Model Hailey Bieber, the wife of pop music star Justin Bieber, is drawing a fierce backlash and accusations of “cultural appropriation” after she went public with a new personal approach to lip gloss.
“Ready for all the fall things including brownie glazed lips,” Bieber wrote in a caption to a short TikTok video, which has since racked up over three million views, of her applying makeup that included dark lip liner and clear lip gloss.
Many were quick to allege she appropriated the makeup routine without acknowledgment by using a style from the late ’80s and ’90s originating among black and Latina women.
Jillian Hernandez, a professor at University of Florida’s Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, was among them.
She told Good Morning America her research has focused on the “hyper-sexualization of working-class black and Latina girls’ aesthetics” and Bieber’s makeup did nothing to allay that criticism.
Watch below as Hailey Bieber draws cultural appropriation backlash over “brownie glazed lips” makeup:
“African American and Latina women get denigrated for the ways that they present their body, the way they wear their hair,” Hernandez said. “People use words like ghetto or ratchet.”
Sandra E. Garcia, a New York Times style reporter, said Bieber’s post displayed a very public double standard.
“[Black women and Latinas] are being looked at as lesser than any other woman just because of the way they decide to do their own makeup,” Garcia told Good Morning America. “But then another woman, a white woman, does the same thing, and her lip gloss is sold out and she’s now the face of the trend.”
Hernandez described the act as “stylistic or aesthetic gentrification,” which she said can be traced as far as Spanish Cubist artist Pablo Picasso, who took inspiration from traditional African art.
She stated the simple act of applying makeup in such a way was a perpetuation of “colonialism” and “cultural appropriation.”
Hailey Bieber attends the Saint Laurent Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 27, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
“The reason he innovated modern art was because he was looking at African masks,” Hernandez said. “So much Western innovation stems from colonialism. And that’s where we get this kind of cultural appropriation.”
Hailey Bieber has reportedly not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.