In the world today, beauty tends to be limitless and extremely different among various cultures, countries, and races. For example, in certain tribes in Africa, beauty among women is heavily determined by the weight of the woman. The bigger you are, the more beautiful you are. In a certain tribe in Malaysia, the native women place rings around their necks causing them to extend in length over time. The longer your neck is, the more beautiful you are. Along with those, come many others, beauty is measured so differently worldwide. In my opinion, however, the dominant measure of beauty among women within the United States is very degrading and sad. Women in the United States measure their place of beauty heavily on the skinnier they are and the lighter they are. Many women in the US have subjected themselves to binging, starvation, and anorexia all causing huge health and safety issues all to just stay thin. This is more than likely because many of the models and women featured in magazines and the entertainment industry are strikingly thin and beautiful. Being that these women are being featured in magazines and among the eyes of million of men, thousands of women have dedicated their lives to fitting this "desire".
Among African Americans, usually lighter skin is a huge factor in what makes a woman more desirable. This is because lighter African American women usually possess the "whiter" and more innocent looking features. Many times you will see problems arise among light and dark skins black women because of mere jealously. Usually darker skinned women hang together while lighter skins do the same among themselves. When featured in magazines, African American women are usually lightened and seen as close to being "white" as possible. Not necessarily because they want this but because this is what American society desires. Blacks are being enhanced and depicted as something that they are not. The idea of dark skin is losing is value which is becoming a huge issue among the African American community. If their real skin color is not being shown in these magazines, these black women should not be featured as something that they are not. It is cruel and degrading.
I would have to agree and state that the media does predominantly portray black beauty as being light skinned, slim, and having long hair. It can indeed be considered a stereotype, but regardless of the media's agenda I feel that there should be a collective effort within the black community to celebrate our diversity in appearance. Coming to an HBCU and mainly the Mecca, I must admit that I have developed a newfound admiration and respect for the different shades, shapes, sizes, and features of the African American community. Not to say that I was not in touch with my culture and the vastness of our people, I had yet to be exposed to the wealth of diversity within our own community. To see so many like minded individuals headed in the same direction was inspiring and I think it is our responsibility as a community to take the lead and appreciate the beauty of ourselves first and foremost.If not us, then who?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement about lighter skin toned black women being more attractive. when I was younger my grandma always told me the blacker the berry the deeper the roots. So my whole life I have tried to not be so picky with women. The sad part is that out of all the women that I have dated, most of them were lighter toned women. Even though I try not to discriminate, I prefer a lighter toned woman. I'm guessing its because I'm pretty dark myself.
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