Now I know that I just did a post about people being too damn sensitive and I am not backtracking on that. But have you seen the Dove ad? Even though I initially had not seen the full ad, I wasn’t offended. After seeing the full ad, I understood it a little better. I was however a little surprised. I was surprised that no one in their marketing team had notice the obvious racial undertones. I was surprised that they decided to play it. And surprised that people who saw it did not understand why some black people were offended. The ad was in poor taste. I have to believe that there is not a single person of color working in their marketing department.
As a brown skinned black woman, I understand why people were offended. Growing up most of my friends were light skinned and I wanted to be too. I have never told them this story so I know that they will be surprised when they read this. My mother and brother were lighter skinned as well. I told my mom that I wished I was light skinned. She sat me down and straighten me out. The things she said to me that day has allowed me to love the skin that I am in everyday from then on. She told me I was beautiful and I believed her. She encouraged me to love myself for who I was. Now when I see ads that look like they are saying my black isn’t beautiful, I know that it is. I am not defined by society’s narrow view of beautiful. I am defined by my own view.
Now let’s look at society’s view to get down to the bottom of this. Even though America is a melting pot of all colors, races and nationalities, society has continued to hold tight its standard ideal of beauty. If you are white, slim and usually blond, you are in the money. Yes it seems as if bigger butts and curves are in, but this is so new and has the possibility to go out of style as trendy clothes and shoes do. Women of color have had curves and bigger butts before they were trendy. And it was not accepted. We are rarely even thought of as beautiful outside our own race. And face challenges within our own race for our darker skin. So when you see an ad where a black woman takes off her shirt and becomes a white woman, it can be a little offensive. In Dove’s defensive, the white woman became another nationality as well. Not sure which and I don’t want to assume her race. So with that you know the message wasn’t meant as racist but was still riding a fine line as inappropriate.
Here are a couple of other instances where black woman or darker skinned black woman are not accepted. A beautiful black woman was featured in an Old Navy ad with an attractive white man and the shit hit the fan. Old Navy got so many complaints that the ad was pulled and that interracial combination has not been seen since. The combination they stick with now is a black woman with a group of other people or by herself. They rarely even show black women with black men. America is not the only country that has a problem with brown skin. There was a young lady, Nayara Justino, who won the crown for Globeleza carnival queen in 2013. The first brown skin black woman since they started the competition in 1993. Yep, same thing. People were so upset with her skin tone that they took her title from her without any explanation or justification. She was replaced with a standard of beauty light skinned woman. Now the television network, Globo, who created the competition said it was not the case, so what was? There are many more instances that I can name but it would take all day and some.
If you are a black woman who did not have a mom like mines or was bullied for your skin tone, these obvious prejudices would be hurtful. To watch ads and rarely see yourself represented, it can be a challenge. To see yourself represented in a way that is questionably, it can be offensive. To attend an event and have a white woman say to you that you are pretty as if she was surprised, you would be a little mad. Damn right I am! Lol. I actually was surprised that she was surprised. I can only assume her circle of people doesn’t include many black people.
I have never been, nor will I ever be the standard of beauty in America. Does this make me not beautiful, hell naw! Fuck their standards. I know that I am beautiful. Do you? If you would like to share your challenges, your hurts or anything else that you would like to add, please leave a comment. Or as always you can email me at elsims27@yahoo.com. To leave a comment, click on the title and a comment box will appear at the end of the post.