"The Soul Of Black Girls" Critique

596 Words3 Pages
Ever since Madame C.J. Walker became a millionaire selling hair and beauty products it became clear that black women felt the need to tweak themselves to feel attractive. Hair had to be straighter and skin lighter, blacks have been brainwashed by the images of Europeans and what they considered to be beautiful. After hundreds of years of being told they were inferior and being raped and beaten it’s hard not to believe it. The film, “The Soul of Black Girls”, candidly showed how these thoughts are still embedded in the minds of African-American women today. This film opened my eyes. Along with the history of the black race the film proves that many of the beauty treatments and rituals black women endure today are a reflection of that European standard of beauty. The Euro standard of beauty is just about every image we see in the media today: long straight hair, light skin and eyes, slim noses, fair skin, and thin lips. The unique history of African-Americans subconsciously affects what black men and women consider attractive. If this wasn’t true, black women wouldn’t go to such extremes as to put chemical relaxers in their hair to make it straight. Assata Shakur describes the process of straightening her hair as, “burnt ears, a smokey straightening, and the stink of your own hair burning” (174). She hadn’t understood why she and generations before her had gone through the trouble. The women, who wear natural looks such as afros, dreadlocks, and braids, are a rare find. For most black women it’s either relaxed hair or hair that doesn’t even grow from their own scalps. As Shakur states: “When you go through all your life processing and abusing your hair so it will look like the hair of another race of people, then you are making a statement and that statement is clear. I don’t care if it’s the curly, conk, latex, locks or whatever, you’re making a statement” (174).

More about "The Soul Of Black Girls" Critique

Open Document