Lightskin Stare

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Part of a series on Dark Skins vs. Light Skins. [View Related Entries]

About

The Lightskin Stare, also written Light Skin Stare or also known as Sin City Was Made For You, is a slang term referring to a cliché referenced on TikTok about the seductive stare given by light-skin Black men to any subject. The common characteristics are being handsome, having piercing eyes, furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips. The "lightskin stare" is often referenced along with Unspoken Rizz and the concept of being "zesty." Meme creators on TikTok labeled movie characters, TV characters and video game characters, among others, as having the stare, predominantly using the slowed version of "Sin City" by Chrishan as the TikTok sound. Lightskin vs. Darkskin memes started on Vine in 2013 and the first Lightskin Face Vine was uploaded in 2014.

Origin

Lightskin-based memes started on Vine in 2013, predominantly perpetuated by Viner Melvin Gregg and Viner King Bach. Gregg was largely the one who started the emasculated stereotype of lightskin men through many Vines that have since been scrubbed from the internet. However, a Vine compilation uploaded in 2015 featured multiple lightskin Vines from Gregg, such as "Introducing Dem Lightskin Boyz" (YouTube reupload shown below, left). Around the same time, on June 13th, 2013, YouTuber TravieBASED posted a video titled, "LIGHTSKIN NIGGAS BE LIKE," that played with the same emasculated stereotypes. Over the course of nine years, it received roughly 1.5 million views and 31,000 likes (shown below, right).

Sometime around August 22nd, 2013, Twitter user Magna_GOD posted a tweet (since deleted) that captioned an unknown image with "typical lightskin stare 😭." Although the tweet has since been deleted, it received many retweets^[1]^[2] and replies that are still accessible and prove its earlier virality.

On May 28th, 2014, Viner^[3] BuddyBillz posted a video called, "Do the light skin face," which showed a Black boy doing a "light skin face" while people off camera sang a song that repeated the video's title. Over the course of eight years, the Vine received roughly 5.1 million loops and 70,800 likes (shown below). It is the first known video to reference the "lightskin stare" concept.

Spread

Twitter^[4]^[5] users continued to reference the lightskin face or stare thereafter in 2014. Years later, on March 22nd, 2019, Twitter^[6] user JAYVERSACE replied to a video from Twitter^[7] user eatjaredtweets that made fun of lightskin guys' expressions. JAYVERSACE wrote, "You don’t gotta make the lightskin face you already lightskin. Just look into the camera it’ll kick in," gaining over 450 likes in three years (shown below).

On TikTok

In mid-2020, TikTok E-boys started to use a slowed remix of the song "Sin City" by Chrishan, lip-dubbing the lyrics and looking longingly into the camera. For instance, TikToker^[8] noahbeck posted the first known iteration, gaining roughly 4.6 million plays and 687,100 likes in two years (shown below, left). Most of the reactions to noahbeck's TikTok were negative, labeling him a "f--kboy" in multiple duets. ^[9] Sometime in early June 2022, light-skinned TikToker sewshiii posted a video (since deleted) that followed the same format (reaction duet shown below, right).

Two years later, in November 2022, TikTokers started using the same slowed version of Chrishan's "Sin City" to reference the "lightskin stare." However, the first known TikToker to reference the "lightskin stare" was TikToker^[10] ihyalver on November 16th, 2022, which didn't use the slowed "Sin City" remix as a sound. His video received roughly 28,600 plays and 1,100 likes in 12 days (shown below). On November 19th, TikToker^[11] pleasecomebackjessica then posted a video that used footage from the movie Get Out with text reading, "the rizz 🥶," earning roughly 1.1 million plays and 168,000 likes in nine days (since deleted).

On November 20th, 2022, TikToker^[12] chorlemcheezit used the same slowed "Sin City" sound with footage from the animated movie Megamind, writing in text overlay, "megamind fails to rizz up roxanne with his lightskin stare." The video received roughly 1.5 million plays and 329,400 likes in eight days (shown below).

Thereafter, "lightskin stare" memes became commonplace on TikTok,^[13]^[14] predominantly using the slowed "Sin City" remix as the TikTok sound.^[15]