions to themselves, but the only overt negative reactions I ever got came from the ladies at cosmetic counters in Asia, who practically leapt over the counter to sell me some spackling to hide this horrible deformity. (No thanks, ladies.) And, interestingly, the only American friend who ever made a negative reference (not catty) was Chinese. Couldn't manage to get het up about violating an East Asian beauty standard.

Original Mike said...

"These wielders of eyebrow liner did not go through a childhood of teasing and know nothing of the burdens of passing through this cruel world with a natural freckled face."

I had a face full of freckles when I was kid, but I don't remember any teasing.

Original Mike said...

I do remember a few "carrot tops" lobed my way.

MacMacConnell said...

I love redheads and freckles. I always look forward to Saturday Gingermageddon every week.
http://www.frombearcreek.com/saturday-gingermageddon-255/

CJinPA said...

I wonder if that's like my wife, who was always bigger than other girls and therefore never seen as the "ideal" female body type, but is full-figured. She sees skinny women paying for boobs that she earned the hard way.
She never mentions it, but I notice.

Sydney said...

Why not open sores?

Don't give them any ideas.

JAORE said...

I spent so many years with this awful thing called a penis. The embarrassing swelling at inopportune times (like 7th grade through High School graduation). The yearning and burning on those days I call strike out days (like 7th grade through High School graduation).

And now I see all these others that get a dick by surgical means.

Pity me.

[And, CJinPA, I hope your wife doesn't fret too much. Many of us guys who grew up in the pre-boob job era know well the difference. Those skinny girls with bolt-on "DD's: look ridiculous in the flesh.]

Bruce Hayden said...

I can see why a lot of people don’t find real carrot tops with white freckled skin that attractive. We each have some in our extended families. Things, at least for me, change dramatically when the hair and skin get just a little darker. My favorite hair color is a darker red, though I also love a nice auburn, like that that ran through my mother’s family. The problem there is that those of us so blessed seemed to go gray earlier.

My partner had enough freckles that her four siblings used to tease her that she had come from the milkman. Her paternity was obvious though, as she had the female version of her father’s very French face. He though had French coloring. She did not, with blue eyes, freckles, and strawberry blonde hair. Up until about the time I met her 20 years ago, she used henna to redden her hair a bit, and that had a pretty striking result. In our early pictures together, she was a knockout. But in her 60s, with now light brown hair, and almost no freckles any more, not quite as much so. I think that a lot of it was that she used to be in the sun a lot, and that brought out the Golden highlights in her hair. And part of that is because she has always been susceptible to skin issues, such as melanoma. Her mother didn’t help by sending her flock out to play every day in the Las Vegas sun. A half century later she is still paying for it - everything that pops up on her head or arms that doesn’t go away on its own is obsessed over as possible melanoma. Much less of a problem with her siblings who appear to have inherited more of her father’s much darker French skin.

But better she obsess over it than let melanoma get loose. Arguably, it killed my uncle. He had the white skin, but spent probably too much time in the bright CO, then AZ, sun. For one thing, he was an avid skier. Not a good combination. His orange haired freckled daughter got her first skin cancer at about 20. The difference though is that she has been hyper careful ever since. Always wearing big hats and sunscreen when she goes out, etc. (My partner hating both hats and sunscreen, so rarely wears either, though I keep buying her sun hats).

Known Unknown said...

So sun damage is cute? Hmm. You would think with only 12 years left to live people would be more careful with their language.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I wonder if that's like my wife, who was always bigger than other girls and therefore never seen as the "ideal" female body type, but is full-figured. She sees skinny women paying for boobs that she earned the hard way.”

Reminds me of my partner telling of her daughter and her daughter’s best friend going through puberty. One had big tits and no ass, the other had no tits, but a perfect ass (for a white female, which, while shapely, is still far smaller than that Blacks seem to prefer). Both wanted what the other had. Eventually, they grew to appreciate their individual merits, but there were apparently a couple years where the girls struggled with it.

We got into a discussion last week about junior high and some high school girls carrying their books in front of their chests in school, while the guys tended to carry them under their arms to the side. I suggested that it was because the girls were protecting their now more sensitive breasts. She disagreed. She claimed that it was the smaller breasted girls who did that, embarrassed that they didn’t have bigger tits. Spoken, of course, by a woman never faced that problem (but instead faces the opposite problem in her 60s now). I couldn’t have told you back then which girls were well endowed, and with weren’t, esp with the rampant cheating going on. I was that naive. No doubt though the girls knew.

gilbar said...

MacMacConnell said... I always look forward to Saturday Gingermageddon every week.

Thanx Mac! I was So Stupid, that i didn't even Know i was missing Gingermageddon; won't be missing now!

Ambrose said...

As opposed to an "acute amount of sun damage"

Bob Smith said...

Oooo, green eyes, auburn hair, light spray of freckles, too bad she was so self centered.

gilbar said...

Bruce confused me saying...
which girls were well endowed, and with weren’t, esp with the rampant cheating going on
Oh! you mean, like with tissue paper?

Also, you Keep confusing me, by referring to 'your partner' which i take to mean you homosexual lover. Please humor me, by using the correct technical term: your Old Lady?

Scott M said...

As a person of discontinuous color

What the frak is this fresh hell? Is this sarcasm or is it an earnest description from the wokest journalist ever?

As a person that's been covered in freckles (yes...we do still your souls) since about four years old, am I the victim of cultural appropriation here? Where are my intersections? How dare they?

#gingerlivesmatter

CJinPA said...

JAORE said...

[And, CJinPA, I hope your wife doesn't fret too much. Many of us guys who grew up in the pre-boob job era know well the difference. Those skinny girls with bolt-on "DD's: look ridiculous in the flesh.]

Ha. Her own sister has the bolt-ons. My wife really never mentioned it. I take umbrage on her behalf.

Ralph L said...

When I refreshed, these two phrases caught my eye:

I spent so many years with this awful thing called a penis.

Ha. Her own sister has the bolt-ons.

n.n said...

So, not a color judgment, but rather a speckled judgment. That should mitigate the risk of censure. In principle, the degree of immunity is directly proportional to coverage; but, in practice, political congruence will effect the selection.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The ladies in my family (myself, my five daughters) are naturally blond and redheaded, and naturally freckled, and, if I may say, so, they (my daughters anyway) are adorable. I look down in amused pity at those who would fake those characteristics.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

My dad used to call freckles 'angel kisses.' Isn't that sweet?

Howard said...

The smallest unit of length in general construction is a red cunt hair. Some misinformed Canadians think it's the blonde ones.

Le Stain du Poop said...

Don't look a gift-freckle down the mouth, Professor....

Ken B said...

Howard
I assume you mean a freckleless count.

Ken B said...

Fricking ottokorrekt

Freckless cunt

pacwest said...

"The smallest unit of length in general construction is a red cunt hair. Some misinformed Canadians think it's the blonde ones."

Blonde ones are for general carpentry. The red ones are for master craftsmen.