For the past few days, the TikTok homepage has been invaded by videos with the hashtag #mascaratrend, but we’re not talking about beauty: here’s what it means.
Just enough time to talk about a trending on Tiktokthat it has already expired, fell by the wayside, collapsed within the platform database. It’s difficult to keep up and debate, but there is one trend that is surpassing and surpassing the lifespan of butterflies in recent days. We’re talking about them trendy mascaraanother way that the GenZ has hid behind the apparent idea that the hashtagged video talks about a light topic like beauty to actually tell the stories toxic relationshipsthe abuse suffered and their relationship (lighthearted, strict, exhausting or ironic) with the sex.
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Video by Bianca Bonafede
Trendy mascara on TikTok
are about 52 million the views dedicated to the particular hashtag #mask trend. If you search for similar videos, you will find people talking about their experiences with mascara in different languages. “My mascara is very beautiful, only sometimes it disappears and i don’t know if i lost it. It still gives me a nice feeling”; “I had found the best mascara ever but now it has changed and my lashes are falling out. I don’t know if I can trust any other mascara‘ and again (how ridiculous): ‘I like mascaras, but they’re ugly’. Bizarre stories that apparently have nothing to do with the make-up product: In fact, that’s what we’re talking about of sex and relationships.
Of sex and relationships
Mascara becomes the personification of a man (Basically) that hurt us when the brush became the representation of the phallus. We specify this because under this trend there are unfortunately many (too many) videos of girls and especially women but also men who have used the mascara metaphor to talk about it sexual abuse suffered. “I had mascara from the age of 3 to 12. My biological father gave it to me. Now I’m struggling to use it again but it gets better with time” and “I gave this girl mascara once and she liked it so much she decided to try it while I was sleeping, without asking‘ are just some of the tragic examples.
It is the darkest side of the trend, which for that reason should not be denied: it is actually used as a form of denunciation and deliverance, processes that must always be lawful; but there is also talk of relationships poisonousfrom the phantoms ghosting and orbits on (“The mascara I liked so much damaged my lashes and now I’m afraid to try another one because I can’t accept my lashes being ruined again’), but also of lasting and happy relationships with special “mascaras”. (“I’ve had my mascara since I was 14; I’m 24 now. This is the only mascara I’ve ever tried but I know there is nothing else in the world like it. I like it so much I made a miniature version of it”.
The “weird” part of the trend
Of course, every trend has its own ironic and perceptive counterpart; On the other hand, no one downplays bolder and lighter than Gen Z. If we click #,mask trendIn fact, we also find videos of girls who explicitly talk about sex, albeit through the object of mascara; both the satisfying and the one to talk about with self-mockery. We leave a sample video here.
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The union between the term algorithm (algorithm) and speak (to speak), creates “algo language“, a term used to describe the language used on social networks to talk about sensitive issues and avoid the risk of being forbiddendue to the stringent social censorship that, especially on TikTok, claims many victims. The #mask trend is a prime example of this new online language. In English, the acronym is used a lot SA to indicate sexual assault, i.e. sexual violence; “unlive” is used to say “dead” and the vibrator turns into a “spicy eggplant”, “spicy eggplant”. But we also have our means in Italian: sex turns into, in every post or video s3soamong other things
She has a degree in Arts, Entertainment and Cultural Events from the IULM University of Milan and is pursuing a Masters in Storytelling Arts. Passionate about storytelling in all its forms, from narrative to…