reblog: been thinking about those posts going up with pictures of beautiful black women…
been thinking about those posts going up with pictures of beautiful black women as a critique of the Satoshi Kanazawa article (the one “objectively” wondering why black women are not beautiful) the one at Feministe in particular—
what his “research” was addressing was not rich black hollywood women. it was addressing poor black women. *BMI* was the key code word for me (although the “testosterone” thing was also a code word). fat is associated with poor—and when you mix together race, gender and “fat” you get “poor, black, fat” (or welfare queens—or, for latinas, “illegals”)—
he’s talking about black women in Detroit or Flint or Philly or any other “urban” area. he’s talking about the women in hip/hop, and Sophia. The young Venus and Serena. he’s talking about the “crazy” black mother who shot a gun at the police (oh, yeah, to protect her daughter from the state). he’s talking about the women who black men make fun of all over youtube—the ones who dye their hair blond and “let themselves go.” Because they didn’t know there was a difference between apple ass and disgusting (as the men are so eager to tell us).
And when women are not Claire Huxtable—when they’re gun wielding rather than tongue lashing—when they’re “masculine” (another code word), when they wear beads and have massive titties that nourish their children by different fathers—that’s when you get fucked up racist bullshit telling us how ugly they are. I mean—beyonce gets fucked up shit. Michelle Obama *def* gets fucked up shit. I’m not saying rich black women *don’t*—I’m instead saying—the poor black mother of four in Detroit michigan is the standard beyonce and Obama are *measured* by. The distance they can put between themselves and that poor black mother. Or, what LiquornSpice said.
and yeah—just kinda dissatisfied with some of the responses…
YES THIS. thank you, this. sigh.
Yes lord yes
Much agreed! And again, I reiterate my call for more images of black women who aren’t actresses or models or whatnot. I’m looking for good images of my mother and grandmother at the moment so I can share them. And I know there are some vintage pics floating around that I’d love to repost.
From The Angry Black Tumblr | Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr
I’ve been paying attention to http://ofanotherfashion.tumblr.com/ (“An alternative archive of the not-quite-hidden but too often ignored fashion histories of U.S. women of color”) — lots of vintage pictures of WoC, many posted by family members with commentary. I particularly love the posts along the lines of “this is a picture of my grandmother, and here’s why she’s totally bad-ass.”