According to leading dermatologists and author of the book "Acne in Black Women", Dr. Neil Persadsingh states bleaching is a process by which creams were used to kill the melanin in the skin. Melanin is the substance that gives the skin its pigmentation and protects the skin from the cancer-causing ultraviolet rays from the sun. The more melanin in the skin the darker the person. According to doctor Persadsingh most of the bleaching products contain large amounts of hydroquinone a substance which is very detrimental to ones health and includes side effects such has nausea, shortness of breath, convulsions, delirium, Damage to the skin-wrinkles, severe acne and marks which are irreversible after constant use. These products used to lighten the skin include creams and tablets, they are manufactured in Europe and North America, and are sold all over the world. Normally they are imported illegal into Jamaica. The perception of the average Jamaican woman who bleaches her skin is, the fairer you are, and the more likely you are to become successful socially, economically and romantically. As the woman mentioned in the star many are willing to take the chance of irreversible consequences to fit the status quo. The main question is what is the cause of this phenomenon in Jamaican society or on a worldwide scale among women of African decent. As many women of African descent all over the world are doing the same thing and similar things in the name of beauty and femininity, which if I may add is pre-described by white supremacy and western values. The situation of bleaching has a lot to do with African women’s socialization, their concept of feminine beauty, their faith in their self’s and their need to belong and to be... ... middle of paper ... ... can say. I don’t have a problem being black but a don’t have a problem bleaching. Bleaching even though it as existed from slavery days was not so prevalent in the 1800s this is why men and women practiced mental bleaching has I call it. They bleach true the use marriage, they marry some body of a lighter skin or give birth to a child of lighter complexion. This was a form of upward mobility, a step closer to whiteness. This mate or offspring would change their status, their color and hence their life. The woman in the star is part of a great number of women in Jamaica and a across the world who are subjecting themselves to beauty rituals such as bleaching. This is done to keep a breast in a world of white supremacy. To neglect these rituals to these women are to fall behind and to be loss in a sea of just another ugly, black woman with no hope or future.
Society puts a lot of pressure on a African American women to look and act a certain way to gain acceptance from the rest of the world. Like Janie and other women in the story , African American women tend to have to deal with the opinions of society as a whole; which includes jobs for employment, music, television shows, magazines, and men (both black and white). They have to compete with other women who aren 't African American and when it comes to African American women competing against one another, darker skin toned females get the shorter end of the stick when it comes to most
Back in the early 1800’s, the color of one’s skin mattered amongst African Americans and Caucasian people. There was infidelity between the Caucasian slave owners and the African American slaves. Of course, the outcome of that produced a fairer toned child. In most cases the child could pass as white. The mixed toned kids got to be inside doing housework, while the dark Negroes worked in the fields, under extraneous work conditions,”their dark-toned peers toiled in the fields”(Maxwell). From the early 1800’s to modern day, there is controversy that light or bi-racial African Americans are better than dark colored African Americans. African Americans had to go through tests to see if they were able to receive priviledges that white people received,”light-skinned African Amerians receive special priviledges based off of their skin shade”(Maxwell). If an African American did not receive the priviledges similar to white people then they would try to change themselves to fit in,”African Americans are using bleaching creams so that they can make their skin lighter , just to achieve the standard beauty”(Brooke). As much as one will not one to discuss this topic, statistics shows how people are more lenient towards light and fair skin tones.Light oor fair coloredAmericans that poseess Caucasian features are prefiebly preffered.
She admires the African American history, the art of African American hairstyles, and she has even attended one of the top HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the country. While that has not given her the “rite of passage” to blackness, it has made her the laughing stock as she is being ridiculed by the media for wanting to be something she is not. The question still remains why that is the case. There are millions of people that do anything in their power to pass off as a different race in order to obtain the job or mate they desire. Although the extremes typically go viral on sites like Youtube and Instagram, it never really makes the news. Why is this one story in particular getting so much coverage? The only reason that comes to mind when trying to answer that question is the fact that someone is actually giving up the privileges that come with being white and trading it in for all the hardships that come with being black. More often than not, when Blacks make the news, it’s usually to report rapes, murders, kidnappers, robberies, shootings, riots, and wrongful killings of the youth by police officers and terrorists. If it’s not regarding that, it’s about the U.S. education system that continues to welcome the achievement gap between white children with a high
This source goes generally explains the history of colorism and how it relates to slavery. It is relevant because it shows how black woman were sexually exploited by their slave masters. This unfortunate occurrence then is lead to the conception of a mixed race child. The subject of sexual exploitation goes hand and hand when talking about woman affected by colorism. Women of a darker skin tone are often perceived to be promiscuous, single mothers who have children with multiple men. Most would assume that the fathers of the children are not involved with in their lives; which is parallel to what occurred during slavery. During slavery, when the child was old enough, he or she was able to work and live in the slave masters house. These mixed race children were referred to “house Negros.” They were clothed, fed, and treated differently than slaves that did hard, physical labor in the fields. This can be compared to the treatment of people of color today. People of a lighter skin tone are thought to have more access to social opportunities than people of a darker skin tone. My mother is a figure in my life that has faced these social issues of sexual exploitation and discrimination as a black woman. She has had a career in a professional setting and although these statics that black women face are not in her favor she has still managed
In an excerpt from Janell Hobson’s “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture” Hobson argues that the “image of black women’s bodies in culture are distorted in a way resembling the morphing of a person’s figure in a carnival mirror,” a term she coins as “un-mirroring.” She continues this metaphor by saying black women artists must “fight against this process by challenging dominant culture’s representation of black women’s bodies as being grotesque and changing the discourse to being one of beauty.” One may argue that black women are too diverse to be represented by one image, rather that they should fight to be regarded as individuals devoid of stereotypes and negative historical connotations. Stereotypes, which are too broad to be accurate, have negatively affected the image of the black female body in culture. To change the trajectory of this idea in the future, the discussion must be aimed towards persuading society that stereotypes are superficial judgments, and that black women should be regarded as a diverse group of individuals, not individual elements of a stereotype.
It is sad to know that we cohabit a nation where you are frowned upon because of the content of your skin. This documentary depicts adolescent Black/ African American girl and boys, and women talking about their melanin. Society imposed on us that to be beautiful you must be of a fairly light complexion, have a sculpted body, perfect bone structure, and have nice non-kinky hair. This image has been imbedded in our society, and resulted in those in the Black/ African American community feeling as is they are ugly, non lovable, unwanted, not smart, less than, lacking self confidence, and wishing that they can change their skin tone (by bleaching) to be accepted and to be considered beautiful.
...nd attractive. It creates a double consciousness that is difficult to reconcile. Carla Williams argues that “given the legacy of images created of black women… it is an especially complex task for contemporary black women to define their own image, one that necessarily both incorporates and subverts the stereotypes, myths, facts and fantasies that have preceded them. (Wallace-Sanders et.al, 196) The root of the problem lies within our society. While very culpable, mainstream music and advertisements are not the only promoters of female objectification; the key is unwinding the inner tensions between these two groups. There is a need for the promotion of female solidarity, regardless of their skin color. We need to rid society of the evil of racism—only then will conceptions surrounding African Americans parallel and be as positive as those surrounding white women.
“As a young girl, I already knew the standards for a girl like me” is one of the most poignant lines in Kiri Davis’ respectively titled A Girl Like Me. The line itself is a strong punch to the standards we hold black women specifically in our society, with a sour aftertaste. Throughout the film there are plenty of other jabs involving stereotypes and standards of beauty. One of them being the retelling of how darker shades of black women felt the need to bleach their skin, even at the age of six, to try to fit a mold of black beauty. With these toxic standards of beauty in place, a six-year-old and a twenty-five-year-old can share the same bias that society ingrained in them. They can even say they love themselves—except for the color/shade
It is this form of prejudice that has more to do with skin tone rather than race. This mentality oppresses and criticizes those with darker skin tones and those that deviate from one desired appearance. It is for this reason that many Black women have gone out of their way to assimilate to society’s beauty standards or attempt to be “white”. What this simply means is that these Black women have gone to extreme lengths to appear light skinned and to make their natural hair as “white” looking as possible. This is partially due to the racist and colorist mentality in this society but also because there is a huge market in making Black women feel as if they are unworthy of being called beautiful because of their skin tone and hair. In Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” he states that within his own community each individual spends an average of five thousand dollars a treatment on an attempt to get “good hair” and that the industry that is responsible for pushing this upon Black women is worth about nine billion dollars. The effects of this colorist mentality can be seen throughout history take for example during the Supreme Court case “Brown vs The Board of Education” (1954) in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to enact laws that created segregated schools solely for Black Americans. One of the pivotal
The black woman, she is as diverse and as beautiful as the billions of humans she gave birth to. The first homo sapiens to appear in the fertile land of East Africa were nurtured from her bosom; the wisdom and strength that is characteristic of the black woman today is not a recent acquisition but qualities that were honed over thousand of years. Every woman on this earth has mitochondrial DNA (mitochondrial DNA is the DNA transferred from mother to child and the only genetic material that stands the test of time)from Lucy, the small black woman found in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Lucy is her English name but I prefer the appellation given to her by the Ethiopians, Dinkesh, which means "you are beautiful" or "you are wonderful." Her dark skin, beautiful lips and course hair is not a sign of shame or inferiority but of the dominance of her genes. The fact that any baby born by a black woman and a male of another race will more likely resemble its mother is a testament to that dominance, a testament that within the veins of a black woman lies the blue print to life. However, put aside all that I have stated and yet the black woman is still not given the respect that is due to her. A travesty has been committed that leaves the black woman dying alone and her offspring fatherless. Single black mothers are ubiquitous to every black neighborhood and casts a negative cloud on a whole people who have lost the basic atom of what makes a people a people: family.
...nce is that blacks aren't trying to make me to be black. They just want to make sure that I don't forget about that side of me.
Melanin helps reduce the absorption of wavelengths into the skin (Chaplin, Jablonski, 59). The more melanin in the skin, the greater the protection against harmful UV rays, and the amount of melanin in the skin correlates with the skin’s color (more melanin means darker skin)....
Don’t touch my hair: this should be a sentiment simple enough to understand. However, for many black women this establishment of boundaries can be broken repeatedly and without any regard for personal space. Solange Knowles’ song “Don’t Touch My Hair” and accompanying music video takes this declaration of self and creates an anthem for the empowerment of black women and dismissal of microagressions, white beauty standards, jealousy and appropriation. Her lyrics emphasize the emotional connection that black women have to their hair. But, beyond this pride is an act of self-love militant and radical against white standards of beauty; or is this self-love subscribing to the notion that black women’s hair is an object detached from their personhood- objectifying themselves to other’s gazes and not subverting them? In order to answer this question, theories from Helen
The things we do in these generations are nothing compared to what women did for beauty back in the day. For example, to remove unwanted hair from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries, women used quicklime...aka that stuff that gangs use to dissolve bodies! It's hard to believe, but being pale has been all the rage throughout history - until this century. And women did everything they could to make their skin a lovely white shade, the things they did too make...