Whitey Ford
02-23-2020, 09:56 PM
When Black Girls Hear That ‘Our Bodies Are All Wrong’
Insidious messages can contribute to eating disorders for women of color.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMh39-cqtkM
When I was in high school, I had an eating disorder, and nobody noticed.
But moreover: I was black. The societal narratives that position the curviness of black girls’ bodies as a warning sign of future obesity mean that as young women, we’re often congratulated for watching our weight when our food restriction might actually be the symptom of a real mental health problem.
That’s why the lingering cultural myth that eating disorders are the province of white women isn’t just misleading: It also keeps us from addressing the uniquely insidious factors that can cause black women to hate their bodies.
For women who are developing bodies that will most likely never assimilate into the mythical monochrome of Middle America, there’s very little validation available in the media or anywhere else. Add the deluge of imagery that associates beauty with whiteness, and girls of color are primed not only to developing eating disorders, but also to see these disorders go untreated.
By the time I was 8 years old, I remember noticing that television shows rarely included girls that looked like me — and if they did, they were never the ones who were heroes or love interests. Those roles were largely reserved for white girls. Even the black actresses who were depicted as happy, successful and loved tended to be lighter-skinned with straighter hair and narrow noses — something that’s still largely true today.
Like many other black girls, I learned early that when it comes to white-centric, unreasonable standards of beauty, I didn’t measure up.
waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
https://archive.is/PINJR#selection-511.0-515.136
Insidious messages can contribute to eating disorders for women of color.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMh39-cqtkM
When I was in high school, I had an eating disorder, and nobody noticed.
But moreover: I was black. The societal narratives that position the curviness of black girls’ bodies as a warning sign of future obesity mean that as young women, we’re often congratulated for watching our weight when our food restriction might actually be the symptom of a real mental health problem.
That’s why the lingering cultural myth that eating disorders are the province of white women isn’t just misleading: It also keeps us from addressing the uniquely insidious factors that can cause black women to hate their bodies.
For women who are developing bodies that will most likely never assimilate into the mythical monochrome of Middle America, there’s very little validation available in the media or anywhere else. Add the deluge of imagery that associates beauty with whiteness, and girls of color are primed not only to developing eating disorders, but also to see these disorders go untreated.
By the time I was 8 years old, I remember noticing that television shows rarely included girls that looked like me — and if they did, they were never the ones who were heroes or love interests. Those roles were largely reserved for white girls. Even the black actresses who were depicted as happy, successful and loved tended to be lighter-skinned with straighter hair and narrow noses — something that’s still largely true today.
Like many other black girls, I learned early that when it comes to white-centric, unreasonable standards of beauty, I didn’t measure up.
waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
https://archive.is/PINJR#selection-511.0-515.136