A new TikTok video edit involving Zendaya has gone viral on Twitter, raising the eyebrows of many users who are not shying away from sharing their feelings.
The video in question features a red carpet photo of Zendaya looking as flawless as usual. In the first seconds of the clip, though, the phrase "giving celebrities perfect facial features" appears on the screen. The video then goes on to change nearly every feature of the Euphoria star's face — from slimming her nose to making her eyes bigger to changing her brow bone and brow shape entirely. At the end of the video, Zendaya is completely unrecognizable and fans are rightfully not happy about it.
Though it appears the original video has since been deleted from TikTok (it is also possible that the original poster might have deactivated their account), a Twitter user has saved it and propelled it to virality for the right reasons. "I hate seeing these racist videos. 'Perfect' by WHOSE standard?" another Twitter user added sharing the video.
Widespread discontent
Though not its original platform the edit has been garnering major attention on the bird app, where people have been sharing their widespread discontent and concerns with it. "Zendaya is already perfect as she is and the fact that at the end she doesn't even look like herself is disgusting I can't believe people have this kind of mindset...." someone wrote after seeing the edit.
"Me sitting here watching the entire video even though I already KNOW AS A FACT Zendaya is perfect just the way she is and that this idea of 'perfect' is largely based off of Eurocentric features," a second one added.
Others pointed out that the video could be part of a trend created to make a point about how there is no such thing as a "perfect face," and this was just an example of such content. "My hope is that whoever did this was trying to prove a point at how 'perfect' facial features aren't realistic and makes her look really weird. I can only hope that was the point..." one user wrote regarding the trend.
"The 'perfect face' videos are meant to show how dumb the golden ratio is and how people are beautiful without fitting the mold. I’ve seen their YouTube vids and they’re either meant to be jokes or, again, criticizing the golden ratio," another one added.
Regardless of the intention of the video, we should all know by now that there's no such thing as "perfect facial features" and holding celebrities (and ourselves) to such "standards" should never be encouraged via viral videos. And, if you have any doubts, Queen Z herself has made her stance clear by liking a post very aptly captioned, “Don't ever touch Zendaya.”