| Author | Message | ||
     Tonya "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Tonya Post Number: 990 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
M2cents on women like Lauren Hill, Brenda Sikes, and Kanye Moore: To me, the average black woman looks more like the beautiful female who played alongside Angela Bassett (as Tina Turner's sister) in the movie "what's love got to do with it?".. not Angela Bassett. (When I say average, I mean the majority (nine out of ten), in terms of skin color, racial features, hair texture, ect.. not average looking). As for Lauryn Hill, it's obvious as well.... How many non- heavily mixed black women have Lauryn's nose(?).. (which happens to be a prominent feature of European beauty standards). And, how many of us are shaped anything like her??? Lauryn has a wafe (sp) like figure, which is most common to women of European descent. Most black women (again, those who aren't heavily mixed) are curvier with fuller breast and/or backsides.... I think we've gotten to the point where we can no longer deny our usage of European beauty standards as a way of "prettying" up our *ill perceived* lack of physical beauty, which is good. It's a start, at least. But we've fallen into a rut where we are too comfortable with (to borrow a term from Kola, which I find very catchy) "compromise".. negogiating our perceived beauty: Lauryn has dark skin so that's good enough; never mind the fact that she doesn't have all, or even most, of the features that the average black female has. And Byounce... well... she's "Bootylicious".... She has the "Booty" so that's good enough.... It's "black enough".... Don't get me wrong, I think both women are extremely talented; I think Beyounce is most likely a sweet caring person.. AND LAURYN (!!!).... That's my girl -- I am one of her biggest fans because, culturally, she represents us bona fide sistahs to the tee -- you know I'm down with my girl LAURYN!.. which is why it truly pains me to say that, although she's extremely beautiful, drop dead gorgeous, in fact... her physical appearance doesn't adequately capture the *true* essence of our very distinct, extraordinarily rare, exquisite & intense, splendor... our beauty.. one that we should be genuinely be proud of..... We should be knocking down doors to showcase our glory.. our magnificence! So for the life of me.. I don't see why we'd EVER want to "compromise?".... Anyway... I love Lauryn; Beyounce seems sweet, and Angela Bassett is my girl, too. But, I don't think their visual images adequately represents our beauty, that's all. ____________________________ This is what I don't get.... How is Kenya Moore's "beauty" any different, in terms of white supremacy beauty standards & black female representation, than Beyounce's. You said so yourself: she's a "chocolate Beyounce", and that's true. European standards of beauty includes more that just skin color. What about the features? Are we "compromising" that too, now? I am a dark-skinned sistah with "keen" features but I am not going to jump on the Kenye Moore band wagon because, to me, that truly defeats the purpose. If breaking down the barriors of white supremacy standards is the objective.. how does a "chcolate covered european beauty".. a "CUTE TO BE DARK-SKINNED" sistah like Kenya help to achieve that goal? _____________________________________________ My Opinion on what I refer to as Jim Crow bitches: I don't think they should stop "achieving"... but, at the same time, I wouldn't want my daughter growing up thinking that what these women are doing is right. Whether they know that they are wrong or not (and I find it hard to believe that they don't) I don't think it's healthy for young women, especially, to think it's ok to glorify women who are willing to place themselves in such a position in order to "achieve". I said this before, **their images are no different than the images of white people portraying black folk in black face during Jim Crow.** But lets say that these women don't understand it on that level; they know that they look nothing like the majority of black poeple -- that much they know; and, frankly, that should be enough for them to understand completely. I can care less that these women ended up doing whats utterly dishonest, deceptive, and unethical (knowingly or not).. but I think that excusing their behavior is the wrong message to send to young folk. ___________________________________ What I said about Mary J. Blidge's blond hair: Don't think I'm giving Mary special treatment because, honestly, I'm not that big of a fan, and I agree with you, she can represent a lot better; especially since she's one of the very few bona fide sistahs in the media -- for that reson she's a very big disappointment. But my point is, if we're going to castigate her for wearing blond hair (which is usually short in length, at least, and doesn't make her look any whiter) we need to castigate (just as harshly)almost every black women in hollywood; because, except for a few, they all wear long weaves, which makes them look whiter. To me, Mary J. Blige looks blacker than Foxy Brown did with her long natural colored weave. (And Foxy's more authentic lokking than Mary.) I think Mary looks more natural than most of the black women in hollywood who wear long natural colored weaves. As I said earlier, I don't agree with perms, blond hair, and especially long weaves. Obviously, I don't agree with perms because most black women don't have naturally straight hair -- but if you're going to wear a perm/color/blond at least wear a length that's natural for black women. Like straight hair, long *FLOWING* hair is NOT a natural trait of nappy headed black women. But, out of long weaves, short perms, and short color/blond - long weaves are the most noticable and most European looking of them all -- that's why I loathe tham the most. ___________________________ ...when she wears it short she doesn't look that way {white} -- she still looks like a natural black women. Some black women can do that. She and the actress/singer Eve can do that ("pull it off" and still look like natural black women) WHEN THEY WEAR IT SHORT. That said, I don't agree with any of it -- it's a slippery slope: first perms and skin bleaches, then weaves and skin lightening make-up, now blond hair and blue contacts. IT'S ALL DESTRUCTIVE. And it ALLLL stems from the same destructive white supremacy mindset. IT'S ALL THE SAME. Tonya |