Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder, or is what we are supposed to find beautiful drilled into our heads from the time we enter into society? As women of color, this question is especially pertinent as many of us chase the Eurocentric image of beauty that is thrust upon us. Just look at what trying to be the European image of beauty has done to Michael Jackson to see the most obvious example of this distorted image gone horribly wrong. For Black people trying to chase the Caucasian image of beauty there is a great deal of danger. Great physical, psychological and even spiritual damage can be inflicted. But, most women and many men- Black, White, Hispanic and Asian struggle to walk the line between being the best we can reasonably be and accepting ourselves as beautiful the way that God made us.
No one can find fault with common grooming tasks like combing our hair, showering, a pluck of a hair or two there. But, how much is too much? Plastic surgery? Dying our hair? Permanent relaxers? How far do we go? What does it mean to be happy with the way we are and to find beauty in the way we were made? A recent short film put out (ironically) by Dove (not the chocolate and ice cream people but the beauty people) has been getting quite a bit of buzz on the Internet. In the film, we see a plain-Jane type of girl as she goes through the miracle transformation into a bill-board model. The transformation includes makeup, hair, lighting and then a pretty nice job with PhotoShop to stretch her eyes, lips, neck, etc. to totally unrealistic, but “beautiful”, proportions that women then try to emulate. Take a peek at the film and see what you think.
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