Tuesday, March 2, 2010
American Beauty?
I am not sure if anyone has seen the movie "Precious" but I just watched it this weekend. While the movie has a lot of huge psychological issues in it (including incest... this is not a feel good movie) there were a lot of racial issues that I found pertained to this class. In the movie, Precious (who is 16 and has been abused in almost every way possible in her lifetime) looks in the mirror at one point and imagines herself as a skinny, blonde, white girl which contrasts almost completely from her real image- overweight and African American. The scene made me wonder if Precious's life would have been different if she was white. And sadly, I could not help but to think it would have been. Her white teachers in her urban school might have been able to relate to her better and been able to help her. She might have had a bigger voice if she hadn't been a minority. Her teachers could not relate to her situation and therefore dismissed her as uninterested and defiant. They were not capable of seeing the big picture. Beyond this, I found it so incredibly sad that she would imagine herself as white and blonde. And it made me realize that in this country, I think the media too often portrays American beauty in this way. Is this normal for most minorities to wish to be another skin color? We focus so much on models making girls anorexic or self conscious... but what about making them despise their skin color? I hope this movie makes people realize that in order to help others, they need to understand them because Precious, for so many reasons, felt misunderstood and unappreciated to the point that she thought at times that being white could fix it all..
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I watched this movie a couple weeks ago, too, and thought about the same thing. Her wish to be a thin, white woman is wishing for the very form of perfection that society craves: in her case, the most out of reach form of perfection. Despite people's own individual preferences, thinness and whiteness are the ideals of beauty in this culture (look at models and most actresses). The craving that Precious has for this type is both the desire for acceptance, based on thinness, but also the craving for privilege, based on the ideal (and reality) of whiteness in this country. Furthermore, Precious might have felt that white people didn't have similar sorts of experiences as she had (primarily based on the constant mutterings of her mother about whites). But how did you feel about the ending, during that big finale at the social worker's office? Do you think Precious still held her dream at that time, or was she ready to accept herself and move on into a world where ideal perfection isn't always reality?
ReplyDeleteThis movie is quite disturbing, but it was very well-done and thought-provoking. I'd recommend folks to see it if they get the chance.
I have not seen the film, but it sounds very thought-provoking. I think it is a shame that our society values "skinny" as ideal beauty, but I think that there has been a gradual change in that ideal in the past few years. For instance, when Dove uses 'real' people in their commercials (not model skinny, but with bodies that match a much larger portion of the population) they are trying to show us that we can be comfortable in the skin we are in. Media is trying to boost more women who enhance and celebrate their womanly curves--queen latifa (i can't spell), beyonce, and missy eliot are a few examples. TV shows are staring heavier women like in Ugly Betty, Drop Dead Diva, and Tyra even has some "plus size" models to compete for Top Model. None of these women I would actually call FAT, but at least the media is trying to head in the right direction by promoting a less anorexic body type. It's alright to have some meat on your bones--if you feel good about yourself that is what matters. I have a lot of friends that are on the heavy to obese size and on the outside they exude this confidence that a lot of my thinner friends don't have. I think they are absolutely gorgeous, but if I am trying to set them up with a guy, the guy asks if they are hot, and in the back of my mind I know what they are really asking...
ReplyDeleteAnd though my friends are confident, sometimes it bothers them and that they feel that they could do more, things would be different if they were smaller.
In regards to color, just as Precious dreamt of being a skinny white girl, it is also valued in our society to be darker. New billboards come up every day in anticipation for summer and let us know that we need to tan if we plan on wearing a bathing suit at all this season. No one wants to be seen all 'pasty' white. Once that orange fake bake starts to fade everyone complains about how white they are getting and they don't mean it in a good way. it's a big business filled with tanning lotions, bronzing lotions, tanning beds, spray on tans....what next?? a pill? Do black people ever wish there was a "de-tanning" bed??
Check out this video from the Race exhibit. There have been studies that show that Black girls routinely choose White dolls as prettier and "better."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.understandingrace.org/lived/video/index.html
I saw this movie in theaters over a month ago and I was more struck by the overpowering emotional themes and the poverty, rather than the racial aspects. However, the scene that you mention does remind me of a few things that I have seen, read, and heard. I remember some of the ad campaigns I have seen in other countries that are marketed with the skinny, blonde woman that will "magically" appear if you buy an American made product like Coca-Cola or a Corvette. Furthermore, I saw an article that really bothered me in the past few months that alleged that a cosmetics company, Maybelline, was "lightening" the appearance of one of their models, Beyonce Knowles. These allegations were obviously brushed aside as specious by a high-powered legal team, but the fact that it has been noticed by enough people, or at least one person with a voice that can be heard, presents us with the same kind of concern that those of you above have expressed. It is a concern that the same dichotomy exists in this film, but maybe it is going in the right direction this time around. At least the optimistic angel on my right shoulder is telling me that it is.
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