NURTURE OR NATURE??
I have lived in a rural community for the past 30 some years. We are also surrounded by a number of other rural communities. In one such town,in which the name shall not be mentioned, I noticed a trend of the women to wear ultra thick “raccoon style” eyeliner. This has not changed over the past 30 years, pretty much since I’ve lived in this area.
I first noticed this “look” when my daughter was in middle school about 15 years ago. We would drive over to the unnamed community to watch volleyball, football or some other sport. At first it seemed just the dance team had this dark eyed sultry look, but then I looked around in the bleachers and noticed many of the adult women had this same “look”. No, it couldn’t be, I thought to myself. Then to my wondering eyes they appeared! Yes, even the grandmas were sporting the raccoon eyeliner look.
Now, this IS odd, I think to myself. I embarked on taking a non official poll. Whenever I would drive up to a fast food window and the young girl opened it up, I would notice how carefully made up the eyes were, and if they paid special extra attention to their eyes, AND particularly if they were encircled with a thick black pencil (think Sharpie). Casually, I would ask, “are you from _____?” More often than not, they would say yes.
I told my daughter of my discovery and my non official poll. She laughed at me! Imagine! A semi-scientific discovery and I get laughed at. One particular day we went through the fast food drive up and the person opening the window had that “raccoon look”. ”Are you from ____”, I ask? Why yes, she replied, how do you know? I told her she looked like someone I knew from that area (every female?). I then looked at my daughter with my best “I told you so look”. Moms are good at that, you know.
So, as time has gone on and I have seen so many women from that town with the “raccoon look” I ask you now is it nurture or nature?
