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The Ugliness of Beauuuuuuty!, Race, and Weight in our Culture

March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Beauty stereotypes in the television media

Yesterday I was watching the morning news (which I hate because they vastly underestimate the intelligence of the already not-so-sharp members of society and dumb down the broadcasts for them) and became annoyed.  It has been happening since the beginning of time but the media’s negative hidden messages to women about beauty are hitting an all-time high (or low, depending which way you measure).  Actually, it may not have changed at all, but just struck a nerve with me.

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The first story was about a biracial couple who had fraternal twins who came out looking different-one white, one black.  I thought, big freakin’ deal, didn’t this happen to a couple in the UK back in the 1970s?  If you understand the basics of heredity and genetics, this would not be so fascinating.  But in a country that is obsessed with race, this was newsworthy because of the poor treatment of the parents by ignorant people.  It’s 2011, shouldn’t we be so over this now?

Blue eyes are prettier, fer sure!

What struck me about this segment was that the announcer made a big obvious point of emphasizing how beauuuuuuutiful! the white-looking twin’s blue eyes were.  It left such a stinging implication that the black-looking twin was unattractive, or at best, not so beauuuuuuutiful!  Btw, both of the twins are cute as buttons, regardless of skin/hair/eye colors. This is not the first time I’ve heard this kind of thing.  Ever noticed how when you hear a news story about someone missing, kidnapped, or worse, they often tend to go out of their way to emphasize how unfortunate the incident was, particularly because the person was such a beauuuuuuuuutiful! blonde haired, blue eyed bombshell?  Now don’t get me wrong, I never ever want to be referred to as a bombshell.  But what kind of thoughts does this give our non-blonde, non-blue eyed girls when they hear this over and over and over again?  That they are ugly by (the beauuuuuuuutiful!) omission?  That somehow it isn’t as tragic when something bad happens to an ordinary brown-haired girl? Don’t wait! Run out and get yer hair bleach and silicon injections immediately, you ugly brown-haired trolls! [Read more...]

Change in America: What does it really mean?

November 19, 2008 By 1 Comment

It’s been a couple of weeks for us to have it sink in. We now have a young, smart, black man as the president elect. I honestly do not think that before November 4, 2008 the last time we as Americans collectively shed so many tears was September 11, 2001. But back then it was fear, pain, and despair. This time is was joy, pride, and HOPE.

So what now? What will be different in OUR everyday lives? It means different things for different people.

To our friends in other countries it means that America may not be the pathetic, ignorant, behind the times society trapped in vestiges of the bad old days when white people believed brown skin was a badge of intrinsic inferiority. The fact that only about 13% of our population is black but that Barack Obama won the presidential election by a large margin means that there were a lot of white people here judging Obama by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin. That or they were sick of Republican rule. Either way, this election result could not have occurred if the majority of Americans held on to the old prejudices of the past. Some of my modern European friends could not even understand the concept of skin color being any sort of indicator of any person’s intelligence, ability, or worth. They are hopeful that America is emerging from the dark ages and is now more socially sophisticated than they thought.

For America as a whole this election means that we have turned a page in our turbulent racial history. Although race relations in this country could still use a lot more improvement, the few isolated white people who have never personally knew a smart, capable, and ethical black person will be exposed on a regular basis now to such a person front and center, in the White House. When the leader of the free world (when the United States again becomes a world leader rather than bully) is a black man, somehow the n-word loses loses much of its intensity. Derogatory terms generally have more power when the intended is already disempowered. Who cares what a bunch of toothless backwards people call you if you know you can do better if you choose to?

For young black people having Obama as the president must end the era of pity and blame. No longer can people choose mediocrity and blame their failures on racism, economics, or family structure. Our men will soon discover that there are more options in life than becoming a sports star or rap artist. The nerdy ones can feel free to pursue their true interests and to excel in them without feeling the need to conform to the stereotypical habits of their peers.

Just because we have a black president-elect does not mean that everything is going to be just rosy. But where there is hope, there is possibility.

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