Poor Image: Cosmetic Horror

I picked the image for Cosmetic Horror myself, originally.

But in light of recent disclaimers applied to Tom And Jerry, it occurs to me that the image I chose (mud mask, curlers, etc), while technically correct in context, might still be construed as an Unfortunate Implications representation of Blackface, which is considered racist. It doesn't look that different from the old school version of Ash Face which was intentionally blackface.

Can we come up with a different page image that conveys the same idea but without the potential racist undertones (whether intended that way or not)?

edited 4th Oct '14 2:23:47 PM by Skylite

I honestly don't have that much of an issue with it, but if someone can find something else that works just as well, I'd be open to switching it out.

The only good pics I can find do not have the 'horror' reaction, its more laughing.

It does seem that a lot of the trope is in the reaction, so finding a pic with reaction would probably be ideal.

Gonna vote Keep Until Better Image Suggested for now, especially since the image already went through Image Picking 2 years ago.

There's the sequence in The Emperors New Groove where Kronk recoils in horror from Yzma's cucumber facial, but it would require attaching two images together, as they don't appear in the same frame when it happens.

Here's a suggestion:

Excellent find!

That looks a bit too "informed" for my liking.

That's not cosmetic, that's "just woke up and look like a hot mess", or at least that's the impression I get off it.

Hair in curlers, a face mask, runny makeup or just very bad bed head is easily the most common form of this trope.

I give that a +1

edited 7th Oct '14 4:43:18 AM by Memers

But that bed hair is awesome.

Then we've got a focus issue, because the whole point of the trope, from all but one sentence of the definition which feels like it was thrown in, relates to actual cosmetic techniques as opposed to the lack of them.

edited 7th Oct '14 6:11:14 AM by Willbyr

@7: The panels overlap each other, so it's hard to realize that they're supposed to be separate panels, not a single panel with two characters looking away from each other.

I agree with the criticisms in 10 and 14. It's the wrong thing, and it looks like one panel anyway.

edited 7th Oct '14 3:03:26 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Good reaction, but it's not nearly clear enough that those are two separate panels.

Does it actually matter if it looks like one panel? It's kinda obvious that he's reacting to her sloppy makeup job.

The panel division makes all the difference. If there is only one panel, then he's looking away from her, not toward her, and thus cannot possibly be reacting to her makeup.

Even if his tail crossing the panel border is painted out◊, it still looks like only one panel because that's about where the edge of the doorway would be. Also, she looks like she slept in her makeup and woke up looking like that, not "behind the scenes" of the application process. I don't like it.

That also is this though.

Anyway if someone could make the black line between panels more noticeable I think it would be a lot clearer.

edited 7th Oct '14 6:26:31 PM by Memers

Not really. The article description doesn't talk about it. It does mention a variation where a character is seen without makeup instead, so I guess it's arguable, but borderline examples seldom make good page images. Something totally straight is usually best.

Uhh that is not 'without makeup' it looks smeared everywhere, hair is a disaster, bags under the eyes etc.

This covers pretty much all horrific reactions to basically being 'not presentable', not counting costumes, I have seen reactions like that to people who look terrible from just lack of sleep.

Yeah the article, not the image, talks about characters without makeup. I am not sure where the "this covers pretty much all..." bit came from but as far as I can tell it was not from the trope description. It seems a lot more specific than that.

edited 7th Oct '14 7:55:54 PM by rodneyAnonymous

I did up a montage of the relevant scene in The Emperor's New Groove.

Me likey.