Why America banned abortion and hates British makeup
Eyebrow blindness, fillers, and the Overton Window
I.
There is a trend on Tiktok where people post pictures of their eyebrows as they used to do them a number of years ago — either very thin or very thick — saying they had ‘eyebrow blindness,’ i.e. at the time they were unable to see how thin or thick their eyebrows were, but they can see it in retrospect. The term was quickly adapted for other features — ‘money piece blindness’ for large chunks of dyed blonde at the front of the hair, ‘blush blindness’ for heavy blusher application, etc.
II.
There is a concept in political theory called the Overton window. The Overton window is the range of policies that the public will accept. The Overton window expands or shifts over time relative to shifting cultural values and can be different in different locations.
The Overton window is often illustrated by the following example: radical rightwing parties or politicians will make public statements about a hard right policy that they would endorse. The general public thinks this is extreme and intolerable — the policy is outwith the Overton window. Later, when a policy is introduced that is less hard right than this extreme policy, but further right than we are used to, the public is more receptive to it and finds it more palatable than the extreme position that was floated moments ago. The Overton window has shifted towards the right.
A concrete example of this is abortion policy. On one extreme would be the policy that abortion is never allowed, even in lifesaving circumstances. On the other extreme would be the policy that abortion is freely available at any point, and is not regulated by the law at all. In the UK, our Overton window for acceptable abortion policy falls between these two extremes — the majority of the public would find neither of these extremes acceptable if a politician proposed them. And our law reflects that: abortion is fairly readily accessible in the UK, but there are conditions that must be fulfilled and it is regulated by criminal law. The Overton window for abortion policy in the US is different. Some states have enacted abortion bans that feel completely outwith the realm of possibility in the UK. It would have seemed that way in the US as well not so long ago, but the Overton window shifted in the US which allowed these policies to be backed by politicians and these draconian and nonsensical policies to be proposed, debated and introduced.
III.
Some of the cosmetic procedures from 20 years ago that were mocked for how ‘extreme’ they were wouldn’t raise an eyebrow today. It used to be shocking and scandalous to hear about someone getting botox. Now that cosmetic procedures have become far more accessible, affordable and available, not only do people talk about getting botox far more openly and not only is it seen as far more normal and acceptable, but there is even a certain level of pressure for women to get botox as a form of ‘self care’ or ‘looking after yourself as you age.’
Look at Hollywood from previous decades. Everyone had normal teeth, now veneers are incredibly common as soon as people reach a certain level of success in entertainment. Look at the people who were cast to play ‘beautiful’ characters. The beautiful people were beautiful in a way that still felt human. Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich is beautiful, widely considered extremely beautiful, but it’s not unbelievable that she would be that beautiful and be living her character’s life. Now, there is a level of otherworldly beauty that is expected of celebrity women in order for them to be considered beautiful. And the vast majority of women who get jobs on the basis of being beautiful have undergone some form of cosmetic alteration to their appearance, or will do so when their career takes off.
IV.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the Overton window for acceptable eyebrows encompassed very, very thin eyebrows. In the 2010s, it shifted to encompass very, very large eyebrows. No one was ever blind to what they were doing to their eyebrows, it just became acceptable to them. Then, when they stopped doing their eyebrows like that and people around them and in pop culture or online stopped doing theirs like that, their Overton windows shifted and they saw those eyebrows as no longer acceptable. A more appropriate term would be something like ‘eyebrow desensitisation.’ So when people ask, ‘how could I not see what they looked like?’ — of course they could see what they looked like, but they saw them as being within the realm of acceptability at the time. The same goes for chunky money pieces — when people dyed only the front 2cm of their hair, it wasn’t that they couldn’t see that they had chunky strips that didn’t blend with the rest of their hair; they did it deliberately and they thought it looked good at the time because that was the trend; chunky money pieces were inside the Overton window of acceptable hairstyles.
V.
The Overton window of acceptable whatever is different depending on location, culture, subculture, age, class, all kinds of factors. The American Overton window for abortion policy is different to the Scottish one. It takes more filler to shock me than it does my mum because I see it more on people my age and online. Americans make fun of British makeup for being over the top and, even though I don’t do my own makeup like that, I wouldn’t bat an eye at it on the street or on a night out. Because we’re used to seeing girls wear a lot of makeup, that style is within our Overton window of acceptable makeup, but apparently that’s not the case in the US.
The whole discussion around ‘eyebrow blindness’ perfectly illustrates that there is no objective, eternal ‘fashion’ or ‘niceness.’ If you keep up with trends for any length of time, you will look back at yourself in the past and think how did I ever think that was okay? But you did. And you will again. It’s fine!