Analysis Of Margaret Burroughs 's ' The Eye Of Society '

As stated above, African-American women have been subjected to measure themselves against white women. White women are viewed, in this society and since the beginning of the concept of race, as the epitome of beauty. Logically, African-American women attempt to emulate the white standard. This creates an inferiority complex, because the epitome of beauty is white woman, than any other race can be deemed as inferior; this deteriorates African-American women’s self-worth. To remedy worthlessness, many body modification techniques have been made to fully mimic white women in terms of beauty. This emulation still is being done and it is continuous, because of the psychological ‘white fantasization .

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

In the context of physical appearance, black woman are only featured with body parts- mainly their “large, rotund behind” (Perry 137). The presentation of the face is mainly limited to white or lighter-complexioned women. The highest idealization of women is one that possesses a “‘high-status’ face combined with a highly sexualized body read by the viewer as the body of a poor or working-class woman” (Perry 137). Perry further substantiates her claim by stating that “women are created or valued by how many fantasy elements have been pieced together in their bodies” (137). She debunks the opposition arguing that the bodies of black women are appreciated by pointing out that only a minority of black women have such attributes, and those without are pressured and struggle to achieve such proportions.

Gerald Early, the author of the essay Life with Daughters, describes the hardships of being African American especially when trying to raise two daughters who don’t believe they are beautiful . Early’s purpose is to inform the reader of all the difficulties that black girls face growing up in a society who has defined beauty with the image of a white, skinny blonde. He adopts a bitter tone in order to point out all of the difficulties these girls face in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences of other African American girls their parents.

Americans live in a media-saturated world, where images constantly flow from the pages of magazines, television, and computer screens. Media creates a brand of beauty by helping the viewer identify the item with the beautiful people that are selling it. They are selling a “brand” of beauty. Hundreds of years ago, a brand was sometimes burned into the skin of some slaves. The damage of the brand was not only horrible physical scars, but also emotional trauma. When society begins accepting the media’s brand as their standard for their own physical identity, or when ethnic groups are defined by these brands, the results can be just as devastating.

In Killing Us Softly, Kilbourne gives the example of the common advertising image of a black women in a jungle setting, wearing a leopard skin. In most media, white women are considered the “standard model” of what is desirable, both from the perspective of what a women should look like, and

Dina Gerdeman’s article discusses how the cosmetic industry in India has created a stereotype in which individuals with lighter skin tones are more acceptable and successful in comparison to those with darker skin tones. The media has portrayed this image persistently despite social activists arguing against the implications. Even though many campaigns have been created to combat this stereotype, the March 2016 case author of “Fair & Lovely vs. Dark is Beautiful,” Rohit Deshpande says, “…if you look at whether it’s done anything to affect the sales of the product category, the answer is no. This is a big market by any standards, and it’s growing exponentially” (para. 12). By the cosmetic industry’s perspective, “The government

Much attention is given to the issue of the perfect body image among young girls and women in the United States; however, within this set of people, little attention is given towards black women and the topic of their hair. How are black women affected by these unrealistic standards for beauty, especially in a world that tends to favor the Eurocentric standards? This study discusses the phenomenon behind black women and their hairstyles and explains that their choice in hairstyle is not solely reliant on societal expectations, but also equally of their own personality, self-esteem, and time.

In recent years, historians and scholars, specifically Susannah Walker, Noliwe Rooks, and Amoaba Gooden, have begun to assiduously examine African American beauty culture from a racial and gender perspective. Accordingly, these historians and scholars now suggest that African American beauty culture was profoundly influenced by the racial and gender politics of the early twentieth-century time period. For example, in her book titled Style & Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975, historian Susannah Walker asserts that African American beauty culture was distinctly unique from other forms of beauty culture because it “explicitly reflected and articulated twentieth-century racial politics in the United States.” Similarly, Amoaba Gooden, a pan-African studies professor at Kent State University, surmises that racialized notions of feminine

As a darker-skinned African-American, I am told every day that my shade of color is not beautiful in society. Social institutions such as my peers (classmates and sometimes friends), school, media, etc. have all had some influence on my perceptions on what is/is not beautiful. There is a lack of diversity in film, T.V. shows, music videos, music, social media apps, etc. If there is a black woman publicized she is of lighter skin, sexualized, and exhibits European features. Globally, there is a

Throughout many decades, African American women have been able to set their own standards of beauty. Lonnae Parker, a writer for The Washington Post, states in her article Black women heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds, that “Freed from that high-powered media gaze, generations of black women have fashioned their own definitions of beauty with major assists from literature, music, and help from their friends” (Parker, 2012). The importance of this quote is that they were getting help from their culture, the music and literature is essentially the culture that helped them to define their own standards of beauty. By being isolated

Some say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however, this could not be farther from the truth. From a historical perspective, beauty has been shown to be in the eye of the conformer. Society sets the standard of beauty and, either willingly or unwillingly, people obey. One may ask what happens to those who do not fit the standard, and the answer is simple: they become invisible. The narrator in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Claireece Precious Jones in Push by Sapphire, are all examples of how societal standards blind the acquiescent and cloak the divergent.

Self image has been a stigma for African Americans since slavery. According to Kerri A. Reddick-Morgan, these notions of negative self image have only been perpetuated by misrepresentations of black beauty/culture in the modeling industry, cosmetic corporations, and the media as a whole. As stated in Reddick’s Emulated through Images: The Globalization of Misconstructed African

A Genealogy of Modern Racism by Cornel West. According to America, the standard beauty is the Europeans, the idea of the white supremacy that all white people have the power. Racism is still an issue in America, people are been discriminated by their skin color. White people are considered to be the most beautiful persons in the world, but this is just what make us think because this is the way that society is structure that white people are the ruling class.

Feeling beautiful deals with many factors but it has become incumbent with focus being placed on the physical aspects of person Una Marson writes about beauty and how it drives many women into changing their features and making those features fit into the standard of beauty. Her poem, “Kinky Haired Blues” speaks about that notion, of women wanting to assimilate to what the norm is. Specifically women of ethnic minorities, she talks more about Black Women and the pressure for them to bleach their skin and to iron their hair. Matters such as race are at forefront of the issues in her society and of the society we currently live in today. Una Marson’s poem “Kinky Hair Blues” speaks to the idea of beauty and the standard of beauty. And how many