Yesterday I saw a photograph from the 1970s of a group of Black girls playing with all White dolls on fuckyeahdollsofcolor’s Tumblr blog. I liked fuckyeahdollsofcolor’s comment:
There were a few black dolls from Mattel released in the late 1960’s [Francie], [Julia] and though I’m not sure what their distribution & production quantities might have been, I feel it’s safe to assume they were not widely available, compared to the “standard” white Barbie dolls. I’m thinking of the culture that led to these children not only having limited access to dolls that look (at least a little bit) like them, while having wider access to dolls that look like white people. In the end, it reminds me a bit of the topsy turvy doll I posted recently. At risk of sounding trite or saccharine, this is why I do what I do.
I appreciate this blog. I post photographs of Black dolls too, from time to time, for this same reason (information, appreciation and affirmation) as well as posts tagged “kids” in addition to the photographs, art, and videos that I post of Black women. (I explained this in further detail in my bio and in a post that I suggest people read before subscribing/reblogging/posting comments to Gradient Lair.)
This got me thinking about Black women and Pinterest. There are some Black women that I sadly had to unfollow because they post entirely too many photographs of White women. They post more photographs of White women than the White women that I follow do.
White women’s images (mostly cisgender and thin White women) dominate ALL FORMS OF MEDIA in the United States, in regards to women. (I mention gender, since in certain areas, White men’s images dominate. For example, they still appear in films more than anyone else.) This is not an opinion. This is fact. Television commercials. Television shows. Print ads. Billboards. Films. Magazine covers. Stock photography. Business websites. Major fashion blogs. I could continue…
Just as Black parents need to be deliberate about countering the negative messages (both interracial and intraracial messages; and these are inherently connected) that Black girls receive about beauty, Black women also have be deliberate about what we consume, even what we post as “beauty” and “health” and “style” examples on Pinterest. We cannot control (though we always have to push back with critical reflection and critique, if not actively involved in adding to the content available for and about Black women) every media interpretation that is purposely meant to reinforce Eurocentric beauty and Whiteness as “universal.” However, Pinterest is…a choice; the images that we select to pin to infer various forms of goodness are choices. Media is not arbitrary, random, neutral nor apolitical. To be clear, a Black woman can post whatever she chooses on her board; I’m pointing out how these choices are not arbitrary. I just have encountered so many Black women with 10-30 Pinterest boards and not a single image of a Black woman is anywhere to be seen on them.
Certainly the images that we consume can be mixed. I went from looking at images of Black women yesterday afternoon to watching John Cusack in The Raven, which has White men on screen almost 95% of the time. (It’s one of the whitest movies that I’ve seen in a while, actually.) However, the illusion that there is parity in choices of media representations, as if there are 10 photographs of Black women for every 10 photographs of White women is a MYTH promulgated to make it appear as if a Black person choosing to focus on imagery of Black people, for example, is being a “reverse racist” which does not exist. Rejection of White supremacy is not reverse racism, or racism, or prejudice. It’s self-affirmation. It’s necessary for healthy self-esteem.
One thing that I have done is post shoes and clothing as is, without a person in them, so that the focus is on the object (though sometimes in a white or peach-hued mannequin body) and not an endless stream of White women’s images. I already deal with over-saturation of their images and when how I look or how other Black women look is attacked daily, I don’t need to invite this type of psychic assault into my life, then write it off as “just” pictures when I know that no media is “just” anything.
There’s several Black women that I follow on Pinterest that have amazingly diverse boards or all-Black woman boards, and I like that. White women are always going to see and have images and products to reaffirm who they are. It’s not too much to want the same for Black girls and Black women.
(Oh…and I know there is a class, consumption, consumerism and capitalism argument to be made for Pinterest itself—a very legitimate one, but one that I will save for another day.)
Related Posts: Black Girls, Black Women and TV Commercials, 7 Things To STOP Saying To Black Women About Beauty, Black Beauty Supply Store Circulars
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Black Girls and Dolls; Black Women and Pinterest
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