It’s almost Christmas! So, as is the way in the capitalist society we live in, brands are rushing to push out every unnecessary trinket for you to snatch up – likely to be thrown aside and forgotten before we see the year out.
Among these items are a pair of Frida Kahlo-themed tweezers by Sass & Belle. If you’re unfamiliar with the brand, it sells cutesy homeware pieces at affordable prices. Just in time for the holiday season, the brand has released a whole range of Kahlo-themed products from plates and baubles to shopping bags and keyrings – more on why that’s problematic here.
But, back to the matter at hand, a tool used to remove body hair, that looks just like an iconic artist who celebrated her it. Irony doesn’t even begin to cover it. “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world,” Kahlo once wrote in her diary. “But then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I'm here, and I’m just as strange as you.”
This isn’t the first time Kahlo’s appearance has been edited for mass consumption. In 2018, Mattel released a Barbie doll (again problematic for everything she stood for) with a barely-there monobrow, light-coloured eyes, and no upper lip hair. Mexican courts later ruled for it to stop being sold there, as her family claimed they had not been asked for permission.
Sass & Belle has not responded to our request for comment at the time of publishing.
