Black women have always been beautiful, unique, and diverse, coming in all shapes, sizes, skin tones, and hair textures. Although women of all ethnicities would hope to be fit and firm, black women do not usually struggle with not living up to the mainstream standard of beauty of having to be super skinny. Although they too struggle with their share of body image and self esteem issues, they rarely feel the need to look like Cindy Crawford or Heidi Klum. This is mostly due to the fact that black culture values thickness, curves, and a nice healthy bootie.
Although many men claim to like a healthier figured woman, black men tend to love it and are not too shy about expressing their appreciation! Thus, although it may take a woman a while to appreciate and embrace her own figure, she most likely has also received affirmation from family members and black men. What is interesting is how black women’s features seem to get overlooked by mainstream society and not seen as equally desirable. That is, until a famous white woman with similar features gets recognition for her unique looks.
A perfect example of this is how Angelina Jolie is seen as one of the most beautiful women in the world. People can’t stop talking about her luscious and full lips! Women these days are constantly seeking lip injections to achieve a similar look. What?????? Has the world never seen full lips before? HELLO!! Angelina is so beautiful because she has lips that most black women have. In a recent magazine, Christina Ricci mentioned how she would love to have a firm butt like Jessica Biel. Who is Jessica Biel? (of course we know who she is, but seriously?) It’s like, women want to look like black women, but only if white women resemble them! That’s crazy!
Of course we have our own magazines, TV shows, and movies and we can enjoy them and feel represented, though it would be nice if the mainstream would give black women’s beauty the respect and recognition it deserves. After all, the little girls of our future generations need it.
I’m glad you posted on this subject – because I’ve been thinking about it for ages! Why stop at looks, lets talk about skin color. It seems like everyone is dying to be tan – men and women, coast to coast and even in the mid-west, but you know…not too tan. Reminds me of a joke D.L. Hugely made once warning a white audience member to loose her tan “’cause it never did us a bit of good!” Its amazing that Black people are used as a barometer for what’s cool, stylish and hip – and yet never quite seen as equals to their non-Black counterparts. I was recently chatting with my hairdresser on the prospect of doing business in France (where good hair care for Black women in seriously in need!) and she brought up some interesting points on the fascination with black hair in Japan. Apparently there is a huge subculture of young people dedicated to emulating the texture of African hair. Braids and cornrows are also incredibly popular. Interesting how the coin has flipped! Its amazing that our God-given looks, once ridiculed, are now en vogue. My mother told me of a popular fad when she was young whereby Black women would only put lipstick on their lower lips, to make their lips seem smaller! Can you imagine! How many times haven’t we heard the “big lips” jokes but when Angelina comes along is all the rage! Oh the irony! But alas, if you think about it too much, you’re head will just fall right off.
Thanks for your input Delali! We weren’t even going to get into skin color…that blog would have taken up pages! But yes, it is mind boggling how messed up everything is and it makes you wonder if things will ever truly be different. How would we ever really know? Thanks for your thought provoking words, please keep reading!
I agree that we all want a certain figure, many of the features of which is consistently found in black women. But if we all turned to black women and said how much we wanted their bodies as our own/for sex, wouldn’t that perpetuate exotification? People have been drooling over black women’s curves for years…the hottentot venus, Nike’s commerical (http://www.thirdwayblog.com/images/1600/nike%20print%20my%20butt.jpg). While you could argue the Nike commercial has some message about power in it, I don’t even know if that is Serena or Venus. The appreciation we see now is only skin deep. I would rather see America appreciate a black woman’s entirety then simply her lips and butt. It’s like wanting to be blonde–America tells us to bleach our hair, but at the same time tells us blonde’s are dumb. Ergo, women think they need to act ditsy, and the appreciation for blondes only goes so far as being a bimbo. Do we really want recognition for our features if it means accepting chauvinist implications?
What messes up appreciation for women is not just exotification, etc, but America’s double standards and contradictions when it comes to beauty. America loves boobs and butts, but also loves skinny women. It’s not so keen on thick thighs, which often accompany the big butt. It also wants women to have colored eyes. So while America has created a beauty standard that reflects but also ignores black women, it has also selected a collage of different features that it wants women to impossibly combine. This pick-and-choose attitude tortures all women, and destroys what makes a human really attractive–a unique mixture of features that can’t be duplicated.
I do think this argument applies especially to black women. But I have a chip on my shoulder because people think I like black men and women and dance to hip-hop because I have a big butt. My big butt is as white as the rest of my body!!
If you asked America if they would adore an exotic woman from Ecuador it would say hell yes–but when my sister’s friend went down to Ecuador to teach a class, one of the students gave her a portrait he had drawn of her—with blonde hair and blue eyes!!!! This girl had dark hair, dark eyes and was Jewish, to top it off! The beauty confusion is everywhere, and I totally agree with the person above me—if you think about it too much, your head will just fall right off.
What’s so striking about this topic is that a Black Woman’s beauty is actually recognized but disguised in lip and buttock injections, overly tanned soon-to-be-cancerous bodies, cornrows and dreadlocks worn by other races, and “plus-sized” models. It’s one thing to emulate black beauty and another to be black beauty, the latter is not allowed according to society’s nauseatingly euro-centric standard of beauty. To add insult to injury, beauty products are not made for our skin or skin tone and mainstream fashion isn’t even tailored to fit black womens’ bodies.
What’s also interesting is that if men are attracted to a certain body type, they will more than likely approach a woman with that body type, but when it comes to race they tend to think twice before moving. For example, I have a black girlfriend whose body type is very slender and she receives stares mainly from Caucasion men but is never approached. Black men don’t even look her way because there is truth in that most black men celebrate curves and if you don’t have it then you’re automatically eliminated. In relationships, a man’s race doesn’t matter to her but I can only imagine the struggle one would face if she prefered to be with say a black man, but appeared curve-less and considered undesirable because of this.
Society celebrates lighter skin, hair and eye color as well as a taller height and skinnier body. This is paraded all over the media and unfortunately is ingrained in the minds of our young girls. I remember a time when a Korean college classmate of mine (very new to the U.S.) explained how back home in her country, as little girls they were given only blonde haired and blue eyed barbie dolls to play with and how children in her generation grew up with this twisted view that this was how they were supposed to look. Body dysmorphia ran rampant in her communty from an early age and girls went to the extreme to appear like barbie. I had another Korean friend who also chose to have her eyelids tattooed black to create the illusion of having eyeliner (but it was permanent) in order to have “bigger eyes” and avoid expensive eye-lid surgery. These images create self-esteem issues in black women despite the fact that we celebrate black beauty in our own way and sadly enough it has trickled down to other races at our expense.
Responding to Delali’s post, i’ve encountered Asian students during my college years who actually wore afro’s, dreadlocks, and cornrows and the funny part was that i’d never seen an Asian afro in my life. I thought ‘What is this?’ That’s when I learned about the popularity of African textured hair in Japan. Touching on that, has anyone heard of “Ganguro girls”? They are young Japanese girls who bleach their hair blonde, wear crazy make-up, jewelry and clothing, and darken their skin in order to appear lighter/whiter (that last statement sounds oxymoronic to me). It’s beach blonde meets Raver chic. It’s also called “Face-Black” (they really mean “Black-face”) and they emulate black-face caricatures from African-American culture (Charcoal skin, big bright red lips, bright white eyes and teeth) but they’ve physically altered it and found a way to make it into a fashion trend. I had a friend in college who was a Ganguro girl and she always fried herself in the sun trying to get darker while asking me tips on how to care for her blonde braid extensions. I didn’t know then what I know now, but there is something awfully haunting about reviving this interpretation of black features as something ‘fun’ or ‘faddish’ to poke fun at or lustfully idolize and think that it’s harmless.
Addressing black hair and fashion, last year I read in the LA Times about a new trend that was popular on fashion runways and low and behold it was Afro hair. When I viewed images in the paper and online though, they only had European models wearing these huge Afro wigs. I thought, wouldn’t it be easier to just hire black runway models with afro hair? but no, it all goes back to copying black beauty without being black beauty or better yet, disguising it like they did through their runway models.
I’m so glads you posted this & as a black man who loves black women i get tired of hearing she’s pretty for a black girl etc. I know alot of women & groups don’t agree with magazines like King & Smooth but these were the 1st ones the appreciate a black womans curves,full lips,round eyes & different hairstyles.You’re totally right about Angelinas lips & Jessica B’s behind those things are appreciated & called exotic for attributes that black women naturally have. Now it seems everyone wants “back” full lips & hips. Why is king magazine called exploitation while sports illustrated swim suit edition is called the best thing since slice bread. Sistas come in all types of shapes & sizes & she be appreciated as such….bottom line is deep down inside “they want” what you naturally have & it’s beautiful !!!
The things I’m learning on this blog are amazing–not only from the writers but also from the readers who comment!
The article was great. I have always wondered about that if it wasn’t for my grandfather telling me to be proud of my dark skin I wouldn’t be having the confidence I have today and my husband loves it. I’ve recently moved to Atlanta, GA and there are so many BEAUTIFUL BLACK FOLKS out here all shapes, sizes and colors it is wonderful. I am proud of our people.
Thank you for that,
Tanisha
As a black male, I’ve always seen it as part of my responsibility to let my woman know how truly beautiful she is. This is in hopes that she wouldn’t be as dependent on the rest of the world for it’s approval. I figure, if the rest of the world doesn’t view you as the Queen you are, than at least I can show you royalty at home. Even though I am male, I can identify with almost all the blogs on here. I’ve had issues with my hair, been in interracial relationships, walked on eggshells at work, as well as been pulled over numerous times while driving in suburban neighborhoods (but that’s another story-lol). Any-who, keep up the good work.
-Thanks for the invite to the blog Stacey.