It's said when "Baby Got Back" proves to be true

May 21, 2007 14:08

So against my own volition (though my own choice), I'm watching Tyra Banks. I don't know why. I'm getting angry right now. I should really just stop watching.

Now this episode's topic is "Focus on Race: Beauty Across Culture." You can imagine why this is bothering me. She has a "panel" of four women from different "races" (and race is a social construct btw): "Latin" (which is improper considering it's an incorrect term), "Black," "White" and "Asian" (though this woman is Vietnam, and Asia also includes India, which has a whole other standard altogether). Anyway, just all these problems with the topic and the show off the bat are bothering me. But let's get to the content itself.

She has women standing behind a screen, with a side profile, and the panel of representatives from each of the four "races" comments on particular body parts of each woman behind the screen. The first part she did was weight. Next the butt, then breasts, then hair, then skin color and the nose. So apparently each race has very different opinions on what is considered beautiful. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that women from different cultures have different ideas…but hearing these women simply regurgitate stereotypical standards of beauty, especially the “white” woman. Skinny, big breasted (though she said the woman behind the screen with big breasts, who happened to be mixed had implants) which was interesting that she even pointed that out. It’s so sad to see women constantly berating other women based on standards men have implemented. It’s so scary, and angering for me to listen to these women critique each other with such illogical arguments, and quite frankly, they sounded very foolish. The fact remains that their being from different cultures should have made them aware that they would have different ideas of beauty to begin with, and thus, it’s arrogant and self absorbed to believe, or based on the way they were talking; argue that their idea of what is beautiful (or more accurately, their “race’s” ideas) was the most appropriate. But they don’t seem to get that. Also, they don’t seem to take into account that individual taste counts more than any larger cultural taste, whatever those may be. Besides, things go in and out of style anyway.

They seem to believe that not sticking to whatever people around you tell you is beautiful makes you bad or unacceptable. Then of course, there are so many other topics that come into play. For example, one Asian woman who had dyed her hair blonde said she didn’t want to look “fresh off the boat” so she dyed her hair. She wanted to look American. The white woman said that this particular Asian woman couldn’t be like Paris Hilton (the person to which she constantly referred as White women’s goddess of beauty) because Asian people aren’t naturally blonde…which the Black woman also agreed with. Another issue that came up was the color gradient, which for those of you who don’t know, that is a phenomenon in minority communities where lighter skin is most often considered more appreciated, and more attractive. Darker skin is considered dirty, or ugly. That’s another topic for me to deal with another time.

So essentially, Tyra Banks really should either avoid topics like this, or have some professional supervision on the show with her when she’s doing this. She didn’t handle the comments in a way that would even get anything more than the face value of them…though I understand it’s a talk show that’s just looking for ratings more than actual social commentary. But still, I hold you responsible for you put into the world, and if she’s putting this into the world, with as big an audience as she has, then she needs to be responsible with the content of her show. She has to make an effort to stop the people from being so damn culturally arrogant. She’s not going to change the world, I understand that. But, she needs to point out to those in her audience, and her large television audience, that while it’s ok to have different standards of beauty, no one should judge anyone else based on information that is irrelevant. As a Black man, I don’t always prefer a woman with a lighter complexion, with a small nose, with a big ass and big breasts with straight hair. But if you were watching the show, that’s what my ideal woman would look like, and that’s purposefully excluding any other women from a different ethnic background. So all I’m saying is that people as a whole need to be more aware of what they believe, and why they believe it. And they need to listen carefully to WHAT they say and HOW they said it…because words are more powerful than people seem to appreciate.

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