Beauty Standards For Black Women

The author of “The Black Beauty Myth” Sirena Riley has encountered multiple experiences concerning body image throughout her life. At a young age, she started to feel the pressure to have a perfect body. The struggle of making herself perfect ultimately lead to eating disorders. In her journey from a young age to her college years she has learned better ways to deal with negative body image through therapy. She states “I was in three body image and eating disorder groups with other young women on my campus. I was always the only black woman” (Riley 2002, 229).This quote supports her belief that black women have body image problems but are not open to seeking help or expressing it. Sirena points out three factors that influence body image in the lives of women.

The author of “The Black Beauty Myth” Sirena Riley has encountered multiple experiences concerning body image throughout her life. At a young age, she started to feel the pressure to have a perfect body. The struggle of making herself perfect ultimately lead to eating disorders for instance, bulimia and compulsive exercising. In her journey from a young age to her college years she has learned better ways to deal with negative body image through therapy. In her article, she states “I was in three body image and eating disorder groups with other young women on my campus. I was always the only black woman.” (Riley 2002, 229) This quote supports her belief that black women have body image issues but are not open to seeking help or expressing

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

The purpose of this quantitative study is to explore the effects of racial attitudes of blacks on images of themselves with varying skin tones. Supplemental to the study of attitudes and images, the social

When North East Ohio Medical University sponsored a student led project, BetheBeautifulU was formed. Our campaign’s goal is to expose social media’s negative effect on teenage self-esteem due to its focus on Eurocentric standards of beauty. BetheBeautifulU’s purpose was to confront Cleveland's high school issues with self-esteem hidden within high school culture. We came up with numerous topics, like body positivity, but the one that was deeply anchored in our school was colorism. Colorism in Cleveland school districts and the media perpetuates the idea that lighter skinned people are more beautiful and most accepted compared to dark skin people. During our seminar to promote BetheBeautifulU, we asked

The over sexualized perceptions of black women began with the inadequate observations and studies done by biased white males. Black women were believed to have exaggerated sex organs and uncontrollable sexuality (58). This stereotype was locked in during slavery while African American women were subject to abuse from

Today we live in a society that over the years has become so obsessed with body image and how an individual should look. Different cultures have different standards and norms that help to define their ideal body image. African Americans because of their differences in culture have gone against most cultural norms and have set their own definitions of beauty, body image, and body satisfaction. Because of these key differences, the African American community is less likely to feel the pressures that come with body shaming that typically leads to many eating disorders. Through research of different studies, surveys, and interviews, we can begin to learn why African Americans have set their own set of standards and how they have decided to fit into todays society.

Several years, society has created an ideology that white and Europeans descent people have more acceptable, attractive and beautiful features than a someone who is African American or has African descent. Society has held a standard of “white beauty” and African Americans have been and still to this day, find themselves partaking in the standard. In the “white beauty” standard, slim waist, petite, long haired, tall women were prone to be more attractive than others (Patton 26, 30). African American women and men were created with all unique shapes, sizes, and skin complexions and would never be able to meet the standard. Many white women could not even meet up the standard, so they used things such as corsets, Botox, or surgery to do so (31).

“Through history, culture, and media, Black women have most often been portrayed in some combination of three images: (1) as highly maternal, family oriented, and self-sacrificing Mammies; (2) as threatening and argumentative Sapphires; and (3) as seductive, sexually irresponsible, promiscuous Jezebels.”(West, 1) The stereotypical black woman is also often loud, angry, and over the top, which has been used to add humor to today’s television programming and a lot of today’s media. Even though today, images of black women are more common than in the past the same stereotypes remain.

Both the book, Don’t Play in the Sun, by author, Marita Golden, and the documentary, Dark Girls, directed by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry, highlight how these concepts of beauty affect African American women. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the African American men and women perspectives of beauty based on skin color, personal preferences and hair.

Kite points out in her article the discouraging numbers of images and portrayals of women of color in the media to be sufficient and enough to drive positivity in terms of beauty in colored skin. In media, more white women appear in positive roles compared to women of color. In the beauty industry, Kite’s asserts the business is blooming and making more money, by compelling more women to find to meet the media’s presentation of beauty. The result is that women buy more beauty products to fill in the type of flaws that they feel and think they have. Meanwhile, the effect of media’s ideal beauty causes distress to women and girls.

Beauty ideals may differ among different ethnicities, and evolve over time. Some are influenced by others, while some develop their own. Hair is one of the most aesthetically important parts of the human anatomy. It is visible to all, and can be manipulated to however the person desires. Each person’s hair is unique, particularly to their ethnicity. The hair of African Americans is particularly unique as it is not only vastly different from the hair of other races, but also distinct among fellow African Americans. It can be coiled, curly, straight, wavy, and nearly everything in between. Consequently, their hair became the center of much attention, especially do the fact that its appearance differs so greatly from the long standing European

A female should not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin, whether or not she weights 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”. According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of women. A woman being dissatisfied with their body is a everyday trend around the world where as

Back in the third grade until the eleventh in Korea, I thought I was fat, and my dark skin was so unlikable because my friends sometimes teased my skin-tone as well as my physique. In addition, most celebrities in Korea who were commonly regarded as “beautiful” were so skinny and had pale skin-tone. These standards became stressful to me, so I stared to have only one meal a day and wear make-up covering my dark skin at my age of eleven. Of course, this became bad for my health. The bad

This is prominent in the African American community; it is often taught at a young age that if you are of darker complexion or have a curlier hair texture you are not as pretty as the lighter complexioned girl that you might know. It is assumed that the media is to blame for this way of thinking. Youth and teens are self conscious enough without these negative “airbrushed” and unrealistic images put forth in the media.