Comments

1. dersk wrote:

   Struggling? No, it took all of half a second to ignore it. (:

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 12:17 pm ¶

2. Eisoj5 wrote:

   I posted something facetious about how I (a Taiwanese-American woman) have been told that I sound and *look* like Julia Stiles.

   JULIA STILES.

   (I took that as a compliment, and have meant to use her as my doppelganger, but forgot to go find an image of her.)

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 12:46 pm ¶

3. Celeste wrote:

   I ignored it, too but I’m a facebook curmudgeon.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 12:47 pm ¶

4. Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:

   one of my friends, an Iranian, put up a photo of Kal Penn and I was like…. um, no, you look nothing like him.

   I didn’t struggle with it. Like Dersk said, I just ignored it and used MY own photo.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:04 pm ¶

5. Medusa wrote:

   I’m ignoring the trend too because it’s fucking stupid, but I don’t think it leaves out POC in the least. I mean, Diana of Disgrasian has a doppleganger of a completely different race. And there is a Bollywood actress (sorry, dunno who she is, I just saw footage of her once) who very much resembles Paris Hilton, although depending on who you ask, they are the same race as they are both Caucasian.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:14 pm ¶

6. liv wrote:

   i had a similar reaction to this meme. it left a lot of my friends out. personally, as a fat woman there are not many fat celebrities out there. i was told that i should do mama cass – the problem is, that other than being fat and white, we look nothing alike. so like some of the other posters, i just left my picture the same.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:19 pm ¶

7. johanna wrote:

   Yeah, I had this same gripe! Most of the POCs I know on FB who have tried to participate either put up cartoon characters or, well, status updates saying how they don’t have a doppleganger.

   My brother’s partner suggested I looked like Vanessa Hudgens–I think because she was the only half-Filipina celebrity she could think of–but I don’t look like her at all.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:28 pm ¶

8. Melle wrote:

   I ignored it, too. I am West African and I can only find West African celebrities that look like me. One of my friends, however, found a celebrity that looks EXACTLY like her despite the fact that they are different races. I thought that was uncanny, but there is no chance I will find anyone that looks like me. To be honest, I prefer that. I like being one of a kind.

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:34 pm ¶

9. Ladymourge wrote:

   @Eisoj5
   A classmate told me once that there was this Korean actor who looked like Jude Law( Minus blond hair, blue eyes). There is Kim Sung Min ho I thought looked like Colin firth (round face, cheekbones, chin) But after looking at more photos of him he looks NOTHING like him. He’s still hot though
   Heh , I don’t have a facebook but I went to website to find my doppleganger and some images of men came up, who I thought look masucline and I’m told I look feminine. lol

   Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 1:41 pm ¶

10. breastylou wrote:

    I totally agree, and second what Liv said. At first I thought it was kind of a fun idea, but then I realized that some people were more limited in their choices than others…. As a fat, white woman, I could only think of Beth Ditto as a possible doppelgänger, and (as much as I wish I did) I look nothing like her. I can only imagine how much more limited my options would be if I was a WOC.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:01 pm ¶

11. Dawn. wrote:

    I ignored it, partially because I think it’s idiotic and partially because I don’t look like any celebrity anyway. I’m a very light-skinned black young woman with an afro and light brown eyes. I couldn’t find a doppelganger if I tried.

    I think, because Hollywood is so thin and white-washed, that this meme does leave out of lot of people, especially POCs and “fat” people and PWDs. I honestly don’t mind if a meme isn’t inclusive, because really, who cares. The only reason this meme gave me pause was that I do care about the lack of diversity among pop culture icons. That is the problem.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:17 pm ¶

12. Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:

    Medusa:

    the Bollywood star who looks like Paris Hilton (YUCK) is none other than Kareena Kapoor.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:29 pm ¶

13. DomiX wrote:

    I couldn’t find a black female celeb that looked like me….I would hope that made me unique, but at the same time….there is no one out there I could find common features with. I would’ve gotten ragged for putting up Beyonce or Halle or Zoe Saldana, and rightfully so (because I don’t look anything at all like them). But in the long run…it didn’t bother me, but it did make me think.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:29 pm ¶

14. Jewel wrote:

    I had no idea who to put as my doppelganger, since I’m interracial. As an experiment, I just googled “half filipino actresses” (there’s a surprising number of them) and showed the results to my coworkers. They said that I looked like all of them, but particularly Phoebe Cates.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:32 pm ¶

15. Invasian wrote:

    One of my friends is Iranian, and her profile pic is of M.I.A.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:35 pm ¶

16. jen wrote:

    ditto @ Dawn!
    The key issue is normativity in REPRESENTATION
    and also,
    what the fucking hell is this time consuming, vacuous and narcissistic shit?
    Seriously, I was amazed at how fast this circulated- friends from California all of a sudden had Jennifer Aniston up and then friends in NY were talking about it the same day: in light of massive attempts to make people care and pay attention to Haiti this doppleganger meme pays disgusting homage to what we choose to mobilize our attention over
    UGH

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:47 pm ¶

17. caps wrote:

    The only reason that someone of Latin, East Asian or South Asian descent would not be able to find a celeb doppleganger is that they are focusing solely on very mainstream American pop culture. Latin America, US Latinos, South Asia and East Asia all have their own pop stars and popular entertainments. The only reason an Indian person would not be able to find an Indian doppleganger is if they are completely ignorant of Indian popular culture. I mean, really. And anyway, there are some Indian (and Latin, and East Asian) celebs in mainstream American culture, it’s not like there are none, you just probably don’t know that many. I think you are looking at American and international pop culture through a very White-centric, myopic lens if you absolutely unable to find an adequate celeb doppleganger and you are not White (or Black).

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 2:52 pm ¶

18. Just A Thought wrote:

    The doppelganger meme leaves out a lot of people of all colors, but leaves out more POC. There are less POC celebrities, so less opportunity for someone to find their “twin.” While I wouldn’t mind a doppelganger of another race, I have features that are most common on people with at least some African descent. That limits my choices.

    As for the original Sepia Mutiny post, I thought the author also looked like the Mowry twins, maybe even moreso than the doppelganger she picked. I’d love to see her unpack that choice a little more than she did on the site.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 3:06 pm ¶

19. gillian wrote:

    Excellent point!

    Personally, I couldn’t play because I couldn’t think of one black female celeb I resemble.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 3:21 pm ¶

20. Casey wrote:

    I ignored it too. Everyone always says I look like Margaret Cho, which isn’t bad, per se – but still. Really not much to choose from!

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 3:25 pm ¶

21. refresh_daemon wrote:

    There are no Asian or Asian American celebrities that I resemble, but I don’t really care to participate in the game anyway. Furthermore, it’s not permissible to upload photos to Facebook if you can’t prove that the photographs are in the public domain or that you own the rights to them. So most of these doppelganger photos are actually violating the Facebook Terms of Service (and possibly copyright laws as well).

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 3:27 pm ¶

22. Minotaar wrote:

    I disagree that the problem with the doppelganger meme is that there are fewer POC celebs to associate with.

    The problem is that most famous POC are not associated with genuinely positive stories. My friend could be said to look like Kim Jong Il, but he’ll be damned before he puts that madman up as his facebook profile pic. The lack of positive roles for POC actors/actresses, and the lack of positive image associated with POC sports celebs, is the real problem at hand.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 3:35 pm ¶

23. lizriz wrote:

    I’m white, and I ignored the meme, but I did spend more than a few minutes pondering that no one famous that I remotely resemble has a nose like mine.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 4:23 pm ¶

24. Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:

    if I had participated, I would have chosen Wendy O. Williams (the 1980s punk vocalist) or Beki Bondage (white English punk vocalist) or Poly Styrene (half black, half white British punk vocalist in the 70s), just cos I imitate(d) their styles!!!! leather, studs, mohawks… fuck YEAH

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 4:44 pm ¶

25. bloom wrote:

    I have noticed a lot of people [white males and some females] who don dopplegangers that look nothing like them: white men choosing Queen Latifiah or Flavor Flave, for instance. In some cases, this doppleganger game becomes a strange form of race play. Friends of the white male will confirm “yea you look exactly like Eddie Murphy, the resemblance is uncanny”… I find this to be an awkward Halloween style raceplay that only strokes the ego of the offender who somehow feels transgressive and sardonic by pretending to look like a female POC or whatever

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 4:50 pm ¶

26. JC wrote:

    If Hollywood stop its rampant racism toward PoC maybe this game will playable by everyone. Now, at least for the poor PoC living in the West (and ignorant about pop culture of the rest of the world), you’re all out of luck. This is a white game they’re playing there.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 4:56 pm ¶

27. Moni wrote:

    This is interesting. Most of my fb friends are African American, like me, and quite a few of them put up pics…me included. Compared to other POC, I suppose black folks did have more choices….models, actors, athletes, musicians…I vaguely recall at least one person putting up a political figure…

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:05 pm ¶

28. BSK wrote:

    A few thoughts:
    1.) I thought the whole thing was stupid and was largely a way for people to say, “People think I look like this gorgeous celebrity! That makes me gorgeous, too!” It was essentially one giant exercise in people fishing for compliments, which I wanted no part of. As a result, I posted a picture of an octopus, since I’m pretty sure I look nothing like one.
    2.) I’m white, so I am weary of commenting on something that seems to divisive, but it’s interesting that some PoC’s have taken offense both when offered “dopplegangers” of the same race/ethnicity and of different ones. Now, I realize the reason for offense varied, so I don’t necessarily think it is hypocritical or that either perspective is “wrong”. I do think it’s offensive to do the “all look the same” comparison, but we must also make sure that is the motivation behind it (i.e., I have an Indian friend who genuinely looks exactly like M. Night Shyamalan, so we often compare them, though never go near Kal Penn). At the same time, I guess I’m confused by people who are offended to be compared to individuals of other races/ethnicities. I know most of the people mentioned for me don’t share the same ethnic make-up, but again, as a white person, this may sit differently with me. However, I would think ideally we could compare the looks of people if there are genuine similarities regardless of race/ethnicity. I spoke on an earlier thread about the problems in sports where we only compare athletes of the same color to one another, which so often results in players’ skill sets being misrepresented because no one will cross the racial lines. If we allow ourselves genuine comparison to people who may be different than us but look the same as us, we open up the pool of dopplegangers for everyone. To me, saying “PoC’s can only be compared to like PoC’s” is just as bad as saying “All PoC’s look the same.” Then again, I don’t know how relevant my perspective is to the conversation and would love to hear what others think.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:08 pm ¶

29. me2 wrote:

    I opted out too – but found it interesting how many people I know think they look like Drew Barrymore. Literally *all* of the blonde women I know set their avatar to be Drew – It actually was pretty annoying, and I couldn’t easily at a glance tell who was posting what.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:30 pm ¶

30. gillian wrote:

    So I lied. I gave it some more thought and I think I can sorta make a case for resemblance between myself and Danai Gurira, who starred in 2007’s The Visitor.

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1775091/

    At the very least it’s nice to see a sister who rocks the short, natural hair style like mine on the big screen.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:33 pm ¶

31. AMarie wrote:

    I ignored it t first, then I took a picture w/ a mirror image of myself and posted it.

    Then I found a picture of an Afro-Brazilian model who looked uncannily like me. People actually mistook her for me.

    I still try to raise awareness about global issues (that’s actually my primary use for Facebook. I blog and post links to non-American news sources re: world news.)

    I generally do avoid these memes (esp ones as narcissistic and vapid as this one)

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:37 pm ¶

32. AMarie wrote:

    btw- I’m an African-American woman in her 20’s.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 5:39 pm ¶

33. sizeoftheocean wrote:

    I’ve found it hard to play because there aren’t a lot of fat celebs out there. As much as I’d love to post Beth Ditto as my doppelgänger because she’s both fat an awesome like me, I actually look nothing like her.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 6:09 pm ¶

34. KPak wrote:

    My status message was “so, my non-white FB friends, did YOU have trouble finding a famous doppelganger? Reveals how still overwhelmingly white (and a little Black) Hollywood is. *maybe you resorted to overseas star machines or athletes, but still worth noting, I think.” and left my profile pic of a stained glass window depicting Korean drummer from the 7 train in Queens, NYC.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 6:42 pm ¶

35. Ladymorgue wrote:

    @Jewel
    Reminds me whenever I would watch a movie from Mexico and if one of the charters had an Anglo parent and a mestizo parent, the child would almost always be blond. Which made me feel really insure about my looks. I found very little celebrities from Latin America or in the united states that look like me . yet a I look a little bit like her http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Alfons_Mucha_-_Die_Rose_-_1898.jpeg

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 7:04 pm ¶

36. Maia wrote:

    I was mildly annoyed by all the pictures of white celebrities that people seemed to expect me to know, so I dealt with it by putting up a picture of Cthulhu eating a human being.

    My other desi friends have mostly put up desi celebrities, except for one woman who used a picture of Salma Hayek.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 7:55 pm ¶

37. yes. wrote:

    As an East Asian American woman, my first thought upon discovering this–I don’t look like Lucy Liu. Well, shit. There’s not much of a range outside of that. I don’t know how much the meme is to blame, though, it’s just interesting how much it reveals/reflects the incredibly exclusionary nature of Hollywood, and the narrow representations of POC in pop culture.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 8:31 pm ¶

38. blaqbird wrote:

    Eh I didn’t really give too much thought to the fact that I don’t look like any celebrity…so I just left my profile pic of Conan O’Brien up….Team Coco!

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 8:49 pm ¶

39. Jay wrote:

    Latin America, US Latinos, South Asia and East Asia all have their own pop stars and popular entertainments. The only reason an Indian person would not be able to find an Indian doppleganger is if they are completely ignorant of Indian popular culture.

    But it completely ignores why people play this game: to share popular culture and to brag about a shared common point (which is why I find the game stupid and won’t play.)

    Using a Brazilian/East Asian/South Asian/etc celeb as a doppleganger, if you’re North American, means that your peers won’t pay much attention to you (unless you hang with a crowd that knows about them). And there inlies the problem.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 8:57 pm ¶

40. gatamala wrote:

    I’ve been told that I look like Whoopi Goldberg. Granted this came from someone non-American who had no contact with Black folk.

    I’m convinced Irfan Khan & Gary Sinise are doppelgangers.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 9:07 pm ¶

41. Sonnyboy wrote:

    Interesting.

    I refused to participate in this game for reasons a little different.

    I felt like whatever pic I used, as long as it was black female of at least light brown tone with long hair..my mostly white friends would go “Oh yeah so and so looks just like you!” unless it were someone like Halle Berry, Beyonce, Rihanna or say Paula Patton who are closer to tan or beige depending on season.

    Perhaps I am too sensitive, but it is my observation that if your are not very light skinned or not very dark skinned, then brown skinned black women with, in my case long hair– all look like any black woman on earth with long (ish) hair no matter what your actual facial features are to other people, especially non people of color.

    I kid you not. I have dealt with this all my life, but no matter how remarkably different their facial features are I am always told I look just like_fill in the blank__and usually the only thing we have in common is medium brown skin tone/and or long hair.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 10:14 pm ¶

42. little mixed girl wrote:

    *hope this new, and final, email will allow me to post*

    i noticed that some of my friends are just posting pics of stars from overseas.
    i haven’t been paying super attention to whether or not the “celebrity” has to be someone known in the US or not.
    it seems to me that if they are a celebrity somewhere, that’s enough.

    with that said, i only feel left out because i can’t think of anyone (in any country) that resembles me.
    i haven’t ever really been told that i resemble a celeb.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 10:26 pm ¶

43. Antonio wrote:

    I put up Donald Faison, the only celebrity I’ve ever been told I look like.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 11:05 pm ¶

44. Sobia wrote:

    This all quite interesting. I’m South Asian and I shared this post with some white friends of mine and an interesting conversation came up. I have been told I look like Priyanka Chopra and Eva Mendes (who, from what I’ve been told, resemble each other). My South Asian friends swear I have a very strong resemblance to/look like Priyanka Chopra and more like her than Mendes. But my white friends think I look more like Eva Mendes than Priyanka Chopra (though they’ve had no exposure to her except a picture or two).

    This made us wonder if the resemblance they see with me has to do with their own ethnic backgrounds and who they’re used to seeing. Not really sure though what’s going on, but something seems up.

    By the way, when it comes to my looks I’m more likely to believe/trust my South Asian friends views/opinions than my white friends.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 11:39 pm ¶

45. Renn wrote:

    None of the white people actually look like their so-called doppelgangers either. I mean, who told you that you look like -insert hot celebrity here-?! Seriously? Delusional.

    Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 11:40 pm ¶

46. Elaine wrote:

    funny thing. yes. as a mixed blood poc, i have NEVER been told i look like ANY celebrity. i even kept asking people via fb, so DO I HAVE A DOPPLEGANGER? and no one was able to come up with one for me.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 2:05 am ¶

47. Tandy wrote:

    Gonna agree with Renn. All I saw in that facebook exercise was a lot of delusional thinking. It was pretty embarassing, actually.

    I guess for now, I don’t feel so bad about there not being enough visible black females who I might look like.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 2:47 am ¶

48. blah wrote:

    @ Eisoj5

    I hope you come back and read this comment because…

    Holy shit, I had no idea that this happened to other people! I’m half-white, half-Taiwanese and people tell me all. the. fucking. time that I look like Julia Stiles, so much that people I barely know call me “Julia.”

    This is so bizarre. I wonder if this happens to any other Taiwanese-American women?

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 3:37 am ¶

49. Medusa wrote:

    Jewel,

    Ugh, they said you look like all of them? That’s obviously not even fucking possible. They must be suffering from all-Asian-people-look-the-same syndrome.

    gatamala,
    I have been told SO MANY DAMN TIMES that I look like Whoopi Goldberg. I don’t resemble her in the LEAST. It can’t be a coincidence that only white people have said that to me.

    Re: Fat people not being able to find dopplegangers: Does the doppleganger actually need to be fat? I thought the point was just to find someone who has a face similar to yours, and it’s not like fat people only look like fat people and thin people only look like thin people.

    I think people are taking this way too seriously, since a lot of the dopplegangers my white friends have chosen don’t really look like them THAT much, they just have similar hair/styles of dressing/make up in that particular picture. Yeah, Hollywood sucks in not including enough people of color, but I don’t think this Facebook trend is really what is responsible for leaving out people of color.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 8:00 am ¶

50. BSK wrote:

    RE: Looking like Julia Styles

    I have had the opposite experience. I have no East Asian heritage in my family that I know of (and my family heritage is pretty well-documented, but obviously, one never knows for sure). I have light hair, olive skin, and hazel eyes. My eyes are fairly narrow as I inherited my mom’s heavy eyelids. As such, people often comment that I look Asian or look like a particular Asian person (one person went so far as to say that I am a full-blooded East Asian person). I think this comes from people associating narrow eyes with being Asian, and completely ignoring other phenotypic commonalities of people from this part of the world. Hence, the Julia Styles comparison (who despite her blond hair also has narrow eyes). People can’t see beyond this when thinking of “what makes someone look Asian”, so as a result, anyone with narrow eyes can be considered Asian, despite evidence to the contrary.

    FWIW, I am never bothered by this comparison except so much as it demonstrates the ignorance of the other person. I know some white people get all up in arms if they are believed to be anything but the purest white. For me, I recognize I have eyes that tend to be more commonly identified as belonging to East Asian people than white people, so I think to comment on my eyes is legitimate. But to ignore other facts because people don’t know enough about the physical traits of East Asian people is just ignorant.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 9:41 am ¶

51. dersk wrote:

    The only ones I’ve ever heard are Jim Carey (ugh) and a famous South African cricketer named Shawn Pollock. When I was in India in 2008, people were coming up to me and making bets that I was him.

    So I guess celebrity is as celebrity does.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 10:59 am ¶

52. thesciencegirl wrote:

    I don’t have a celebrity doppelganger. So I put up a picture of Cookie Monster next to one of myself in a big blue sweater.

    I noticed a lot of POC struggling to find celeb lookalikes, using celebs of other races, or using non-Hollywood types.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 2:23 pm ¶

53. KDS wrote:

    I agree that POC are significantly underrepresented among celebs. But does your celeb look alike necessarily have to be of the same race? My sister is a brown skin African American woman who would say that her celebrity doppelganger is Claire Danes. A white friend of hers first pointed this out and others have seen a resemblance too. I think this is could be an interesting way to really notice facial features (other than just skin color and hair color, style, texture, etc.) and identify similarities between people from different racial groups. Like others have commented, I think it is so weird when people say you look like someone else just because you are about the same skin color and hair length! It is like they don’t really pay attention to what you look like. It reminds me of this piece at Sociological Images about how to some Obama looks distinctly black even though he shares similar facial features to his white grandfather. http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/10/24/what-does-black-and-white-look-like-anyway/

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 4:37 pm ¶

54. Eisoj5 wrote:

    @blah,

    That is really quite unexpected!! I guess BSK’s comment after yours might help explain it. Weird.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 6:38 pm ¶

55. Reiter wrote:

    My co-workers/friends and I were talking about this exact same topic in the office; which celebrities we most closely resemble.

    My boss, who aside from being a strong but short and jovial bald black man, was jokingly referred to as “Debo” from Friday. My friend, even more fitness obsessed than my boss and is half-Chinese/Filipino, is the virtual spitting image of Bolo Yeung in his prime (the bad guy “Chong Li” from Van Damme’s movie Bloodsport). Me, a 100% East Asian guy with glasses? I got Masi Oka (“Hiro Nakamura” from Heroes). Yeah. Aside from the glasses and being Asian, I don’t think we look anything alike, lol.

    That said, I refuse to participate in this idiotic Facebook game/meme.

    I’m also reminded of one of Homer’s famous quotes from “The Simpsons” – “I’m a white male aged 18 to 49, everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are!” before digging into a can of mixed nuts and gum (“Together at last!”).

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 7:08 pm ¶

56. n wrote:

    @KDS
    Hmm, I didn’t do it but was tempted to use Shakira since that MyHeritage site always says I look like her. When Iwas in high school there was a mixed race Asian and White girl l who looked a lot like me, a foreign student asked if we were sisters and the glares probably startled him- it didnt occur to him that she and I were not the same “race”, or is that “same race”. He was looking at our coloring and facial features, which was similar, and the difference in hair texture didnt factor into it. Just like we can see 2 sisters, one blonde and one brunette and recognize that they are sisters, or see one with curly hair and one with straight hair and recognize it, people who arent used tos eeing eyes purely through a strict w/b/a view may disregard racial markers and focus on facial features.

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 7:15 pm ¶

57. jen wrote:

    @deaf indian muslim anarchist: UP THE PUNX!
    @bloom: pop culture brings out the racist anglocentrics in us all doesn’t it it!
    @maia: thank you for the cthulhu reference!

    lots of love for the subculture camps that critique and analyze the politics of popular culture!

    Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 8:52 pm ¶

58. Zorah wrote:

    I ignored it mainly because the only “celebrity” I’ve ever been compared to is the clown on the big comfy couch, and that was in like 5th grade and i really fail to see the resemblance. though it may be kinda funny…

    I have noticed though that some of the pictures people post don’t look like them at all except that they’re the same race.

    Posted 11 Feb 2010 at 12:59 am ¶

59. YellowValkyrie wrote:

    I didn’t participate, but I think anybody who deviates from the Hollywood Standard of Beauty (i.e. white, thin, abled, “conventionally attractive”) is going to have significantly fewer choices, so it could definitely be a meme that excludes a lot of us.Though I noticed some of my friends were pretty nuanced in the people they picked. Like, their idea of what constituted “resemblance” went beyond skin color, eye color, hair color: I have a blonde, blue-eyed friend who chose Sara Gilbert (curly haired brunette from Rosanne) and it was remarkably spot on.

    I think my white mom looks like Donna Summer, but with different colored eyes and skin.

    Posted 11 Feb 2010 at 2:04 am ¶

60. Eurasian Sensation wrote:

    My partner (who is Tamil) had this problem, and decided not to bother.

    For myself on the other hand, I have a wealth of choices; I’m mixed white and Indonesian, but quite racially ambiguous in appearance. The range of famous people that people say I look like includes the likes of James Blake, Ronaldo, Vin Diesel, Jo Koy and Thierry Henry.

    Posted 11 Feb 2010 at 4:06 am ¶

61. Thinkin' thinkin' wrote:

    A friend of mine who has some Jewish ancestry had a large number of suggestions for using Jewish actors like Eli Roth and Adrien Body. He does not “look Jewish” and was not even aware of his Jewish ancestry until after high school. In fact, in high school, before he made this discovery, we all thought he looked exactly like Harry Potter. Still, many people made these other suggestions.

    Posted 11 Feb 2010 at 2:31 pm ¶

62. liveloveteach wrote:

    I had the same issues… I am a black woman with locs and the only people I could find looked nothing like me. eventually my friend found a picture of the only black character on rugrats and everyone has been saying that i totally look like that.
    another group of people who have been left out of this meme are genderqueer people, people who eff with the gender binary in their presentation.

    Another meme I despise on facebook: the “look your name up on urbandictionary and pick the definition that fits you” honestly for someone with an ethnic name or a creatively spelled name (like me) has a hard time with this!

    Posted 11 Feb 2010 at 6:31 pm ¶

63. saresails wrote:

    I’m white, but with enough mixed ancestry along the lines to forever place me in the ‘ambiguous’ category.

    Needless to say, I just picked a picture of a vegetable.

    Posted 12 Feb 2010 at 3:56 am ¶

64. m wrote:

    It’s not the fault of the facebook *meme* that blond white people will have an easier time picking a doppelgangar. The problem is that there are more skinny blond celebrities than POC celebrities (and incredibly short or tall or fat or handicapped ones). So maybe it isn’t “fair” that its harder to play the meme game, but it’s because of the culture, not facebook.

    I was too lazy to pick a celebrity who visually looked like me, so I used Phil and Lem from Better off Ted. Despite the fact that I am not two men (of two different races, no less), or even male, they are probably the best representation of how my brain works.

    Posted 16 Feb 2010 at 3:32 pm ¶

65. Roxie wrote:

    I used the “My Heritage” site to try & come up with a doppelganger. My first five result women from Japan or Korea, who I think are idols and/or singers.

    I’m African-American.

    Posted 21 Feb 2010 at 5:58 pm ¶