African American Beauty Culture In Noliwe Rooks, And Amoaba Gooden

Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set

Hair is an aspect of identity many women are made to confront. It is a projection of how a woman would like to be perceived and who she believes she is within her society. Black women in America face an interesting dilemma when it comes to hair. When African slaves were brought to America, they were confronted with the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, which, in addition to pale skin and Anglo Saxon facial structure, also included straightened hair. As time progressed, black people sought new ways to assimilate. Throughout the course of time many hair straightening agents such as straightening irons, perms, and hair extensions have been used to help aid black people in mimicking the hairstyles of the socially accepted white standards. More

The beauty standards set for African American women has shifted drastically in the past decades due to the change in popularized stereotypical images portrayed through the explicit lyrics of hip hop and rap music. How African American women are portrayed in the music industry has had a profound impact on how black women view themselves as well as other races, it promotes unrealistic body sizes/images, and colorism in the black community because of how the new age rap and hip hop stigmatizes and sexualize the Black woman’s body as a whole. Not only are males rap artist contributing to the exploitation of African woman but also the women of rap as well are adding to the derogatory and disrespectful image that is perceived by society.

However, the contrasting racial ideas of beauty are more than passive recepticals of societal change. Changing ideals of beauty are an effective method of social commentary and often change the values of society itself. Beyond being analytical antitheses of each other, the African-American and Caucasian-American ideals of beauty actively challenged the other throughout American history. Culturally, African-American ideals of beauty were often demonized by the white population who felt the ideas of Christian Europe were superior to the rich and diverse African culture. In retaliation, black artists and poets often marginalized the portrayal of white Americans and emphasized the eternal beauty of African-American ideals. In addition, white women often adopted African-American hair styles and physical traits of beauty, while black women changed their hair and clothing styles to gain acceptance from Caucasian-American society and change how African-Americans were perceived in Caucasian-American art. Even idealistically, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s was the culmination of African American pride and ideas into a movement to revolutionize the standard American idea of

Throughout the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” Dave Barry tries to explain how cosmetics are not important to the average male, but is an important topic for women. Men usually do not place as much importance in one’s appearance as women do. As Barry points out, if a group of men were instructed by Brad Pitt to apply cosmetics, they would quickly realize that the task was pointless, even demeaning to an extent. Most women on the other hand, place higher importance on their looks, even to the point of setting unobtainable goals of beauty. An example that Barry makes, is that women become obsessed with these looks because men want women to look that way, even though majority of men don’t care about cosmetics for the most part. These different

All American females live in a society that puts undue pressure on women to accommodate an unreasonable ideal, and the Euro-American standard of beauty has dominated popular culture causing devastating economic, physical, and psychological effects, particularly on African American women, who should embrace their natural beauty. African American women make destructive changes to their body that will break down their bank accounts, and the woman's physical body appearance to the naked eye. Rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, and botulinum toxin are just some of the costly surgeries that have major changes and that can cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Physically, African American women begin

103) During this era beauty practices focused on the appearance of Black women, most notably their skin tones and hair textures. Since white manufacturers dominated the beauty industry, they used prevailing “white aesthetic tastes” to target African American men and women. These so-called beauty products exploited African Americans by making a profit off of their hunger for equality, social acceptance and economic advancement by promising, unbeknownst to them, unrealistic results. (p. 100) A perfect example of such a promise is the picture ad Black Skin Remover: A Wonderful Face Bleach in the February 15th, 1902 edition of The Colored American, an African American periodical whose advertisement, Dr. Lindsey says “champions the product’s ability to make black skin several shades whiter and mulatto skin ‘perfectly white.’” (p.

Eurocentric beauty standards are perpetuated around the world due to colonization and the major influence of Europeans. These beauty standards have forced women of all backgrounds to chemically alter their skin and hair and promotes self-hatred in women of darker complexions. Particularly, American Black women hold many of the lasting effects that the Eurocentric beauty standards caused. There are still issues faced today in which some black women are uncomfortable in their skin, are not fond of their hair and are victims of colorist biases.

Culture is something that we see all around us. It can shape our viewpoints, alter our actions, and ultimately determine who we are. One of the big culture movements that is happening here in America is the drive to be skinny. This has been mainly advertised in our art, whether that be movies, photos in magazines, comic books or even television. It is something that is hard to escape. The target audience has mainly been women. The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) states that about twenty million women in the United States struggle with anorexia, bulimia, or a binge-eating disorder (Gies, Jacqueline and Martino, Sarah). This has widely been because of our culture and what we are told is the ideal woman through everyday art forms. So what about in other cultures? Is

There 's this young woman I 've seen in the Union on occasion. Appearance-wise, there 's nothing particularly remarkable about her. She is of about average height and weight for a white American woman in the traditional college age bracket, and she wears darker, earthy tones and dark blues. However, rather than engage in the stereotypical interactions of her peers, chatting and standing or walking slowly in groups, she appears to prefer solitude. She is almost always alone, and she moves through the crowded Union with a quiet, focused purpose. She 's not fast, but she doesn 't stop moving or even break stride if something catches her eye until she reaches her destination, and, when combined with the colors she wears, she can easily blend

The African American Aesthetic and the Caucasian American Aesthetic contrast starkly, revealing profound insights on the character and progression on American society.

The discussion on Kenyan fashion has a high prevalence of cultural layers that we can see will differ amongst the different social classes. African fashion in the modern world today is primarily used as a large example in discussing the manipulations of fashion because of the westernizing movement in cultural appropriation. Due to the fact that a large number of people in the western hemisphere are using cultural African apparel to suit their fashionista tastes, African women are therefore put in a position where they feel they must uphold the authenticity of such styles; as they feel pressurized in preserving their culture from appropriation. Fashion among middle class Kenyan women in urban areas and women living in other urban areas in Africa,

“You would look so much prettier with your hair straight!” is a comment my sister of mixed descent has been receiving from her classmates since childhood. Straight hair is a Eurocentric beauty standard that has been pushed onto my lighter skinned sister for most of her life. I am of a darker complexion however and therefore am complimented often on my naturally curly hair. This leads to the question; do black beauty standards differ from white ones? The answer to this query is explored in Maxine Craig’s work Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? She claims that in many regards, though not all, the answer is yes. While Craig does a good job of defining the historical moments that lead to black beauty standards today, she lacks an explanation as to why darker skin tones are stigmatized the way they are and neither does she factor in how many people consider personality when determining beauty.

What is beauty? Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically. Women and girls aspire to be beautiful according to society’s definition of beauty. Some may describe this as a social norm. Perhaps society’s definition of beauty does help empower women and girls to want to be viewed as beautiful, but society definition of beauty normally favors white culture which is displayed in Shea Moisture “break the walls” commercial. Observing the Shea Moisture advertisement, viewers may wonder, what is Shea Moisture selling besides their product? Despite Shea Moisture trying to sell their natural hair product they present an emotion (pathos) appeal to explain that equality is needed in society beauty standards, therefore advocating that there needs to be a change in society standards for beauty. Furthermore, the Shea Moisture commercial address inequalities black women and girls are faced with when trying to buy hair care products.

This ad, promoting Nivea’s line of men’s skincare products, features a man supposedly of an African American ethnicity neatly dressed with a shaven face tossing away an ‘old’ or “un-civilized” guillotined version of his face, the one with an afro and beard. Society today is blinded with values associated with whom they consider ‘other’ predominantly created by members of the dominant ‘white’ race. These values help reduce the African Americans to stereotypes like uncivilized, savage, wild and unattractive. Nivea aims to position the audience, which in this ad is assumed to be African men due to the model, to recognize the drastic effect their product can offer to their appearance, ultimately causing them to become “re-civilized” and well-groomed