I read a very interesting article on this website. Here's the link. Read it please.
http://www.bruin-ou.com/aweh/articles/real-beauty-is-beyond-skin-deep.html
And now my mixed up thoughts.
Who do we blame for the obvious and devastating effect of 'colourism'? Growing up we only had white dolls to play with. Barbie was the all beautiful lady, so we thought. She had the blinged out accessories and a very cute boyfriend. Her body was a work of art from her perky breasts to her small waist. She was someone coloured girls could not identify with yet we played with her and placed her on a pedestal of standard as to what true beauty was. I never had any dolls that were coloured or dark skin, why? The closest thing I got to a coloured doll was the cabbage patch kids with braided hair and wide noses. The not-so funny thing is that those cabbage patch kids looked like mutated children born in the aftermath of a nuclear war!
You look at magazines, fashion magazines. Most faces staring back at you are white and thin. Rarely do their feature any models of colour. You look at the catwalks around the world, they are ruled by white women. Look at international beauty pageants - no dark winners. Doesn't that give you the impression that there are no smart, black and beautiful women in this world? What message does that send out to young girls of colour, around the world? What message is being sent out to my young and developing nieces? It is more honest to accept that we are still locked into European standards of beauty and need to work at appreciating beauty in our own image - because as long as we are worshipping images of other people we will never worship ourselves.
Actresses on tv, none the better. Why does Halle Berry seem to get a lot more attention than darker African American actresses, who are in my opinion far greater actors than her?
No wonder we women of colour have so many insecurities. When will we have women who we can identify with in the media? When will the media be it tv and print get with the program and show off the beauty that is colour?!!
One of my guilty pleasures is browsing the members profiles, on this website. I hardly see any dark skin members. Is it embarrassing to post pics because of negative comments you’ll receive or prejudgments made of you because of the colour of your skin? Or is it because there are no dark coloureds in SA?
If you’re dark skin and reading this, you need to be proud of how you look because when you devalue blackness you are endorsing white supremacy. Post those pics on your profile.
written by Mixed one, October 06, 2008
All I can say is that we cannot fix the past all we can an must do Is promote being a women
a of colour. To teach our future generation that they should be proud of who they are and
they can accomplish anything in this world they will just have to push twice as hard.
I know that we can do it.
written by Toros, October 10, 2008
it's so awful how propoganda and advertisement mislead us into wanting insignificant features...
i think black is beautiful but so many people are ashamed of colour and they have no reason to be...
these days everybody is trying to whiter than the whites themselves...
call me crazy but we should be proud of pur heritage because lotsa whites actually envy people of colour for their unique features and characteristics...
thanks blindsniper... someone needed to say...