You may have noticed
a look being celebrated among many female characters
and actors in movies and TV–– the “wide-eyed girl” look.
And it’s not just you; people have been doting
on the look for ages. In movie history,
it’s been admired by the likes of actors
such as Audrey Hepburn, Shelley Duvall,
and Bette Davis, as well as in animations
where the wide-eyed look is taken to an impossible extreme. People have compiled lists online
of famous wide-eyed women and girls using various terms:
From “enormous alien bug eyes”, to “doe eyes,”
reminiscent of a Bambi-like female deer. Intuitively,
the look communicates a sense of innocence,
youth, and naivety. The term “wide-eyed”
is defined as “naive and full of wonder.” But even though it conjures up images
of baby-like features, it’s also associated with seduction. And sometimes it’s also coded
as weird, if not creepy. "One of those famous big eyed paintings
is on display tonight. Like it's cute but it's creepy.
Yeah the eyes do follow you." Amanda Seyfried,
who often tops these lists, once said in an interview
that her eyes make her look like a frog. Anya Taylor-Joy also said
she didn’t initially get the positive feedback she enjoys now. "I've grown to love my eyes
I was really bullied for them when I was little but now it seems that their the thing
that people want from me." And the look has also
been used to inspire horror. Here’s our take
on why the “wide-eyed girl” look is such an “in” beauty
and what exactly about her so intrigues our culture. So what do bug eyes
and baby faces say of a person? There’s a famous story
about George “Baby Face” Nelson, a bank robber
during the Great Depression. He was said to inspire trust and innocence
due to his baby-like facial features, yet he was a particularly ruthless killer. While investigating the babyface phenomenon,
science journalist Zaria Gorvett wrote, “If you’re blessed with big doe eyes,
it can help you get ahead and get away with more than you think” — which is backed up by the fact
that baby-faced defendants found guilty of a crime have historically received
less severe sentences. And the “babyface
overgeneralization hypothesis” suggests that we’re more likely
to dote on and care for adults with baby faces due to
the instinctual urge to care for actual babies. So in media, big eyes are often used
to elicit a sense of love and warmth. "She has big green eyes
and beautiful brown skin." It’s well-documented
that pupils can get bigger not only due to lighting changes
but also due to physical state and emotion. According to The Scientific American,
pupil enlargement– which can give the impression
of “bigger” eyes– can denote sexual interest
and attraction. Perhaps the TikTok “pupil test”
best illuminates this. “think of someone and if your
pupil expands, you’re in love” The wide-eyed girl onscreen
is an object of desire, whose appeal essentially stems
from a version of the problematic Lolita ideal. While the wide-eyed girl
might not be explicitly a Lolita or underage, she’s a visual combination
of youthful innocence and sexiness. And if biology biases us
to see wide eyes as a marker of innocence, youth, fertility,
and therefore sometimes attraction, this is all reinforced and exploited
in media and storytelling. "Look at this little baby face" Image makers use
wide-eyed girls and women to represent innocence
and beauty
in young female characters throughout
our most iconic films and shows. Costuming and makeup
depict this type of femininity
as submissive, pure,
and sometimes kinda dumb. "I have a fifth sense." We can see the subtle ways
big eye obsession takes root in animation –
from the famous “anime eyes” to the big-eyed Disney princesses
whose eyes, some have observed, can actually be bigger than their waists. The baby-ish features
make cartoon characters endearing to us – which is why children so readily
connect to the big-eyed heroes. Yet, when Buzzfeed showed us
what Disney princesses would look like
with normal-sized eyes,
the results actually feel disconcerting. Making these unrealistic expectations
worse today, we have eye-enlarging
phone filters that allow us to see ourselves
with those impossibly proportioned eyes and even get used to that self-image,
despite it being practically unattainable. "Yes this is real and no
you shouldn't do this just for fun" This glamor trend
has inspired extreme plastic surgery. And that’s not the only way
this bizarre fascination has proven to be harmful. Today, there are growing concerns
that some anime hypersexualizes young girls. "She’s harassed by men so much it’s painful" A clear issue arises
when this constant reinforcement pushes beauty standards
to get even more “baby-like”, thus sexualizing actual adolescent girls. Other cultural fixtures like Bratz dolls
contribute to the problem too. Sarah Simon writes in L’Atelier,
“As a 12-year-old, I related to their plump baby faces…
They tugged at a sexy-cute dichotomy that has influenced
female beauty standards for millennia, encouraging women
to be desirable while remaining childlike. Bratz embody
the infantilization of beauty”. So it’s important to be conscious
of how this biological fixation and influential media messaging
can subconsciously alter our perceptions. When the wide-eyed
girl isn’t just sexy, she can also be creepy
or otherworldly. Dolls, which often
look like young girls, can become terrifying
in certain contexts due to the uncanny valley effect,
and their uncertain existence in-between human
and inanimate objects. "Megan’s not a person Cady, she’s a toy! -
You don’t get to say that" The same may explain
the use of the wide-eyed girl trope in horror, which is having a big moment today
with examples like Mia Goth in various A24
and Neon horror flicks, Lupita Nyong'o
in Us, and Amie Donald
in the new screamer M3GAN. The wide-eyed girl
in horror scares us because something’s off
and she’s not acting the way the big-eyed
babyface should – like George “Baby Face” Nelson
there’s a disconnect between their supposed,
outer innocence, and the monstrosities
they’re actually committing. Scarlett Johansson
famously played a literal alien wearing a bug-eyed human costume
in the eerie sci-fi film, Under The Skin. This figure might also be playing
on the tension and moral discomfort that results from our culture’s
oversexualizing of young girls. “She’s always been jealous, I’m younger…” Yet the wide-eyed
horror girl, like a doll, still retains that baby-faced
charisma that draws audiences to her on some level. Tim Burton –
who was influenced
by artist Margaret Keane,
the subject of his movie “Big Eyes,” –
has often used big-eyed characters
that feel creepy, yet still childlike. "Why are their eyes so big?
The eyes are the window into the soul." And wide-eyed “weird girl” heroines
like Wednesday Addams and Lydia Deetz combine that endearing admirability
with the weirdness of alien eyes. So the “unnatural appearance”
of baby eyes on adult faces can play as sexy,
or creepy, and often both. Research has found a preference
for neotenous faces across cultures and ethnicities,
but the preference for wide eyes is an especially strong Western
beauty standard (one that’s undoubtedly spread
throughout our global culture). Many of the most high-profile
wide-eyed icons are white, and attractiveness and trust
have long been equated with whiteness. A study from Northwestern University
found that Black CEOs in the U.S. were significantly more baby-faced
than White CEOs, and the authors suggested that this babyface-ness may be a
“disarming mechanism that facilitates the success of Black leaders
by attenuating stereotypical perceptions that Blacks are threatening”. This research on what
the wide-eyed aesthetic culturally implies gets at
what can sometimes be hard to talk about– that how we look
has a big impact on how we live. Fortunately, today many wide-eyed actors
are giving this trope a refresh, including Aubrey Plaza,
who often plays discerning, intelligent, and attractive women. "If you can put up with him for five minutes,
you can put up with him forever, He is consistent.
A consistent douche?" Jenna Ortega,
who perfectly encapsulates the horror “weird girl”, was lauded for her performance
as Wednesday Addams, and is also set to play Lydia Deetz’s
daughter in an upcoming Beetlejuice sequel. Lupita Nyong’o
recently took on the role of fighter-activist Nakia
in the Black Panther series. “If you were not so stubborn,
you’d make a great queen” “I would make a great queen
because I am so stubborn." Amanda Seyfried, who was originally known as
Mean Girls’ Karen Smith, wowed audiences
by playing against type as Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes
in The Dropout, which explored how Holmes’ looks influenced the tech industry’s treatment
of her in a complicated way. "Why does everybody
want to believe in this girl so badly? Because she's pretty and blonde. She makes the men in tech and business
feel good without challenging them." And of course,
there’s Anya Taylor-Joy– whose parts in The Queen’s Gambit
and The Menu have likewise explored how the world perceives
and potentially misunderstands wide-eyed girls "Men are gonna come along
and want to teach you things. Doesn’t make them any smarter” So instead of only casting the “wide-eyed girl” as someone to coddle,
fantasize about, or even fear, we should take stock in the way culture
and media have conditioned us to view these cherubic features and recognize
that humans are much deeper than their peepers. That's the take!
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