The Black Beauty Standard
One undercurrent to the recent hyper-focus on black women’s bodies has been the idea that while the majority culture has strict beauty standards, black folks just don’t give a damn. In our own communities, black women’s bodies–whatever they look like–are A-OK.
*side-eye*
Not sharing the majority culture’s beauty standards is not the same as not having any at all. The black community has its own standard for what women should look like. It’s not more relaxed and it can be just as oppressive as the more mainstream standard.
Flip through King or any black-targeted lad-style magazine and there is no doubt you will see a standard at play. (Standards for women’s bodies are generally predicated on the male gaze.) It is, for sure, a standard that is different from the Eurocentric mainstream, but it is a standard: small waist, round booty, juicy thighs, boobies optional.
And just so we get this clear, round and juicy do not equal fat. In fact, many black women work out in order to achieve this standard. On Buffy the Body’s fitness website, b.Nomics, on an article about exercises that yield a more ample and rounded rear, a woman named Kristina asks:
I recently started working out. I already have a big butt but want it bigger and more “bubbly.” How can I work out, not lose the booty I already have, get a bigger booty and NOT a bigger waist? I’m so confused. Please help, Buffy!!
Compare the fitness aesthetic at b.Nomics to that in this video by Howcast on how to get a smaller behind:
Different standards, but two, clear standards, nonetheless.
And just like the mainstream standard, there are women dying or harming themselves to fit the popular black aesthetic. From Rolling Out:
“The quest to have a perfect posterior was almost deadly for a California woman who became a multiple amputee after the botched procedure. April Brown of Los Angeles had multiple limbs removed after living for five years in “excruciating pain” from silicone butt injections. The mother and former cosmetologist had her legs and part of her arms removed to save her life after doctors reported that she had multiple infections from the substance she placed into her body. “They call it butt injections,” she told a local NBC news station. “These things are done at pumping parties. They call it medical grade silicone, but a lot of it is industrial grade silicone.”
The problem with the current narrative about black bodies is two-fold. One, in our hyper-body conscious and fat-phobic culture, the meme that black people have no standards is used to otherize and denigrate black culture. And two, as long we pretend that there is no black beauty standard, then women, like April Brown, will continue to be oppressed by the thing we claim doesn’t exist. If we don’t acknowledge the black aesthetic, then we cannot move–as the mainstream should also move–toward celebrating a diversity of natural, healthy bodies as beautiful–big booties, little booties and everything in between.
I am VERY petite (5′ 0″ and 105lbs) and live in the deep south…. every since I was in high school, I have had males tell me that I am so pretty but to small/skinny/bony for them to date, it has always bothered me. I even have black women telling me to eat more or even say that it will be hard for me to get a man. It is a shame how everyone expects all black women to be thick. On the other hand, I have white women tell me all the time how cute and gorgeous my figure is and how they would pay to look like me, lol. It is amazing how I get two different responses to my shape. I am in my late twenties, and just now learning to love my body.
Don’t even sweat it. You sound adorable. Trying to live up to others’ body expectations is a formula for disappointment. Just do you and realize that your slim figure will likely stand the test of time better than many who are “thick”.
I apologize if this is a double post. My first comment went the way of that one sock in the dryer.
happened to me too all through my adolescence,however white girls/women told me i had the perfect body …eventually i picked up weight into a curvy skinny girl, and now all those “thick” girls are fat cows…
@Curly Sue
I would agree with you but I don’t see why you have to bring “thick” girls down in order to give positive advice, it’s not necessary.
@Anon. Sorry I wasn’t clear enough. I put the words “thick” in quotations because I was more speaking of overweight women who like to give advice to slim ones about how they can’t get a man etc. It was more a play on how the word thick has become a catch-all for overweight/obese women.
@CurlySue…. Thanks hun! Just as you said, I get so many compliments now from ladies I went to school with who have blown waaaaaaaayyyyyy up. I appreciate my size so much more. And this is no hate to my thick ladies, I think we are all beautiful, everyone has to learn to love themselves.
@Apple….. that sounds like me. I went from skin and bones to slim with curves. I LOVE IT!!
I feel you on this. I’m an “average” weight (5’8″ and 150lbs), and it’s shocking the difference between the response I get from black people and white people. Black people often call me “skinny,” “thin,” or “tiny” and tell me I need to eat more (insert name of soul food item here) to put some meat on my bones.
Meanwhile, by white standards, I could stand to lose a few pounds. I’m right in the middle of where the two sides think I SHOULD be. It was confusing and bothered me for a while. I didn’t know if I should lose weight or gain weight. But as I get older and more comfy with myself (one of the perks of getting older), I realize that I don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations except for my own. I know what I want MY ideal body to be, and I work toward that. I have a supportive husband who loves me and finds me attractive through “thick” and “thin” (pun intended), and if someone doesn’t like the way my body looks, they can kick rocks!
@Ms. Quita: I can relate. I’m 5’3″ and 110 lbs. While I haven’t received blatant criticism from black men regarding my looks, I have received it from black women… “Oh my God, you are so skinny!”, “Skinny minnie”, “You don’t have boobs, a butt, nothing!” (my butt’s not flat, it’s small… my chest isn’t flat—I wear a 34B—it’s small.) My own sister asked me “Are you eating?” which is ridiculous because I’ve ALWAYS been thin… but I get so many compliments from white women! They love me… “You are beautiful!”, “You’re so good looking”, “I love your style.”
I’m 24 and just starting to appreciate my body and accept my beauty too. Keep your head up, Ms. Quita!
I wish more people would accept and respect that people come in a plethora of shapes and sizes. Beauty doesn’t have one look.
Yes, I remember when I lost quite a bit of weight in college, and while white folks were gushing about how great I looked (of course, I was lamenting the loss of my usually juicier ass), black people were telling me I needed to thicken up.
Since then, I have, and I feel great about it. I don’t know if I feel so good about it because my shape falls within the standard of how black women are “ideally” supposed to look, and as someone who moves in circles with a lot of white people (as well as black, but those worlds seem to be separated), I use that as a way to hold on to an element of “blackness.” It’s tricky, to say the least.
The other day I was at Macys in the juniors department a department that caters to teenage girls and young women and I overheard a woman asking the sales associate for some assistance picking out clothes for her 8 year old granddaughter. She then went on to say that her granddaughter is thick. A few minutes later the FAT granddaughter turns the corner.
A lot of black woman think their think but their just fat.
That’s a damn shame. No reason for an 8 year old to be overweight. And to refer to her as “thick” is sexualizing the overweight figure of a child. Seems inappropriate on the part of the grandmother.
So the grandmother was supposed to call her granddaughter FAT in Macy’s while nosey people were listening too. Please.
No she shouldn’t call her fat BUT she needs to combat the issue. Instead of calling her thick and embracing her weight she needs to take this little girl to meet with a nutritionalist and a doctor to get her to a healthy weight and help this little girl build healthy habits that she can carry throughout her life.
You sound so concerned for the health of a stranger! When do you pick up your angel wings, love? I agree with Laugh. No need for fat shaming in an article discussing the constrictive nature of black beauty standards.
When I hear the word “thick” as it pertains to a body type, I do NOT envision a young child but a grown woman whom men would consider fertile. I agree that it was inappropriate for a grandmother to call her granddaughter “thick.” Why not “chubby?”" I mean, at least “chubby” sounds more appropriate and less sexual than “thick.”
Grrrr, where is my comment?!
I agree with all of you. There ARE unrealistic standards that are set for black woman pertaining to body image. These standards are not just set by black men, but black woman as well. Woman being more of the culprit of the two.
What deeply bothers me, is that the “average” body of a black woman is being compared to size of a very large (abnormal in appearance) rear that is not achieved though exercise. I am laughing my BUTT off right now! Seriously, C’mon, that is absurd.
It is a medical fact, in relation to exercise, that you can not loose weight in ONE place of your body. So, you cannot say “I have a big butt and I don’t want to loose it if I exercise.” Ha! Sorry darlin’ you will loose it. I know this from experience. In the past I foolishly said the same thing.
Now I’m older & wiser. Health is far more important that still being the one that is looked at that is lovingly teased for having the “big derriere” by family & friends. Your body is ONE unit, if you exercise properly, and incorporate a healthy diet there is no way your buttox will be the size of Buffy, Nikki Minaj, or Kim Kardashians’ of the bunch with a flat stomach and extremely thick thighs. It’s not going to happen. Many of these woman are not being honest as to what they did attained their body.
Kat Kelly
agreed!!!
Ms. Minaj is a plastic doll.
Hell half of these so called models (video vixens) have had some form of alteration done to them. How can you be so small in the waist but thick in the hips/thighs/butt region without even having a ounce of tummy??? It’s not possible!! When you work out you lose ALL OVER not just in one specific area, but if you had it surgically altered previously YOU CAN work out to maintain it so that you won’t lose it.
I agree! Sometimes we as women can be our own worst critics and critics of other women when it comes to body images and to be honest I hear more women bash other women about their bodies and what they should look like more than men. Yes, men have a role to play but from my experience even though they have their “ideal” they don’t really care about the exact dimensions as long as the chick is hot for the most part…shrugs Personally, I never got the obsession with the big butt/thick thighs and yes I have them but I always wanted to trade it for a slimmer set in a minute but the grass is always greener right, I wish more people would focus on looking and achieving THEIR best bodies instead of trying to imitate someone’s else because nearly killing yourself or pumping and cutting yourself to fit someone’s else ideal or complete with someone’s else Photoshop/plastic surgery is dumb and really sad. And the worst thing is the majority of black women have killer bodies but we aren’t letting it show on a grand scale
actually i ssee TONS of women naturally like this. hispanic women are usually built this way. i see it everyday and i envy the hell out of them. they usually have a small waist,wide shapely hips,big butt, and skinny everything else. they put kim kardashian,beyonce and j lo to shame especially since they’re 100% naturally like that… then there are the OTHER women who are built with skinny legs and thighs and big everything else on top and shaped like a refrigerator. (how the eff does that happen?)
I’m sorry Kat,
I beg to differ concerning your last comment, some women have genes that do permit them to have flat stomachs, small waists, big butts, and thick thighs (I have many in my family, and also friends, and they were simply born like that)…however, it is true that MOST celebrities, not just Nicki, Kim, and Buffy are lying about what they did to achieve theirs.
I agree with many thing you said. But it is true that there are some women who can lose weight in one of their areas and not the others. I actually happen to look like the “black standard”. And I have since I was 16. And Ias much as I try to always embrace my body I can’t deny that I hate the attention and I also feel as though that many black women striving to look like this standard have ni clue what it’s like to deal with the attention and the negative comments men make. I just hope all of us can learn to embrace how we look naturally.
Oh goodness. Where is this booty madness coming from? Is it that serious in the streets?
From Ms. Quita— ” I have had males tell me that I am so pretty but to small/skinny/bony for them to date, it has always bothered me.” First off, any dude who says that you’re too small for them to date just did you a favor. He’s already let you know that he’s not interested, and that he’s just looking for a body type not a person. So YOU DON’T NEED TO BE CONCERNED about ole’ dude. He’ll be some other woman’s problem.
Just stay fit, and do you.
You are right. That was something I had to learn. All those years ago when I was in high school, I just felt rejected. Especially since majority of my friends were “thick” and getting all the attention. It’s all good now though, we live and learn.
Oh goodness. Where is this booty madness coming from? Is it that serious in the streets?
It’s coming from the rag mags, the rap videos(TV& youtube), and the clubs. In other words, women are noticing the women men are breaking their necks to look at & want some of that attention too.
I always state that blk women should limit their exposure to that sort of madness because it’s not healthy. ESP if you’re the sensitive type, that type of blk woman should curtail her exposure the madness.