Eyeliner: A Cultural History by Zahra Hankir Review
“There is value in both learning about this history of eyeliner, but also considering how the beauty industry has often exoticized and co-opted it for a white audience. ”
★★★★☆
Zahra Hankir first began experimenting with eyeliner as a teenager, after watching her mother apply it. As a Lebanese woman, raised partly in Britain, eyeliner helped her connect to her heritage. ‘I’m rarely if ever without the magical lines adorning my eyes,’ she writes ‘Just as I am never without my culture, my ancestors, or my mother.’
In Eyeliner: A Cultural History, Hankir sets off on a journey around the world to investigate the origins of eyeliner and its resonance across different cultures. Her journey takes her everywhere from ancient Egypt, to the Bedouin tribe of Jordan, to the Geisha of Japan. She also looks at the use of eyeliner in modern culture; by the drag community, the Mexican-American ‘Chola’ community of California, as well as pop culture icons like Amy Winehouse.
Eyeliner is a much needed book on many levels. For one, cosmetics, fashion or anything that might be classified as ‘women’s history’ are still often dismissed as frivolous and superficial. But as Hankir illustrates, they have so much to tell us about everything from history to religion to politics. For another, eyeliner’s origins, as Hankir says ‘lie firmly in the East’, beginning in ancient Egypt. There is value in both learning about this history of eyeliner, but also considering how the beauty industry has often exoticized and co-opted it for a white audience. ‘The ancient eyeliner of the mysterious East,’ said a 1955 Vogue article, ‘recently made more modern by Elizabeth Arden.’
In the book, Hankir tracks this appropriation up to the present day; Kylie Jenner sports heavily lined eyes ‘looking very much like a prototypical Middle Eastern pop star,’ while the ‘fox eye’ trend made popular by Ariana Grande and Bella Hadid features upswept eye makeup that has been criticized as appropriative by some Asian communities.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Hankir’s book is also a celebration of the broad appeal and myriad uses of the product. We read about eyeliner as cosmetic, as a protection against the sun, as a religious symbol, as a costume. The men of the Woodabe tribe use eyeliner as part of their elaborate costume for the Gerewol courting ceremony. In India’s Kathkali theatre tradition, eyeliner is used to distinguish the types of characters from one another. In probably the book’s most affecting chapter, Hankir describes how young Iranian woman use eyeliner and other cosmetics to push back against the regime’s strict dress codes; particularly during the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.
The amount of research and travel undertaken by the author is really impressive, and she speaks passionately about what writing and researching the book has meant to her.
There are some flaws however. At times it feels like the book’s greatest strength – the breadth of its scope – might also be its greatest weakness. The first chapter, ostensibly about the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti gallops through a brief history of ancient Egypt, the discovery of Nefertiti’s bust, the Egypt-mania and exoticism of the early twentieth century, Nefertiti’s role in Black culture, as well as the continued debate about returning artefacts from Western museums to their countries of origin. At times it feels a little breathless, a little unwieldy. Hankir’s attempts to use eyeliner as a reference point don’t always work; I found her attempt to link Amy Winehouse’s deteriorating mental state to her absence of eyeliner fairly tactless.
Another, more minor complaint (directed at the publishers, who often decide these things, rather than the author) is that I wish the book had colour illustrations. Hankir spends so much time describing the vivid colours of eyeliner, of makeup, that it seems a shame not to have some examples in the book (although the author’s Instagram does have some great reference images).
Overall Eyeliner is a fascinating, detailed look at a product that we often take for granted. Not every chapter works equally well, but I came away from the book feeling that I had learned a lot, and enjoyed myself along the way.
