Chapter 57: What Were They Thinking?

I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I wanted to address this before I forget. The small cosmetics company, AmyLee Cosmetics, had a spring launch that was so insanely insensitive that I don't even know where to begin. They launched an eyeshadow palette called Survivors, which had shadow names like Parkinson's, Diabetes, Chiari Malformation, Endometriosis, Cervical Cancer, Breast Cancer, Lymphoma, Heart Disease, Depression, Epilepsy, Lung Cancer, Suicide, Childhood Cancer, PTSD and Child Abuse. Like... what?

As someone who suffers from both endometriosis and depression, I was completely flabbergasted by this. Conditions that have had such a negative impact on my life do not belong as color names in an eyeshadow palette so some company can profit off of them. My conditions aren't terminal, but some of the ones on this list are. Make up is such an expression of joy, why on earth would you make a shade called Parkinson's, which is a disease that often leads to a long and painful decline and death? Imagine a Youtube make up guru doing a tutorial with this palette- "So I start off with some Breast Cancer in the crease, and then add some Child Abuse to the Outer Corners and pack some Epilepsy in the center of my lid with a flat brush." How did a whole company of people think this was a good idea?

We know the answer, of course. It's classic ableism. Other peoples' struggles, misforntunes and causes of death are something to profit off of and trivilize. To people who aren't chronically ill, all of these conditions are just theoretical, so they have no concept of how much they impact the lives of people who have them. I don't buy their BS apology, either. Why pick only two organizations of the many featured in the palette? How did they pick those two and decide something like Endometriosis didn't deserve to be donated to? And why was this only brought up after it was rightly critized? To me it feels like this was not approached with as pure of intentions as AmyLee Cosmetics would like us to believe.

Also, why lump something that is preventable (Child Abuse) in with all of these diseases that aren't preventable? An abuser can choose not to abuse. I had no choice in whether my pelvis feels like it's on fire. The person with Lymphoma didn't choose that. The abuser made a choice to be abusive. I get that the palette is honoring the survivor, but it just seems like an odd addition to a palette of health conditions (that shouldn't even exist in the first place). So all of this to say this- If you want to help people with these conditions, this is not the way to do it. Donate to research. Show support to them personally. Vote for people who will help fund research for rare diseases. Do not support companies turning other peoples' suffering into profits for their bottom line.

Tomorrow is the End Endo 5k. If you want to be actually helpful to people with this chronic condition, donate to research. Don't buy trash capitialistic nonsense that helps no one and trivializes pain and suffering. Here is my team: https://www.justgiving.com/team/endendo1704