African American Beauty Standards Research Paper

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Over the last few centuries, beauty standards in America have fluctuated in many ways, but it has not been discussed at length. African American women specifically, have been looked at differently for the way we wear our hair. Our diverse features contribute to society looking at us from a certain perspective. These features include skin tone, hair texture, how coarse your hair may be, etc. Often, African American beauty standards have been almost forgotten by the media because society favors individuals with European features. For example, blue eyes, blonde hair, small/ thinner bodies, etc. However, here lately, the African American community has been applauded for embracing their culture and beauty and they are gaining recognition for it …show more content…
If a woman's hair is not put together like someone expects it to be, they start to judge them. For women of darker skin tones with different and more coarse hair textures, this is what they experience many times throughout their lives. In an article about African American beauty and how they struggle with rocking their natural hair, Professor Brenda Randle explains to her audience how the Eurocentric beauty standard affects the black community and what can be done to fix it. She starts by asking how many African American women have been asked if they have “good hair” and explains what good hair is, “Good hair is often considered hair that is straight, silky, and without tangles” (Randle 115). Since African American women tend to have hair that is kinky, curly, and coarse, this could be why society looks at our hair as the “bad” hair type. Randle then goes on to explain how she begged her mother to obtain that straight, silky hair and how she was made fun of for wearing her natural hair. In the paper, the writer defines natural hair that has not been processed …show more content…
However, it does not stop here, these women go as far as attempting to lighten their skin tone also. Continuing, another way African American women would try to fit in was skin lightening. The paper, titled Yearning for Lightness by Evelyn Glenn, a professor of Ethics and Gender Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, explains numerous ways skin lightening affects many cultures. In particular, she talks about how African American women used powders and skin bleachers as early as the 1850s. In the 1880s and 1890s companies were advertising their skin-bleaching products and this effort was found in a magazine, “A Crane and Company ad promised that the use of the company’s “wonderful Face Bleach” would result in a “peach-like complexion” and turn the skin of a black or brown person five or six shades lighter.” (Glenn 287). However, Glenn pointed out that in the twentieth century, a great number of African American leaders disagreed with skin bleaching and expressed the harm it can cause. But they were outweighed by all of the other advertisements out
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