Disney star Bella Thorne is grown up now, and like so many celebrities, she celebrated the Halloween holiday by sharing pictures of Halloween costume concept(s) on social media, for all her many fans to enjoy. At least that was the plan; however, one set of Halloween-themed photos Bella Thorne posted to social media is now causing some controversy. That’s because Bella Thorne decided to have some fun with makeup, painting her face to mimic the look of someone who has been through a fight – a look that a lot of people immediately misinterpreted to be the actress making a painful confession of abuse.
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Take a look at the photos and judge whether or not there should be any uproar:
“Hire me for your Halloween makeup I got u boo 🔪🔪🔪 😂😂😂” — Bella Thorne
As you can see, the makeup work is really good here – too good for a lot of fans. For ever person who saw the photos and praised the makeup work, there seems to be another who felt the look invoked disturbing associations to physical abuse of women that has become a major lightning rod issue in the “Me Too” era:
“Need you here to help with my make up !” — xavierdolan
“My heart dropped… I immediately got angry that someone hit you. This is uhhh p fkn scary” –nicholasmegalis
“Just don’t use your fists to apply the make up 😂” –uldouz
It’s easy to see things from both sides of this issue, if we’re all being honest. Yes, a major star like Bella Thorne dropping photos like the above without clear context (not everyone spots the captions on IG) is a triggering move for very understandable reasons. These days, it’s inconceivable to think of seeing a major actress’s face battered and bruised and have it turn out to be no big deal. On the other hand, there is a very real section of America that thinks Halloween has been another victim of PC-saturated culture, and that people need to lighten up when it comes to costumes. Thorne isn’t the only one causing controversy this year – KMart had to pull a line of bride costumes aimed at children when the store was hit by backlash from angry consumers.
Just so you’re aware, this makeup test was just Bella Thorne palying around: her actual costume was a “Sexy Girl Scout” with an even more playfully risque caption:
