Comments on: The Double Standard of Beauty

By: Maya Illovsky

Maya Illovsky — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 06:13:03 +0000

This is such an important topic to speak on! From a young age black girls were taught to embrace their differences in comparison to White girls and all the White girls’ perceptions of beauty. Regardless of the media and even disney movies we had grown up watching there was an emphasis on White beauty. This post has made me think of the children’s picture book “Hair Love” which basically creates an environment for children to feel and nurture their beauty that is not cohesive with the White standard.
It is upsetting that White women can take things the Black community has been doing for forever as a trend and “pull it off,” get compliments etc. when Black women had been dealing with the problems that ensued from that same thing. The only difference being the color of their skin.

Thank you for your post.

By: Silvia

Silvia — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 02:44:41 +0000

I think you chose to speak on a very important topic: the beauty industry that often disregards the influence of black women. Hair is a way for black women to express themselves, and the line between cultural appropriation and appreciation can be very fine. Credit should be given to black women who have started certain fashion trends as well as beauty trends. As you say, I think it’s very important to uplift women of color and accentuate the origin and significance of these styles, where a white person is not at the center.

By: Danielle Kraes

Danielle Kraes — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 01:50:03 +0000

This is such an important and relevant topic especially with the increase in social media presence within society. It is insane that people of ethnic background who have these features are judged for it yet when whites decide its “trendy” then it is deemed beautiful. Its hard because on one hand people should have the right to change their bodies as they please but something about this rubs me the wrong way that whites can play dress up and decide they are done with it when the people they are mimicking do not have that option, that is who they are. I think this double standard needs to be exposed and the beauty industry should emphasize embracing the beautiful features given from origin. Ultimately, the beauty industry has become toxic and it is clear that women in general, but especially for women of color are suffering for it. We need to bring more attention to this!

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:50:13 +0000

I could not agree more with everything that you’re saying! People like the Kardashians/Jenners are a prime example of this. They get the BBL’s, put their hair in cornrows, and steal many other trends from the Black community. When they do it, it’s considered stylish, fashionable, and trendsetting. However, Black women have been doing these things for decades, and they just get scrutinized.