Actress Julia Fox has apologized for not understanding the Tiktok mascara trend after being accused of “condoning sexual assault.” Several days ago, Fox was criticized for writing a seemingly cold comment to a Tiktok user who wrote about being a male victim of sexual assault, using “mascara” as a codeword since TikTok has strict policies on language. She has since written an apology in the form of a comment to the user for not knowing the full context of the original video.
Julia Fox Tiktok mascara controversy, explained
On January 22, Tiktok user @big_whip13 posted a video (shown above) with the following overlaid text: “I gave this one girl mascara one time and it must’ve been so good that she decided that her and her friend should both try it without my consent.”
In this instance, “mascara” is being used as a reference to sex, though it can also be used to mean a past partner or friend. Fox, apparently not knowing this, wrote the comment, “Idk why but I don’t feel bad for u lol.” Since then, AskAubry on Twitter has accused the actress for “condoning sexual assault.” Both AskAubry’s tweet and Julia Fox’s original comment have since been deleted, but they have been preserved by Pop Crave.
Today, Fox has replied again to same video, apologizing for her initial reaction. She writes: “Hey babe I’m so sorry I really thought u were talking about mascara like as in make up. I’m sorry that happened to u.”
On one hand, the original video has the “saawareness” hashtag, so Fox could have been more careful in trying to decipher the meaning behind it. But considering that the mascara trend is fairly new and specific to Tiktok, people could be forgiven for not fully comprehending the context of the word.