Responsible Beauty

In today’s class speaker Terra Moody voiced her opinion on how the media’s perception of beauty affects black women in today’s society. The first topic studied was how black models are compared to white models. We looked at two covers of Vogue magazine; one flaunted a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow and the other Beyonce. The controversy is a matter of body types and how they influence the way black women view their bodies. Since female beauty is mostly determined by male preference, the male students in the class voiced their opinions on the matter stating what women in the media they found most attractive. Celebrities like Megan Fox and Erin Andrews were the first to be cast on the ballot for most beautiful. We then viewed a clip from America’s Next Top Model where a “plus sized model” was a contender in the show. While the class mostly agreed that plus size women can also be beautiful, we suddenly turned to a debate on the relation of health to beauty. Some argued that just because a woman is plus size doesn’t mean she isn’t healthy. Others argued that to be healthy you can’t have a large body mass. In my opinion I find health and beauty directly proportional. I believe that if you live a lifestyle of exercise and good nutrition that most likely your body will not give you the option of being “plus sized”. Terra went on to describe how we view our bodies and how many Americans measure the size of their bodies. This is typically done by visually measuring appearance or by using the Body Mass Index to calculate if a person is overweight. Your body mass index is simply a number that is derived from your weight and height. I personally am very familiar with the BMI. As a Marine veteran I was subject to BMI annually to ensure that myself and fellow Marines stayed within military standards for body weight. With this experience I can attest to Terra’s statement that even though BMI does give a standard for most to determine if they are overweight it does not always prove to be accurate. Everyone is different and the BMI does not make adjustments for those who may be “big boned” or have excess muscle. Many athletes are in extremely good condition but fail to be in good standards when it comes to the BMI because they have so much muscle mass that they weigh more than the BMI suggest they should.
There are two types of beauty defined by Terra’s presentation from class. There is the white/mainstream ideal model that is always evolving but typically the models are thinner than their black counterparts. Then there is the anti-white/black ideal model that is accepted to be beautiful no matter what here size although she is preferred with a body that has curves. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I personally do not think that models of larger size are a good influence on today’s youth. Yes I think that everyone is beautiful in their own way but models are called models for a reason. They are “model” for others to conform. Whether you think they set a good or bad influence, the fact of the matter is that they will always influence someone in some way. Preventative health is something that has been put on the back burner in America and we are the most overweight country in the world. I do not think that having models of large size influences us in the right way. By having large models we are saying that is ok to be big even though our country’s sedentary habits put so many of us at a high risk for cardiovascular disease. I understand that the African American community may want to separate itself from white idealism and soak in its own culture, but I believe that the plus sized model does more harm than good to our influential youth.
It is no question that today’s youth are influenced by models portrayed in the media, but the real question is, are they setting the right influence for us to follow? For the most part the entire class agreed that white models are typically found to be smaller than an African American model. The question of how the white female affects her black sister is what draws most concern when it comes to determining true beauty and how African American women are portrayed. Terra made us ask ourselves if black women are being influenced by their perception of women in the media. While there is an obvious difference in the size of models between cultures, the biggest influence to be recognized is hair. Being a white male I have obviously never taken the time to think about the differences of women’s hair and how the way black women wear their hair is influenced by white women. However it was interesting to listen to Terra’s idea that black women have been almost manipulated by the media into believing that their hair looks better when it is treated to look like most white women other than sporting the natural hair they were born with. It is crazy when you think about how many black women don’t actually rock the natural look. Society has imposed an idea that black women are portrayed in a masculine since and that wearing their hair in a natural way is improper. I think the idea that the natural look is masculine is ridiculous. If the African American society wants to separate its idea of beauty from the idealistic white model, then this is where they should start. Your hairstyle does not affect your health but being overweight does. It would be nice to see black models going with the natural look, proud of who they are and what God gave them. Models are a physical influence on almost all of us. If the African American community wants to declare its independence from the ideal white beauty, then do it but don’t give in to the idea that it’s ok to be overweight.
By: Joe Geary