Deaf Beauty Creators Call out Fenty Beauty by Rhianna
A few weeks ago, one Deaf woman named Wendy, a Beauty Creator, made a vlog on Instagram about Fenty Beauty- a makeup product company owned by Rhianna.
(picture )
Fenty Beauty spotlighted a hearing woman using ASL.
(video)
That video has one million views. Wendy said that there are Deaf Beauty Creators. They do make vlogs related to Fenty Beauty’s products. She said why Fenty Beauty did not choose one of the Deaf Beauty Creators. We will show short clips of her vlog.
My name is Wendy and I am a Deaf makeup artist. I cannot believe that I have to get up to make this video during my day off. My day off means a break from social media. First of all, I am not judging her or want to get revenge or something like that. That girl in the video- I do applaud you for using ASL. I know you want to become an interpreter. I applaud you. Keep what you are doing. Keep supporting us Deaf community, I thank you. I appreciate it. My main problem here is that I have seen it with my own eyes- watching your video and I do not understand. You know on social media there are many creators and they are all hearing. There are just so many hearing creators out there. And for this, you (Fenty Beauty) chose a hearing woman over us? I’m baffled. We take our money out of our pocket to buy your products. We promote your products. Yet, we, Deaf Beauty Creators, have not been spotlighted. You chose a hearing woman that used our language over us?
Renca: We contacted Wendy to explain more.
Wendy: Sure. So what happened was that night I had had enough of social media, you know? But someone tagged me in a post and wanted me to look at it. I really didn’t care to look at it but my friend insisted that I look at it. I knew in my gut that something wasn’t right but I looked at the post anyway. It was a video from a hearing girl who wants to become an interpreter. She’s not certified yet but she was using sign language. So I watched her video but do you know how many times I had to replay the video? I had to replay it almost 10 times because her signs were not clear! I played it over and over and over. You know Rihanna, the celebrity who owns Fenty Beauty? She’s a black woman just like me which is awesome. But then you have this woman from the video. It just didn’t work for me. So I decided to - well really, I’ve always hidden myself. I’m scared because I can’t use my voice and I know that hearing people will judge me so much. They would judge me and put me down. There’s no real equality. There’s also limited access and everything else. But at that moment I decided that I needed to make this vlog because enough is enough. I’m a Deaf makeup artist and no, I’m not going to take this. I had to make a video about how I feel that it’s not fair because Deaf makeup artists are rare. We invest our time and we spend our money to use these products and you pick her over us? I just didn’t get it.
Wendy: There are many people out there like that, not just her. So many people are taking advantage. What I don’t understand and what annoys me is that Deaf people have opened the doors for hearing people to be invited into our world while the hearing people block us out of theirs. Or Deaf people are simply pushed aside and ignored while hearing people use sign language instead. And their signing isn’t correct. There’s just so many things wrong. And what's more, I got an email from people in other countries who have it even worse and are even more limited in access than America. Some people have said that they just hide. They can’t express themselves. You can but I can’t. Why all the limitations? That’s why I felt like I had to post a video. It’s time! It needs to stop!
Renca: After your vlog, did that hearing woman respond?
Wendy: Nope, nothing.
Renca: Did Fenty Beauty respond?
Wendy: Nothing! Nope.
Wendy: That’s why I said it was time for us to open ourselves up and stop hiding. Stop just accepting everything and allowing others to take over. It needs to stop!
I feel like we need to do something and not just sit back and let it happen. We need action! Do some petitioning, vlogging to get more support, tag each other in posts. I mean social media is amazing and we need to take advantage of that. Use that platform and alert others. We need to educate people more. There’s so many things that we need to speak up about.
Wendy: …beauty creator but I don’t want it to be just only Deaf makeup artists together but have it open to everyone. We’re all Deaf creators so I want everyone to support each other and work together. We need to fight for our rights. We need to have equal access because we have limited access now. And now with masks it’s even worse! So I want us to collaborate and work as a team. And I hope that this will help other countries because they have limited access as well. We need to work together so we can all feel like more of a team and hide less. We need to stop hiding and put ourselves out there. Have confidence and show off our self esteem. We need to have motivation. That’s why I hope we can do that moving forward.
Renca: Wendy mentioned that there is a petition that just started that supports the Deaf Beauty Creators and their work.
(pictures)
Wendy also added that there are so many Deaf Beauty Creators. Here’s a short video.
(video)
Thank you Wendy for your time. We have included two links in this transcript. First one is the petition, you can sign and support the Deaf Beauty Creators and their work. The second one is the full video to Wendy’s vlog on Instagram. Both are in this transcript.
-
Wendy’s video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPe0bcAJXgk/