Thread by @AnaMardoll, I don't know why TERFs are always asking me to "define woman"; [...]

I don't know why TERFs are always asking me to "define woman"; for years, cartoons have made it very clear to me that women are the folks with purple eyeshadow. Easy!

I mean.

I just?

It's basic biology, really.

Facts.

"I've still got it, Eddie. And by 'it', I mean eyeshadow."

This thread is brought to you by the emotional breakdown I inflicted on my parents when they bought me the Hoppopotamus wuzzle doll I begged for.

Why?

They finally managed to extract through my wracked sobs and distraught wails that they had somehow brought me a BOY Hoppopotamus.

The real, actual, GIRL Hoppopotamus had purple eyeshadow and long eyelashes. That was how gender worked, I explained to them. Repeatedly.

My parents somehow managed to convince me that the wuzzle doll was the Real Hoppopotamus' brother, since the Real Hoppopotamus had to be on television and not in our house. I accepted this logic with good grace.

God knows how many days in the Enchanted Woods (not to mention several swims in the ocean) and Elsa and Anna are still rocking their eyeshadow game.

Submitted by reader request: Lola from Shark Tale.

This seems to happen especially with non-human characters, presumably because it's very important for the viewer to know the gender of a tea kettle.

But then you have Jane, who isn't particularly interested in makeup, decked out in full eyeshadow in the humid jungle. EVEN AT THE END. When they've abandoned human clothing customs.

Old or new, doesn't matter.

Eris from Sinbad.

Being dead won't save you from the eyeshadow.

The entire cast of Monster High is just eyeshadow for days.

Sexy? Demure? Either way, PURPLE EYESHADOW FOR EVERYONE.

By reader request: Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet. The captain is important because we can see from her babies that the eyeshadow is NOT a genetic feature but rather actual makeup.

I have been informed that I am neglecting the Animal Crossing fandom with girly eyeshadow shots.

Some pink variations.

Then you have the daring blue variant of Girl.

Especially perfect for girls who have a lot of pink/purple already in their wardrobe!

Some extra Animal Crossing villagers I couldn't fit in the previous tweets. IT'S MY THREAD, I CAN MAKE IT AS LONG AS I WANT.

I was intrigued to see that Lady from "Lady and the Tramp" escaped the eyeshadow treatment, but then we checked the non-virginal Peg (from the same movie) and there it is.

By fan request: Classic She-Ra.

I'm told by Kissmate that the Powerpuff Girls almost never wear eye makeup *except* this scene where they are flirting with boys. Take that for what you will.

Hercules was really bad about this, to be honest. (I already posted Megara up-thread, but here's 4 more.)

Mulan has it for Mulan and the Matchmaker, and.....the men when they're pretending to be women.

A fun rare goth example: Marianne from Strange Magic. She's given up on love, men, and happiness, but NOT purple eyeshadow.

More animal versions of the eyeshadow phenomenon.

Miscellany.

Kissmate has contributed *several* Pebble and the Penguin images, apparently having been subjected to the movie several times as a child.

Fievel Goes West continues the trope of eyeshadow having connotations of adulthood and sexiness (and possibly that of money/resources?) since Tanya only has eyeshadow in the saloon scene and nowhere else.

A few people have replied to say this isn't done anymore.

To them I give from Ducks Tales:

- Older Mrs Beakley, no eyeshadow
- New Mrs Beakley, purple eyeshadow!

Some more villains, including a live action that was too good not to include.

Classics.

Then you have Bugs Bunny dressing as a woman, complete with the necessary eyeshadow.

I've mentioned Elsa from Frozen but she never doesn't have purple eyeshadow on, apparently? Even wears it to bed.

Two nice shots of Spider from James and the Giant Peach.

Did you think I was done? I will never be done.

By reader request: Stella and Dixie from the Balto movies.

I haven't seen the Lorax movie but Kissmate has, and has sent these to be included.

By reader request: Mrs Brisby from Secret of Nimh.

This one is interesting for employing what I'm calling subtle "fur-shadow". She's not wearing eyeshadow, but the fur on her eyelids is darker than the surrounding area, causing a "natural" shadow.

The reverse of this, where fur-shadow is NOT employed, would be Nala from the Lion King. The fur on her eyelids matches the surrounding fur. Good, well done.

(She still has the "girly" defined eyelashes, of course.)

More examples of fur-shadow.

Thumbelina has an interesting mash-up:

- Thumbelina's purple eyeshadow varies in intensity depending on scene.
- Mrs Frog has eyeshadow, but Mrs Fieldmouse has fur-shadow.
- The Fairy Queen *and* the Fairy King both have eyeshadow, but the Prince does not.

Another variation: "Eyeshadow All-Over"

This is when the girl character has purple eyeshadow as well as purple...everything else.

You'd think Zootopia, a movie about animals, might not have eyeshadow, but.

My Little Pony mostly avoids this. Mostly.

Spink and Forcible from Coraline! Their eyeshadow is more pronounced in the real world, but their "other" counterparts have eyeshadow too.

One more Sexy Fish before I go to bed tonight.

This thread is going viral-er than I expected, so apparently I need to clarify some things:

- No, I don't think gender is conferred by eyeshadow. That was a joke to open the thread.

- This is a thread about how animators use eyeshadow (and eyelashes) to signal gender.

I am not in favor of these "gender signals" being used this way in animation.

It comes across as toxic cisnormativity to me, where the animator thinks the audience "needs" to know each character's gender at a glance. We don't.

...I am extremely weirded out by the few very strange people who have decided this thread is a list of women I am attracted to.

It's a thread about characters who have eyeshadow, no matter how strange/inappropriate it may be for them, in order to indicate gender. That's IT.

By reader request: the female Veggietales cast.

I previously praised The Lion King for avoiding fur-shadow but an astute reader has pointed out that the sequel, Simba's Pride, does NOT avoid the trope. (Note: These are all different characters.)

Same astute reader correctly pointed out that while Lion King 1's Nala didn't have fur-shadow, Sarabi did.

(There's several crowd moments with unnamed lionesses, and I'd like to see if they have fur-shadow, but Google is failing me and I'm too weak to get the DVD right now.)

By reader request: this extremely terrifying bird from "War of the Birds". I cannot find her name for the life of me.

By reader request: More Chip and Dale, Rescue Rangers.

The first picture is Gadget dolled up as an undercover agent (so the eyeshadow makes sense for once!) and the second is a Queen Bee who just...has purple eyeshadow.

By reader request: a ceiling fan and a tape recorder from The Brave Little Toaster. Because we desperately need to know the gender of a ceiling fan!!

By reader request: Cheetara from Thundercats, in various iterations.

By reader request: Princess What's-Her-Name from Earthworm Jim.

I'm not sure how many more of these I'll do; it's ardently clear that there are many many more left to do, it's not like I'm running out of material, but I also have a surgery to recover from.

I am also frankly very disturbed by how many people have chosen to believe that my choice to *document* a cultural phenomena means that I am showing *approval* of the same.

I've said repeatedly: I do not like this trope that I am documenting. I don't know how to be more clear.

So having people drop in with comments like "I can't believe you're still doing this thread; this is disgusting", I-

I'm documenting a cultural phenomena that has surrounded me since childbirth in order to prove to people that it exists. I don't LIKE it.

I don't know which corner of the internet is telling people that the collection and assemblage of primary source documentation is a bad thing or one that implies the historian/researcher approves of the history they are documenting but uh, that's not how any of this works.

Twitter genuinely makes me so tired sometimes. I repeatedly have said in thread that I don't like or approve of this trope, so how I'm "gushing over them like they're the next best thing" makes little sense to me!

(...next best thing? Stuff I remember from 20 years ago??)