Black Women’s Struggle with Eurocentric Standards of Beauty in Americanah and The Bluest Eye
How do Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Toni Morrison portray black women’s struggles with Eurocentric beauty standards in Americanah and The Bluest Eye?
Language and Literature, category 1
May 2019
Word count: 3,806
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Contents
A. Introduction
B. Body
Dominant symbols of ‘white’ beauty
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Americanah- Straight hair
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The Bluest Eye- Blue eyes
The media as an enforcer of western standards of beauty
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Americanah – Representation in women’s magazines
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The Bluest Eye- Hollywood movies and white actresses
Hierarchy of skin tones that favor light skins
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Americanah- Kosi and Ginika
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The Bluest Eye- Maureen
Characters that accept their beauty and criticize society
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Americanah- Ifemelu’s natural hair and ‘Raceteenth’ blog
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The Bluest Eye- Claudia’s evaluations
C. Conclusion
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A. Introduction
As an indirect result of globalization and historical practices such as colonialism, imperialism and slavery, Eurocentric beauty standards have been elevated as the prevailing ideal of beauty in many societies. Thus, in a society that is dominated with a preference for Eurocentric features, women of color are subtly taught to adapt this standard of beauty and in turn doubt their own beauty. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
readily explore this concept. Americanah is a 2013 novel written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The novel follows Nigerian childhood sweethearts Ifemulu and Obinze, whose lives take different paths as they migrate to the United States and England. In the course of the story, the main characters deal with modern attitudes to race, politics and identity.
The Bluest Eye is a novel by Toni Morrison published in 1970 and set during the 1940s. The story focuses on the eleven year old, African American Pecola Breedlove who wishes for her eyes to turn blue as she believes that this will consequently make her beautiful and loved. The
poetic novel confronts beauty as well as the consequences of beauty standards on individuals that
do not meet them. Both books explore the plight that black women deal with due to Eurocentric standards of beauty in racist societies. In Americanah, Ifemelu regularly encounters contemporary racism in America, including situations involving beauty standards. The Bluest Eye explores the obsession of appearance, specifically a more ‘white’ appearance, in the lives of various black women and girls.
Adichie and Morrison delve into common subjects in their books that describe the struggle of black women as a result of Eurocentric beauty standards. Both texts explore dominant social symbols of ‘white’ beauty, the media as an enforcer of a certain ideology, the societal hierarchy of skin tones that favor light-skins and the empowering attitude of black women who accept themselves and criticize their societies.
Adichie and Morrison are considered of high value and relevance due to the success, critical acclaim and social significance of their literary works. Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize winner, has been referred to as one of the greatest writers of the 20th and 21st century, has her books taught in schools and is known to have inspired generations of writers. Although Adichie is younger and less established than Morrison, she has also won various literary awards, her early works are being taught in schools and she has a current following. Both authors are respected for the social critique noticeable in their works and are known to give important thoughts on blackness in today’s world.
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B. Body
Dominant symbols of ‘white’ beauty
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Americanah- Straight hair
In Americanah, a main symbol for the detrimental effects of Eurocentric standards of beauty on black women is hair. Adichie uses hair, specifically Ifemelu’s hair to represent the struggle that black women face to conform to western beauty standards. The main character, Ifemelu goes
through various experiences that revolve around her hair. While living in Nigeria, Ifemelu always styled her hair in braids, and when she moves to the United States, she does the same. Then, Ifemelu’s aunt complains to her regarding pressure to straighten her hair in her work place
as she is a doctor. Again, on the prospects of getting a job, she is advised by a friend to ‘relax’ (chemically straighten) her hair to improve her chances of being employed as braids would seem unprofessional.
"Ruth said “My only advice? Lose the braids and straighten your hair. Nobody says this kind of stuff but it matters. We want you to get that job.” (p.250)
She adheres to the advice and it harms her scalp and her self-confidence. Ifemelu goes to the hairdresser.
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“Just a little burn,” the hairdresser said. “But look how pretty it is. Wow, girl, you’ve got the white girl swing!”
Her hair was hanging down rather than standing up, straight and sleek, parted at the side and curving to a slight bob at her chin. The verve was gone. She did not recognize herself. She left the salon almost mournfully; while the hairdresser had flat-ironed the ends, the smell of burning, of something organic dying which should not have died, had made her feel a sense of loss." (p. 251)
After Ifemelu gets her hair straightened, she feels a sense of death and ‘loss’. The use of the word ‘verve’ creates a strong, vigorous sense of Ifemelu’s spirit which has now died. Adichie’s use of personification allows the reader to perceive Ifemelu’s natural hair as living but her straight hair as dead, thus emphasizing the ‘death’. This could represent the loss of he independence and part of her heritage as she conforms to certain beauty standards. Following the story, Ifemelu’s hair starts to fall off due to the strong chemicals in the relaxer and she is advised by another friend to cut all her hair and start over. This friend, Wambui, says that ‘relaxing your hair is like being in prison’ (p.256). This could additionally signify Eurocentric beauty standards
being a prison for black women. Ifemelu’s experience not only shows America’s mainstream rejection of a common black woman’s practice but also the conformation and consequent harm done by these prominent beauty standards. Adichie suggests that black women have to physically alter themselves to fit
into certain mainstream ideals, specifically, black women have to appear to have straight thus more ‘white’ hair before they can be taken seriously in a professional setting. Thus, Adichie highlights an experience which many black women have endured.
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The Bluest Eye- Blue eyes
The Bluest Eye portrays a dominant symbol of ‘white’ beauty, which are blue eyes. The title of novel is taken from the protagonist’s—Pecola—desire to have blue eyes. Pecola’s yearning stems from “whiteness” being the beauty standard she cannot fit in.
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"It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different" (p.18).
Pecola feels she is ugly because of the way she is treated by almost everyone around her, thus she connects being loved to being beautiful and being beautiful to being ‘whiter’. Pecola is being treated badly by her family and her community and she sees white girls with blue eyes that fit the white standard of beauty and are treated better than she is. Thus, Pecola’s desire is complex; they are not just about fitting into mainstream beauty standards but are also about changing her reality and the way she is treated. Characters in the novel that possess whiteness and beauty are privileged, empowered and secure but characters that don’t, such as Pecola herself are disadvantaged, oppressed and uncertain.
"Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty… A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes" (p.174).
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Through Pecola’s desire for blue eyes, unreality takes the form of bodily denial, in which,Pecola, in an attempt to create herself in the image of mainstream American beauty, denies and ignores the physical reality of her body (Sugiharti, n.d.). Pecola’s desire eventually costs her sanity and causes her community to view her in a more damaging way. This absurd and desperate obsession to have blue eyes is an example of the destructive effects of Eurocentric
beauty standards towards young black girls.
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The media as an enforcer of western standards of beauty
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Americanah – Representation in women’s magazines
Americanah highlights the media, precisely women’s magazines, as a promoter of western beauty standards through the models and ethnicities represented. After her white boyfriend calls Essence--the African--American women's magazine- ‘racially skewed’ as it primarily features black women, Ifemelu attempts to prove a point by showing him the lack of black female representation in other magazines. In an entire stack, they find only three images of black women and all of them are light skinned.
"She spread the magazines on the table, some on top of the others. “Look, all of them are white women. This one is supposed to be Hispanic, we know this because they wrote two Spanish words here, but she looks exactly like this white woman, no difference in her skin tone and hair and features.” (p.364)
Further in the text, Ifemelu emphasizes her point further by mentioning that because she is a black woman and because the magazines exclude women that look like her, she cannot apply the makeup and hair tips advised by the magazines as they would only work for women with certain features that black women do not naturally have. Adichie uses this part of the book to illustrate the imposition of Eurocentric beauty standards through the lack of black female representation in conventional media. Ifemelu then makes a sarcastic comment about an advertisement in a magazine for beauty products.
“Oh look, here is some progress. An advertisement for foundation. There are seven different shades for white skin and one generic chocolate shade.” (p.365-366)
Ifemelu’s statement mocks the fact that the magazine ad features multiple and varied selection of foundation for women of lighter skin but for a dark woman like herself, there is just a single shade. Furthermore, hinting that marginalization and exclusion directed at black women is part of the constraints of Eurocentric beauty standards. Thus, the magazines indirectly imply that you are less important if you have darker skin as there is far less representation of your race and gender. This passage additionally depicts the belief and feeling of inferiority and inadequacy promoted by the media that black women perceive about themselves. Although there are a small number of Afrocentric magazines that try to offer alternative images of and to African American communities, Adichie shows that mainstream media which is white-dominated tend to promote Eurocentric beauty ideals.
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The Bluest Eye- Hollywood movies and white actresses
In the same way, Morrison uses the depiction of the popularity of Hollywood movies and white actresses to suggest the media as an enforcer of Eurocentric beauty standards. The popularity and admiration of these Hollywood movies and white actresses set up a beauty standard that omits black women. The Bluest Eye shows that movies are a primary vehicle for transmitting images for public consumption and depicts the impacts (Walther, 1990). Pecola's mother, Pauline, having spent much of her first pregnancy in the movie theater, has an obsession with Hollywood stars, so much that it strongly influences her perceptions.
"She [Pauline] was never able, after her education in the movies, to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one she absorbed in full from the silver screen." (p.122)
Here, Morrison points out the effect of Hollywood movies on Pauline and in other parts of the texts implies that the scale of beauty is not relative to racial to ethnic considerations and is actually an artificial scale that Pauline has internalized (Walther, 1990). Thus, the silver screen creates and promotes a ‘white’ scale of visual beauty. Furthermore, Morrison highlights the strong impact of cinema and how the exclusion of black people causes an artificial and harmful scale of beauty.
The Bluest Eye suggests, in several parts of the text, adoration for white Hollywood actresses by the various black characters. The boarder in the MacTeer's home, Mr. Henry, for example, means to compliment Claudia and Freida by comparing them to Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers—two famous white Hollywood actresses at the time—immediately after meeting them. By creating and accepting the compliment, the ‘white’ standard of beauty is accepted. Similarly, Shirley Temple is a common topic of discussion for young black girls.
"She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s dimpled face. Frieda and she had a loving conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was" (p.19).
In this part of the book, two children, Pecola and Frieda, discuss their admiration for Shirley Temple. At the time, during the 1940s, Shirley Temple was a very famous and loved child star that was known to be charming and cute. Pecola and Frieda do not discuss Temple’s talent or skill but rather her “cute-ness” which focuses on her appearance. Showing mass media’s preference for whiteness, the dominance of white starlets and how girls as young as Pecola and Frieda could impute beauty with the image of Shirley Temple. Moreover, the narrator—adult Claudia—goes on to discuss African American’s inferior perceptions of their own image.
“You are ugly people.” They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict that statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance." (p.39)
This extract further elucidates the impression that the prevailing Eurocentric standard of beauty is promoted and supported through the media, including the film industry, and because of this, is adopted by both white and black people. Morrison indicates that pro-white messages are so prevalent that they are difficult to see since they are as mundane as drinking milk from a cup or watching a movie. Morrison suggests that the role of the media is key to understand the impact of these beauty standards that have been adapted by audiences worldwide (Walther, 1990).
Hierarchy of skin tones that favor light skins
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Americanah- Kosi and Ginika
Adichie emphasizes the hierarchy of skin tones that favor light skinned women in society. In an introduction to the supporting character, Obinze, he compliments his wife, Kosi, by calling her an already established nickname ‘sunshine in the evening’ which refers to her light skin.
"She laughed. The same way she laughed, with an open, accepting enjoyment of her own looks, when people asked her “Is your mother white? Are you half-caste?” because she was so fair-skinned. It had always discomforted him, the pleasure she took in being mistaken for mixed-race."(p.27-28)
The extract describes the amusement of a light-skinned character by being complimented on her fair skin. The fact that Kosi takes being mistaken for mixed-race as praise conveys the way ‘whiteness’ is seen as an advantage and a value even in African society.
In addition, a flash back to Ifemelu’s adolescent years reveals her light skinned friend, Ginkia, as the prettiest girl and second most popular girl in her form.
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"The second most popular girl was Ginika, Ifemelu’s close friend. Ginika did not go abroad often, and so did not have the air of away as Yinka [the most popular girl] did, but she had caramel skin and wavy hair that, when unbraided, fell down to her neck instead of standing Afro-like. Each year, she was voted Prettiest Girl in their form, and she would wryly say, “It’s just because I’m half-caste.” (p.67)
Earlier in the paragraph, Adichie writes about the most popular girl in school, Yinka. It states that Yinka is popular because she is wealthy, travels to foreign countries often and has ‘the air of way’ but Ginikia is and does none of those things; instead she has light skin and ‘wavy hair’. This part of the text implies that the main reason Ginkia gained her status as ‘the second most popular girl’ and ‘Prettiest Girl’ in her grade was due to her being biracial, hence having lighter skin, straighter hair and more European-like features. However unlike Kosi, Ginika is aware of her light skin privilege and comments on it. By exploring this matter, Americanah conveys another way western standards of beauty are adopted by most people, even in an African country.
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The Bluest Eye- Maureen
Morrison displays the same hierarchy of skin tones through the charterer of Maureen. Maureen is a new light skinned black girl at school who seems to charm everybody. Maureen could symbolize a type of light-skinned African-American family that disregards darker-skinned black people. One day after school, she decides to walk with Claudia, Freida and Pecola, but after a misunderstanding, the girls dispute and bitterly part ways.
“Safe on the other side, she screamed at us, ‘I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!” (p. 73).
Maureen’s comments praise herself while insulting the other girls. When Maureen calls the girls ‘black and ugly’, it could be implied that those characteristics are synonymous. She says this confidently as she is not as black like the other girls due to her light skin. Further in the text, the narrator, Claudia, discusses the attitude of other people towards light skinned girls like Maureen.
“We could not stop the honey voices of parents and aunts, the obedience in the eyes of our peers, the slippery light in the eyes of our teachers when they encountered the Maureen Peals of the world.” (p. 74)
Lyrical phrases such as ‘honey voices’, ‘obedience in the eyes’ and ‘slippery light’ contain connotations of easiness and willingness, to give the impression that society is hypnotized and charmed by girls like Maureen. Frieda sees that there is a clear difference with the way people who look like Maureen are treated and the way she, her sister and especially Pecola are treated; displaying that their community has deeply adopted this hierarchy of skin tones.
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Characters that accept their beauty and criticize society
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Americanah- Ifemelu’s natural hair and ‘Raceteenth’ blog
Although being immersed in a racist culture that puts black women down and encourages western beauty standards, Americanah still creates a sense of self-love and consciousness as Ifemelu accepts her natural hair and blogs about racism. After the damage done to Ifemelu’s hair by the relaxer, Ifemelu cuts all her hair off and decides to go natural on the advice of a friend.She begins to grow her natural hair and regularly wear it as an afro.
“On a remarkable day in early spring—the day was not bronzed with special light, nothing of any significance happened, and it was perhaps merely at the time, as it often does, had transfigured her doubts—she looked in the mirror, sank her fingers into her hair, dense and spongy and glorious, and could not imagine it any other way. That simply she fell in love with her hair. “ (p.264)
The moment she “falls in love with her [natural] hair” is a moment of self-love, confidence, and independence. Ifemelu ‘falling in love’ with her natural hair despite previously conforming to Eurocentric beauty ideals embodies black woman resisting western beauty standards, recognizing their own beauty and accepting themselves. Ifemelu’s blog titled ‘Raceteenth or Various Observations about American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black’ has been carefully threaded into the overall narrative structure of Americanah. Ifemelu uses the blog as an outlet to share her experiences of blackness and race in the United States which eventually leads to self-discovery and the reshaping of her identity (Pardinas, 2014). Her blog is a way for her to criticize the racist
American society she lives in as well as reflect on the daily strives of immigrants and black people. The blog often condemns racist culture in a sardonic and sarcastic way.
"…race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; race is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd because it’s about how you look. Not about the blood you have. It’s about the shade of your skin and the shape of your nose and the kink of your hair." (p.337)
Here, Ifemelu suggests that race is merely a social construct and explores the artificiality of race throughout history.
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The Bluest Eye- Claudia’s evaluations
Morrison uses Claudia’s narrations to embody a type of lighthearted self-love and criticize not only the Eurocentric standard of beauty but also the people who accept it. As children, Claudia and her sister Frieda are content and carefree regarding their blackness.
“Guileless and without vanity, we were still in love with ourselves then. We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (p.57).
Through this self-love, Morrison refers to a child-like period of innocence where the girls did not yet understand the Eurocentric beauty standards and were not affected by society’s expectations of black females; suggesting that Claudia resisted the initial pressures to conform to a ‘white’ version of beauty. However, it is suggested that self-hatred will come with womanhood, as physical beauty becomes more important.
At the end of the novel, after Pecola has lost her sanity and is mentally damaged due to conditions that are part of the American system which marginalizes and victimizes black people, Claudia comments on the grief of Pecola’s outcome.
“…it was the fault of the earth, the land, our town. I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear...” (p.163)
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Through the metaphor and imagery of vegetation and growth, we can imagine Pecola and other black girls as seeds struggling to grow or trees struggling to bear fruit because the soil does not nurture them. Morrison implies the idea that American society is constructed for certain type of people to succeed and thrive, for white girls and light skinned individuals like Maureen but not black girls like Pecola. Moreover, Claudia’s consciousness can be read as decolonizing her mind from colonial oppression as she frees herself from white standards imposed on black people by realizing its existence and effect on people (Sugiharti, n.d.).
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C. Conclusion
It is intriguing to note that Americanah and The Bluest Eye have significant differences but still manage to examine similar issues. Adichie portrays Ifemelu as a Nigerian woman whose experiences happen in the 21 st century. On the other hand, Morrison depicts African American women and girls that lived during 1940s. Americanah has a pro-black and pro-African interpretation that explores the challenges of being black in western society. While The Bluest Eye contends that beauty is a social construct and considers the ways American society dictates it. Despite general differences between the characters, their experiences as black females dealing with Eurocentric standards of beauty in their society are alike.
Although works of fiction, both books comment on real life social issues that affect many people of color even today. It would be interesting to further explore other themes regarding social issues that both books share such as the connection between race and class. The struggle of black women due to Eurocentric beauty standards is portrayed in Americanah and The Bluest Eye by examining dominant symbols of white beauty, the media as an enforcer of mainstream beauty ideals, the hierarchy of skin tones that favor light-skins in society and the empowering approach of black women who exhibit self-love and condemn their racist societies.
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Bibliography
Adichie, C. N. (2013). Americanah.
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Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eye.
Pardinas, V. B. (2014). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah: (Re)opening a conversation
about race and beauty (Unpublished masters thesis). Universidade da Courna, Coruna,
Spain.
Sugiharti, E. (n.d.). Racialised beauty: Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation).
Walther, M. L. (1990). Out of sight: Toni Morrison's revision of beauty. African American
Review, 24(4), 775-789.
