Today's society has created a large neagtive effect that tends to make many feel deeply insecure or unhappy with their self-image. Predominately women, are the victims who nowadays are always searching for the lastest diet, clothes, make-up, and hair to make them feel more beautiful or up to par. This occurs amongst all races but mostly women of color tend to feel even more passionate about this issue being as they were seen as inferior in history, and they often feel as if they aren't as beautiful as more fair skined women. Speaking as a young woman of color I have also felt this way before and thought if I were light skinned with naturally straight hair, then I would be veiwed as being more beautiful. Or that the straighter my hair the better because natural hair is "nappy" and not as attractive. These standards of beauty are common agmonst society and give young women even little girls negative preceptions about self-image. Kiri Davis invetstigated this when she directed the documentary A Girl Like Me in 2005. In the short film she talked to a few young black women about their personal misconceptions of beauty, how this issue affected others they knew, and the present and common sterotype of the black woman. Wahida, one of the young women interveiwed, stated how she knew someone who actually put cap fulls of bleach into thier bath water in hopes that their skin would lighten. Also featured in the video is a modern day doll test, like the one conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the Brown vs. Board of Education supreme court case. There were two baby dolls, one black and one white. Kiri asked the each of the little girls and boys to picked the doll that they thought to be "smater","better",and more "beautiful". It turned out that 15 out of the 21 children always picked the white doll. This test proved that young black children have the same negitive issues with self-image as they did back in the 1960s and much hasn't changed. After vewing the documentary I was shocked at the doll tests results. The video made me think that the black community needs to do more teach our children to love their apperance from any early age, hold their selves in high esteem and that we need to undo this common generational misconception. If you would like to watch A Girl Like Me for your self, please cut and paste the link below into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg
2 comments:
Wow, I was never aware of the low self-image most colored women have towards themselves.
It also saddens me to think that some people still don't see others of various races with equal quality.
However, these colored women with low self-esteem must see and accept themselves as they are, and not how others see and accept them as.
to me, i think one's beauty reflects their insides, if a girl looks beautiful...that means she cares for her looks.
if one doesn't than it's her buisness.
and no, not all blacks aren't beautiful...there are far more UGLIER sights
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