"BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL" was a truly revolutionary slogan. >
It's interesting to observe the cooptation of that very radical and courageous thought by the machinery of the American media. Massive pressure from many sides forced the white media to introduce token Third World personnel into visible positions, starting in the middle and late 60's; the fashion and beauty market was not exempt.
But the media managed the change without any real alteration of its established Beauty Standard. Third World women, especially (women always have to be more beautiful) were selected for their closeness to Caucasian features; they had to show just enough 'color' to show their ethnicity, but the general effect was that of white women painted brown (or yellow, or . . .). This is true particularly of romantic figures and fashion models (supposed to be beautiful, therefore must be close to white); clown characters and villains can be as ethnic as they please--the more the better. The most ludicrous example of this was probably Mattel, Inc.'s 'Black Barbie,' a Barbie doll made out of brown plastic (instead of 'flesh'--whose flesh?--color).
This is not history. Only last year a Black newswoman on local TV was threatened with dismissal for wearing her hair in traditional 'cornrow' braids. Apparently that was just a little too ethnic!
There is another item to document in the interaction between racism and beauty, and that is the use of Third World women's bodies in pornography and the fashion industry. (The line between the two is getting thinner all the time.)
Institutionalized racism of the past and present is a favorite theme of modern pornographers. There is a delicate imbalance between the evidence of a Third World woman's race that is "too" evident, that triggers the racist reflex of "nonwhite, therefore ugly," and the evidence that is just sufficient to be "exotic."
I suggest that the appeal of the exotic in female beauty, in fashion and in pornography, has its roots deep in colonial violence against Third World women. When femininity is the same as powerlessness, what could be more feminine that the enslaved and raped daughter of the invaded and pillaged nation? The imagery of rape is doubled: the rapist/invader violates both the woman and the whole people whom he despises. It is fairly common to find photoessays (in fairly mainstream porn) dwelling on the binding, beating, torturing, and raping--by white men--of Black women, Asian women (echoes of the atrocity of Vietnam!), Chicana women, Native American women, and (yes, they don't miss a beat) Jewish women.
The "exotic" Third World woman in porn, like the bizarre "lesbian" scenarios and the child models, appeals precisely because she is powerless. In all three cases, the reader is effectively told, "Here is a body you can do anything to; a thing, someone you know has no power compared to yours."
The propaganda of woman-hatred and of race-hatred mesh neatly on the glossy pages of our brothers' and fathers' favorite porn magazines. The much-mythologized scenario in which a Black man rapes a white woman resounds with the complexities of the two. It is an ideal pornographic fantasy because the woman (as the reader projects his racism onto her) must hate this rape more than any other kind--which makes her, like a lesbian, a better victim. It emphasizes the passivity of their beauty; permits the reader to claim she needs his protection (masculinity proven!) from someone other than himself. It caters to his hostility and fear around the Black man's race, tells him his obsessive sexual cruelty towards Black men is justified (to stop them from raping) and that his obsessive sexual cruelty to women is justified (to enforce his control, to prevent 'unapproved' breeding). And so much more.
We have not really wandered from the theme. The interaction of racism and beauty is woven into our media, from Seventeen magazine to Penthouse. The woman who tries hard to be the DREAM GIRL displays her loyalty topatriarchal images of woman; the woman who lightens her skin and straightens her hair displays her loyalty to the essential racist ethic: white is good, black is bad. The men who own the cosmetics industry make a good deal of money off both of them.
He: Can I come home with you tonight?
She: No, I need my beauty sleep.
He: That's all right, I'm not interested in any part of you that's beautiful.
--Joke from Playboy magazine
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I think these entries will suffice as a good way to end this journey into racial intolerance, discrimination, and others form prejudices meant of mentally and emotionally debilitate minority women as depicted above and by shown by my own experiences. This has been Reflections on Truth and Breaking down the Myths: Sexism in America and Women Struggle for Equality.
Evelyn out
