I watched Donnie Darko this weekend for the first time... My current speculation on the Lost island is that it's in a parallel universe. IJS

"But what's wrong with people playing across Asian races when that's okay across European races?"

Yeah. I was watching a '30s Fu Manchu serial (don't all hit me at once), and a supposedly-Chinese character showed up and I said, "Wait, isn't that guy Japanese?" and my husband said "Don't knock it; he's the first actual Asian in the cast!" Which was true. Everybody else was European in really, really bad eyemakeup.

During WWII Life did this horrible article on "How to tell the Japs from the Chinese".

Chinese wear rational calm of tolerant realists. Japs, like General Tojo, show humorless intensity of ruthless mystics.

I watched Donnie Darko this weekend for the first time... My current speculation on the Lost island is that it's in a parallel universe. IJS

Which connects back to Lilo & Stitch through Daveigh Chase.

It really is all connected.

Work Spirited Away in somehow for the hat trick.

The monster is No-Face?

[eta: Which would make Locke Chihiro, I suppose.]

I think 'delenda est' started on TWoP, before it was TWoP. And it was about Tess, which makes this on topic!

Everybody else was European in really, really bad eyemakeup.

If I could just pretend to be white by using really, really bad eyemakeup, my life might be very different today.

Further, we did a unit on racial makeup in our theater makeup & masks class, and I was a little bemused by it. Also offended that the base closest to my skin tone was the one intended for white people making themselves up as Japanese. Heh.

Although, it occurs to me that this is a part of why I don't wear makeup, too. Instead of being taught how to supplement and focus my natural beauty, I was taught how to use street makeup to minimize my Japanese appearance. How to apply eyeliner to make my eyes look less Asian, how to de-emphasize the fullness of my lips. No wonder I eventually found it off-putting and discarded it altogether. This is how my face looks, damnit, and if the world doesn't want to look at it like this, that's just tough for them.

During WWII Life did this horrible article on "How to tell the Japs from the Chinese".

Yeah, it was awful. There were some of those propaganda posters at the Japanese-American internment display at the Smithsonian, lo, these many years ago. Unbelievable.

Oh, yeah, Lost. Well. We should not kill off any of the Hawtness. And we should not kill off anyone that is interesting to me. Unless they are killed off in an interesting way.

Instead of being taught how to supplement and focus my natural beauty, I was taught how to use street makeup to minimize my Japanese appearance. How to apply eyeliner to make my eyes look less Asian, how to de-emphasize the fullness of my lips.

That is just plain evil. Was this in a stage makeup class, or a makeup store? In either case, SHAME ON THEM.

No, you know, in life. "Oh, you're old enough to want to wear makeup? Okay, well, this is what you should do."

That is crazy and shameful. I have met you, Liese, and you have fabulous, gorgeous full lips. They should never be made up for de-emphasizing; they should be made up (if at all, as they are plenty lovely in their natural state) so that all the other lips in the world will gasp with envy.

A pox on your erstwhile makeup mentors. Human beings are depressing.

the base closest to my skin tone was the one intended for white people making themselves up as Japanese.

So was mine. It was always kind of frustrating waiting for the makeup person to go through all of the "white" bases before realizing that, no, I really am that pale.