Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty

The topic I chose to do this entire project on was

magnifying how the media played a key role in not only
portraying black beauty but the perception of black beauty and
how these portrayals and perceptions are perpetuated on not just
a media basis but a social basis as well.
Ive mentioned in class that I want to get into film. I
want to write screenplays and I want to bring these projects to
life. Generally speaking, thats a very behind the scenes role.
I dont intend to be in front of the camera in any capacity,
however, being a minority woman I have become finely attuned to
the way that women are perceived and portrayed in media. To an
even closer extent, how women of color are portrayed. In this
instance, how black women are portrayed.
Its an across the board problem with white, heterosexual
men not believing that women of color have any worth if theyre
not serving as a foil or being sexualized for another white
character. I believe black women are especially subject to two
roles: sexualized jezebel and the unfeeling strong black
woman. We see these examples frequently in film, however, more
frequently with women of color.
The representation of black women in media ties into an
even greater discussion on diversity. To quote Shonda Rhimes, a
popular and successful network show runner, a black woman, when
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
she received an award for diversity While Im still really and
truly profoundly honored to receive this award [Im] a little
pissed off. Its been a white boys club for 70 years, thats a
lot of white boys hiring one another. You want to be successful,
you dont want to take any chances, you dont want to rock the
boat by hiring people of color because, well, look at us. I
think we can tie that into the perceptions of black beauty
today. The industry is not going to hire someone who doesnt
adhere to a very western, European ideal of beauty. Like the
documentary I viewed previously The Color of Beauty they need to
look like white girls dipped in chocolate. No one wants to take
that risk to hire a black woman who look like a black woman.
Media has such weight and if you only show us select images of
the ideal black woman, other black women, young black girls, are
going to think that that is the image they have to adhere to.
Its a black woman, sure, but its a very specific black woman.
Halle Berry and Beyonc are often the prototypes for these
specific black women and they are both very light skinned and
fulfill a white ideal that is unfairly being put on black women
across the board, whether they are involved in entertainment or
not.
It also arises a good point: if people ignore you and your
struggles in real life, shouldnt they be entitled to do so in
their leisurely activities? A white man wont discuss the
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
politics of black women and their portrayal in media, so he
should be able to be free of those topics when he goes to movies
because he simply doesnt care. At least thats the train of
thought that I personally view towards people who would rather
not talk about racism and the internalization of racism because
they would rather tack it on to a messy history that they dont
consider themselves part of.
Colorism was a very interesting topic for me to learn more
about in this course. To see that its an idea that can be
perpetuated on a black and non-black basis makes it a much more
troublesome entity. Recently there was a casting call that
surfaced in regards to a NWA biopic being made. The original
postings have been taken down (Surprise) but the character
descriptions made their way onto the beloved internet and people
were disgusted at what they saw. The lowest billing of women
they were looking for were described as medium to dark skin.
Regardless of whether their facial attributes were up to par, or
whether they were talented, they were pegged on the lowest rung
of the ladder simply because of the correlation made between
black not being beautiful.
The Center for Women in TV and Film released a study
recently that broke down the roles women had available to them
in Hollywood. They broke that statistic even further down to
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
reveal that 73% of all female characters in the highest grossing
films were white women. Only 14% were African American. How can
we attain these better representations of black women if they
arent even being represented in any form? I think this also
plays negatively on black women because while its harmful to be
shown in a disparaging manner, what happens when youre not
visible at all?
There is also the matter of black romance. In recent years
I do not recall there being black romantic partners in any major
films. In fact, if I have to recall one, I would say that
Quentin Tarantinos Django Unchained was probably one of the
more popular films in recent years to portray two black
characters involved in a romantic relationship. This isnt to
say there havent been films with black romance, especially
considering theres a number of upcoming black independent film
makers, but there does seem to be a problem with Hollywood
showing black people romantically involved. This could be seen
as another way that black women are mistreated since they are
not even being shown being loved by men who look like them.
Tokenism is another concept I was really fascinated about.
If theres anything Hollywood and the media in general loves to
do is tokenize. Our token black supermodel would be Naomi
Campbell, token black actress Halle Berry, token black Superstar
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
Beyonc, token black female newscaster Robin Roberts. Society
would love to think its progressive so we plaster these women
everywhere and were expected to buy into this whole production
of: society is progressive, look at how many black women in
media we have. I think its gross misconduct by media to so
sorely undermine an entire demographic of people. Its
irresponsible to put this idea out there that there can only be
one black woman, even though black women, like many other
people, come in different shapes and sizes and with their own
different and complex stories.
I thought it would be more effective to actually show
testimony from black actresses who talked about the weight of
media. I chose an excerpt from a recent interview with Cicely
Tyson, who is an iconic black actress. She touches upon not
having a luxury to pursue anything else but these roles that
showed black women in a better and more diverse light. When was
the last time a white actress felt like she represented her
entire race? Shes free of those ties that bind the actors of
color. Its still very much going on today as is shown by the
speech given by Lupita Nyongo who had a history of self-hate
and was bolstered up by the appearance of Alek Wek. Lupita
herself has served as a beacon of hope, in an earlier part of
her speech, she reads from a letter she received from a young
fan who was going to purchase bleaching cream but abstained
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
because she saw Lupita on her TV screen. How amazing and
marvelous is it that we have this tool to connect to so many
people? How beautiful is it that even miles away Alek Wek was
able to influence Lupita, who in turn was able to influence this
young girl before she took her place in the seemingly never
ending cycle of self-hate perpetuated within the black female
community? But also how sad that even in all the time weve had
this tool readily available and accessible, those in power
continually deny black women the opportunity to see themselves,
to see those who look like them, in the same light as their
white counterparts.
The intervention plan I want to implement is one that I
would add as a sort of mandatory out of classroom experience. I
would have it taught in a classroom setting. The course matter
would be explaining the history of black beauty and how
colonialism came into great play and the many ways it is
perpetuated to this day. I would have the students roleplay
situations where they might personally be faced with this racism
and prejudice and have them brainstorm ways to intervene and
combat it. I would also have the end of term or end of course
project to be that they either take up a social media campaign
to uplift black girls or that they write a paper such as this,
though maybe less intimidating, outlining what they learned
throughout the course and how they plan on implementing it in
Magnifying the role of media in the portrayal and perception of black beauty
their day to day lives. At some point Id have the children take
home pamphlets and get their parents involved, especially those
of African American descent, and emphasize the importance of
elevating the self-worth and self-esteem within the home, with
the non-black children figuring out how they can feel good about
themselves without negating the identity and worth of other
groups.
I think I outlined the support and opposition well enough
in the slide show but I think the lasting impact I want is that
these children, black and non-black alike, take away from all of
this is that you dont need to adhere to society and the
messages its portraying. That you can come to your own
conclusions and you can do so in a manner that isnt offensive
or intrusive towards an entire group of people.