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What Is Beauty?
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Melissa's Personal Observations
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The question
of physical transformations was one of the most disturbing for us to
address and also one of the most complex. We found the larger issues
of beauty norms and self-image to relate particularly to hair and skin
shade. On another level they may also have some effect on the
dynamics between Black men and women.
Certainly, hair that was relaxed or with extensions was not a new phenomenon for us coming from the US. Yet, one of our immediate observations on arriving in Paris was the large amount of Black women in particular that wore their hair this way. The area of the tenth arrondissement in which we lived was well-known as the hub for Black hair and beauty needs. Living there, it wasn't long before we began to notice that nearly all of the women leaving the salons left with their hair straightened. Seldom, if ever, did we saw anyone with hair that was natural - braided, in twists, dreadlocks, or afros. That in itself was not very surprising as many women these styles do their own hair. What was surprising however, was the degree of straightening that we saw. Whether the final style was curled, colored or with extensions it was always straightened to an extent that removed any sense of the thickness and texture that is typically associated with Black hair. In nearly all cases, the hair was made to look long (extensions and/or wigs) and very much resembled Caucasian hair. Later in our conversation with the girls, they also mentioned the practice of skin bleaching products. They noted that in spite of the various medical warnings, several of their friends - male and female - used creams and lotions in the hope of lightening their skin. We questioned them regarding what they thought motivated such behavior. Joanna answered without hesitation, "Because they think that their skin looks better that way."
We were troubled and perhaps a bit dissatisfied with both the explanation
and its easy acceptance. We questioned them a bit more to see if they
made any association between this trend and Evidence of skin-bleaching is often in the significant disparity between the color of the skin on a person's face and/or hands as well as their feet, ankles, and knuckles. Thus in our daily experiences seeing those who participated in the practice was not at all uncommon. We also saw many of the products on sale, particularly in Black neighborhoods and magazines. In one, there were more than thirty-five full and half page advertisements focused on skin bleaching products. This apparent led us to believe that the practice is not only lacking any sort of social taboo, but rather common. |
Occasionally, it is even openly
discussed in literature by
writers such as Daniel Biyaoula, who show that it is often a matter
on which those who practice it pride themselves. Similarly, the friends
of the girls we interviewed openly talked about their activities.
Reaching an understanding in the phenomena of skin bleaching and Eurocentric hairstyles, according to us, requires looking at several issues outside of the concerned women themselves. As previously mentioned, the media plays a predominant role. Person after person we interviewed complained about the lack of adequate representation of people of color in the popular media -news reports, movies, game shows, etc. Yet, they made no mention of the standards of beauty diffused by the media when people of color - particularly women -were depicted. Over the course
of the summer, we remarked that much as was once the norm in the US, the
beauty of the black women was equated with light skin and long, straight
hair. On the covers of magazines as well as in ads and articles we saw, a
grand majority of the women shared these two characteristics. In the same
manner that media norms of ultra-skinny women have been shown to impact
women's conception of their body image and body size, we believe that
these representations of black women impact their definition of beauty and
their conception of their skin color.
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