Comments on: Trusting Our Big Butts and Smiles

By: Apples and Porsches » Blog Archive » Wholestyle on the Web – 09/25/2009

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:01:45 +0000

[...] Clutch Magazine: Trusting our Big Butts and Smiles [...]

By: toi

toi — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:56:06 +0000

I find this article both fascinating and probing. I am one of these young ladies you speak of. I’ve read Bell Hooks, i become giddy upon recieving information Michael Eric Dyson is coming into town to speak, openly praise the likes of Cornell West,Tavis Simely, and Nikki Giovanni. I am quite aware of the powers that have made an active effort to affect my self image. But I too fall victim of self doubt. I’m 5’6 130 lbs and a mother of a 14month old. But i struggle with accepting my figure as that a wonderful vechile that brought forth life, and one that is 10 pounds heavier than it was pre-baby. As a lover of fashion I am constantly bombarded with images I KNOW are not a direct reflection of my self worth or the worth of all Black women. But why then do these thoughts enter your mind. With all the knowledge and wisdom you have actively outfitted yourself with you too fall. This just goes to show that when we live our lives with the hopes of validating ourselves through vain persuits we fall short everytime regardless of who holds the measuring device. Once again Clutch I love you for your provocative conversation.

Keep up the good work.

By: b. whitaker

b. whitaker — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:57:43 +0000

what’s really sad is that this issue affects our girls at increasingly earlier ages. as a 7th grader with a pretty athletic build (and always a modest dresser), i rarely got the attention of fresh boys, but i always felt sorry for my girlfriends who did. now, as an adult, it breaks my heart to know that young innocent black girls are forced to be so body conscious at 10, 11, and 12 – even earlier – because our society finds a way to sexualize them.

By: Rochelle Spencer

Rochelle Spencer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:07:21 +0000

Leosashny and SpenceGould bring up two good points, and I should have given more information about the classroom activity. The first time I did the activity, I simply wanted to have a broad discussion about women and sexualized images, and so I cut out pictures of women–of all colors–from women’s magazines and men’s magazines without really thinking about it. But, because of the discussion that came up about black women’s bodies, I did this activity again with two other classes, and I purposefully cut out an equal number of pictures of black women from black men’s magazines (e.g., King), white women from mainstream men’s magazines (e.g., Maxim), black women from black women’s magazines (e.g., Heart and Soul, Essence), and white women from magazines with a predominately white audience (e.g., Glamour, Redbook)… What broke my heart is some (not all, but a large group) students rated the pictures of black women’s bodies as far more distasteful, regardless of what magazines they came from.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:08:00 +0000

But lets not be too easy on ‘others’.But what about ALOT of Playboy magazines that display white women as sexual objects. I think that society goes easy on them as far as sexuality is concerned. There are plenty of white women who dress ‘easy’ and they don’t get the harsh treatment as black women. Its like it is wrong for black women to express themselves in sexual ways. Now I am not for clash, disrespecting dressing, but the presumption of each group is unfair.

It is like you are darned if you do and darned if you don’t. No amount of dressing can really clear what society thinks about us because media has programmed this, not to mention, the ‘roles’ we decide to play.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:09:39 +0000

It doesn’t matter how you are built as a black girl trying to be taken seriously you just don’t want to be associated with the over the top sexy video vixen. Sadly that is one of the few roles that society views us in. I think that may have alot to do with why the students reacted the way they did to the images of the women from the magazines. I sometimes find myself trying to dress modestly on purpose with the long skirts, high neck shirts especially when I am around THEM. I feel I have to show that hey I am a black women but there is more to me then sexuality and we don’t all walk around in pum pum shorts. I would say I am pretty comfortable with my sexuality but its hard to ignore the fact that the world views me solely as a sexual object and that this image is continiously perpetuated on BET and the like. I feel it is extremely damaging to black women in their relationships with men and it shows in the statistics, we are least likely to get married than any other racial group. How pathetic is that?

By: kboug22

kboug22 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:37:34 +0000

Black women are victims of self-hate. Most of this stemmed from the fact that we have been told what is beautiful for so long. But what is even more apparent is the fact that the hip hop industry constantly uses our bodies as a form of sexual entertainment. So not only do we have the other races not feeling us.. we have our own men not respecting us. No wonder Black women today cannot come to find self love..and even more..body love. We are at the bottom of the chain…the Concubine of the American Kingdom. And it is so sad. I believe that artists like Beyonce and Alicia Keys show that we can enjoy our voluptuous bodies and not look like raging sluts. But even these ladies are ridiculed. We are all just so ignorant and so confused about who we really are. its sad. and its time to change.

By: SpenceGould

SpenceGould — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:03:02 +0000

As an African-American male, I am often offended by the images of sistas I see in magazines. It’s not the anatomical differences that bother me as much as the presentation. I specifically remember a rack of magazines on display at a major bookstore franchise. Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie, Katherine Hegel, Cindy Crawford were featured on diffent covers dressed in long flowing dresses that were sexy without being sexual. In the same display, Halle Berry was featured on a cover spread eagle wearing a man’s shirt that wasn’t buttoned.

It’s not just the natural differences between Black womens’ physiques (and, yes — there is a difference) and those of women from other races. It’s how those differences are portrayed. White women tend to be styled and positioned to look like classy ladies who (maybe??) enjoy sex from time to time. However, sistas are usually shot with their legs spread or bent over something or showing an amount of skin that lends nothing to the ad.

My wife graduated from an all-women’s, all Black college in Georgia. She is the first one who made me notice how long the camera will linger on a woman’s butt, breast, or thighs in a movie, t.v. show, or commercial. There’s nothing wrong with Black women being “sexy”. I think there is something fundamentally wrong when that’s the only way Black women are portrayed.

By: kendra

kendra — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:10:47 +0000

I that as black women you have to have big breasts, dierre,and a small waist to be an ” sexual eye candy”. But my thing, is who says that’s sexy? Like I’m a very slender mid-length female with long legs also, but I try to think outside the box. And why can’t a plus size women be sexy without having to flunt her boobs everywhere and pooking out everyone’s eyes? It’s like nowadays we( black women)aren’t sexy if we don’t have some kind of skin all out and “shakin what our mama’s gave us”. But it is definitly the mainstream who makes it as if you’re not bone skinny you’re fat, so you have to flash your goods, and that corrupts little children’s minds, men’s, and eventually ours. And we see all these video vixens or celebrity “girlfriends”( Amber Rose) And most figure, hey I gotta have a body like hers and get but implants or some type of cosmetic surgery of I’m not sexy or beautiful and cause in a sense, insecurity or depression and as a result we have all of these insecure young women and they’ll do anything for praise. Therefore becoming the jumpoff, hoe, or whatever it may be.

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:32:30 +0000

@ Sasha: word! I attend school at a predominantly white college and even in the outlying areas, I see teenage white girls walking with their fathers wearing cut-offs, halters and other revealing outfits with nary a comment. But I also notice that when a white girl with a tube top and a miniskirt walks by a group of black guys, they’ll stop and look, but when a black girl walks by in a similar outfit, they feel they have the right to grab at her and hoot and holler at her. I know that I myself cover up my body because of this oversexualization of black women and also the blatant lack of respect shown to my personal space and my body from black men. But then I realize that I am also projecting my own insecurities. I have the right to wear a halter dress or tight jeans without fear that a man will disrespect me. If white women and Asian women feel they have the right to dress the way they do, why not black and Latina women? My body is my own.