She goes on to describe a doll she received. A doll with blonde hair. She never questioned if there was a brown version. Because brown skin is not at the same level as white skin. Obviously.
I recently I wrote this poem that only begins to explain my feelings about this whole system:
Have you ever looked in the mirror
And thought
"Just a little Lighter, just a little less Brown,
ju
You know,
I’m, not a thing, I’m not a beastst a little more Beautiful”
———————
They've made us hate our skin, our beauty
They've reduced us to things
That just for being a little morenitos
Are supposed to not be considered beautiful, because
that is reserved for the pinks, beiges, peaches, fake tans
And they say
"Just a little more brown, if i could be just a lil more brown"
and
"you’re so exotic,
you don’t have to tan,
I wish I was exotic”
Although my skin is light, I am still brown. Only now am I getting more comfortable with myself and my skin and stopping my wishing of being lighter like part of my family. I have blue-eyed white skinned cousins. I have a half sister with green eyes and aunts with blond hair. I am questioning the toy industry, because all the dolls my black-haired, brown skinned niece, owns are blonde and pink.
Because women of all skin colors need to be valued, our history needs to be seen, our experiences shared.
I totally agree with you on how media and industries show subliminal messages on how being white will make you more "beautiful" and more "respected". In movies and in commercials, white women are the ones that are praised for being beautiful and in those subliminal messages a woman of color MUST be as close as possible to being white in order to be truly beautiful. The media creates self-hatred for women of color and feel like they must modify their bodies in order to feel "desirable" according to the media, but in reality women of color must be proud about their natural bodies because they are naturally beautiful that the media only sees as profit in order t benefit themselves by creating all of this propaganda and subliminal messages on how women of color are seen as less beautiful. Sometimes even in the news/media where there are women of color, the majority have light skin and still send a subliminal message on how women of color must have a certain skin tone in order to be socially accepted and to be considered beautiful. So even between women of color there is still an on-going self-hatred between each other.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on how women of all skin colors need to be valued because natural beauty must be valued in order for the media and industries to not make a profit out of women of color. I believe Immortal Technique says it best in his song "Natural Beauty".
I also agree that our history needs to be seen because history books are written by the victors and they only state half of the truth. Therefore we must write down our own history by sharing our experiences and writing them down and sharing it to the public that if they won't write down the whole truth then WE will expose the truth and reveal their corruption.
Just remember that when natural beauty is acknowledged and accepted, then we will all stop trying to imitate or become as beautiful as the person that wants to become as beautiful as us.
This reminds me of a 1947 study “Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children,” that was conducted by psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie P. Clark, whose findings were used in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, which regarded the desegregation of schools. In the study, children from ages three to seven were presented with multiple questions regarding white and colored dolls provided. The questions were used to assess “racial attitudes or preferences of these Negro children- and to define more precisely, as far as possible the developmental pattern of this relationship,” (169). Their conclusions suggest a stronger preference for the white doll rather than the colored doll. Clark and Clark assert, “Approximately two-thirds of the subjects indicated by their responses to requests 1 and 2 that they like the white doll ‘best,’ or that they would like to play with the white doll in preference to the colored doll, and that the white doll is a ‘nice doll.’” I think it is critical to consider the implication of the conclusions because, even though the study is not exclusively for girls, it shows how racialized preferences and thoughts about the self are. Natasha Threthewey’s ‘Blond’ represents for me an exemplary description of the preference of white skin. I think the study can provide historical background in regards to the topic of racialized skin preference.
ReplyDeleteLink to original 1947 study: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/05/13/doll.study.1947.pdf
Link to 2010 pilot study by CNN:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/05/13/expanded_results_methods_cnn.pdf
That phrase, just a little more...just a little less is so significant to the notions of beauty we’re presented with by the media and the marketplace. The entire construction of the beauty industry depends on our allegiance to this quest to be more x, less y and our pursuit of perfection is their profit. It is impossible to discuss the presence of beauty ideals without addressing the impossibility of attaining the standards marketed to us as the ideal human form. All bodies--the female body is especially brutalized in most marketing, but as Chrystos pointed out in her poem “They’re always telling me I’m too angry”,the bodies of children are also objectified, “used to sell toilet paper and laundry soap”--are often co-opted to sell products and ideals. These ideals are pushed onto people with the goal of establishing unreachable ideals for life and look that appear to be achievable as long as you purchase the right products. The pursuit of these ideals can demand that we compromise ourselves and our bodies to conform. And no one is exempt from the objectification of human bodies and experiences.
ReplyDeleteThe proliferation of these ideals has everything to do with the process of racialization. In the same way that arbitrary characteristics are assigned racial meaning, the same superficial appearances are used to judge the quality of your appearance and often your character. Folks who comply with normalized standards of beauty are likely to make more money, experience more respect and courtesy in daily interactions and are frequently assumed to possess more positive non physical characteristics than people who do not or cannot comply with these arbitrary standards. The system works because you can never be compliant with standards that don’t exist in reality. Beauty, like race, is an ambiguous, social construction that while intangible in itself nonetheless exists in the lived experience of every person.
So when I notice something--an advertisement, trend, media message, peer, etc arguing that I should be more or less of something, I fall back into the mantra of enough-ness. I’ve found that taking control of that word enough and holding onto it, helps me stay grounded and resist those petitions. To argue back against the systems that say you should be more or less is a statement of your own autonomy. So when we’re told, convinced even, that we are to be a little more beautiful, we can fight back and say that no, I am enough.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the poem.