We live in a society that pressurizes and questions the beauty of a black woman. Gone are the days when wearing your kinky afro hair and flaunt it like a supermodel.
Black is beautiful…unless it’s bedecked in weaves, acrylic nails and false lashes. This is a trending fact in our country. When I told my friend that I was going to stop straightening my hair, she raised her big fake lashes with shock and tried to convince me otherwise. I keep my hair short and natural. A black woman’s brain is constantly bombarded with images of women with Eurocentric looks making them believe that you beautiful with weaves, straight hair, long lashes and fake shiny nails.
If being black and beautiful at the same time means I have to follow these global trends then I don’t want to be beautiful. I’d rather be me than a product of some money hungry advertising directors’ plan.
Ina recent Tyra Banks show a survey was conducted among kids as young as 4 years old. What part of your body or which feature in your body would you change if given a chance and money to? This question was asked and Kyla a 6 year old girl from Texas said she would change her hair and make it look like Sasha’s(Sasha is a brat doll with long black hair).This beauty myth has become a predominate definition of a woman’s beauty, a black woman’s beauty to be exact.
How do I look?
Don’t get me wrong, it takes pride and esteem to love yourself the way you are. I look beautiful without make-up on. I can go out with my girls wearing my flat shoes and I don’t need Uncle Louis Vuiton’s red high heel to be beautiful. Hell no! “The fact about the mainstream definition beauty is built around White features being an ideal that others must follow in this trend”. (Lerato Mogoathe Freelance Journalist)
It is no secret that African women have the highest rates of being overweight or obese. But instead of fat shaming and finger pointing, how many health activists dissect the emotional catalyst behind our struggle with weight?
Long lasting beauty
Follow these simply steps and surely you will love yourself….Take the time to get to know you and what makes you tick. Take back your power. Unleash the crap that is holding you back and weighing you down. It feels good to come to resolution about things instead of letting it rot inside you.
You must learn how anxiety and stressful feelings release those toxic stress hormones that cause every other hormone to go out of whack and cause weight gain and other host of chronic disease.
You must pray and meditate in order to stay grounded, to stay grateful, to help manage and banish fear, stress and anxiety and other negative emotions. You need to exercise, movement every day. Makes the heart beat moderately. Mental perspective is everything. It also makes being disciplined and focused more fun. Allow yourself to have fun. Engage in play. All adults’ need more play. Please understand that you have the power to make the changes you want to see in your life. Support yourself and be good to yourself and just do it.
Be whoever you need to be…..
Picure by Google
As little girls growing we all wanted to be like Barbie. Nice long hair and gorgeous body, from an early age we have been fed the big lie, Africans are inferior to the Europeans. In fashion sense you not beautiful enough until you look like those skinny European models in magazines.
I’ve watched friends struggling with weight lick the 300-calorie sauce off the bones of barbecue chicken wings while simultaneously complaining about their weight challenges. I’ve witnessed women that know their relationship with food is problematic, but fail to address the emotional dependency on their refrigerator. And all of these women are powerful, intelligent, beautiful, and fiercely independent in many areas of their lives, but often, our biggest obstacles are ourselves.
Being beautiful and looking good is important, but let’s face it not everyone is going to be a size 4, have that killer body and long hair. Sure you can hit the gym, maintain and treat your hair, but what are the chances of the entire women population would be like Barbie? We Africans, we have curves, Sarah Bartman’s behind. Don’t you think it’s time we celebrated us? Don’t you think it’s time we gave Lerato (An African version of Barbie) a chance?
