A few things first:
- Beauty comes in a variety of nationalities
- R&B music has reached new heights by gaining listeners of various nationalities
- I don’t advocate video vixens, hoes, or tip drills, etc. but…
These R&B brothers just aren’t singing to their sistah fans anymore. When I hear a song on the radio before seeing the song’s video, I picture this young man crooning a young black woman into his heart, his house, or his bed. On any level, I picture said man making said woman feel wanted. But then I see the video and the young woman I pictured has much stringier hair, much paler skin, and a much pointier nose. Said honey has turned white, or half Latina half white, or a mix of some other non-African descent. Not to say that she’s ugly or anything, but why are these “women of other” (not of color) so often the main squeeze of black R&B singers in videos?
Sure, we as black women fought to have females regarded as human beings in videos, and not as pieces of ass, but now we aren’t even invited to the shoots anymore! Watching 106 & Park is sickening, and not just because of Terrance, but because the audience is filled with beautiful young black women who end up watching “girls of other” rub all over the stars they worship. Can’t they see a pretty girl that looks like them get some attention from these highly revered stars for once?
R&B has crossed over to more mainstream audiences (i.e. beyond African Americans), but does that crossover have to entail dropping sistahs altogether? Not all R&B videos feature a white girl as the main girl, but I’ve noticed my fair share to the point where it’s like trying to catch a gay guy’s eye, he’s just not interested in me! Are videos trying to live up to the age old “I need a white girl” fantasy that [people think] so many black men want? Are beautiful black women not a fantasy anymore?
Tags: black women, entertainment, social issues
First of all, a beautiful black woman has never been a fantasy. Two beautiful black women on the other hand…
I don’t see a problem with the diversity in R&B/Hip-hop videos. Like you said, it’s not always like that so it’s not a complete “black out” going on in the industry.
These types of arguments usually stem from this territorial sense of entitlement that black women have towards the men of their culture. We’re sort of regarded as “less black” when seen with women outside of our race. I’d love to date a more diverse set of women, but having locks and dating a white women is heresy in our community. Can’t say that I care of who approves, but I believe this propagates to the women I’m looking to date. So I’m happy to see videos showing more diversity if only to increase the comfort level between cultures.
Besides men don’t see color, we see measurements
Shani I see where you are comming from but, its not like these women of other nationalities are being protrayed as trophy wives, they are being protrayed like money grubbing video hoes just like the black women if they were in the video….So in that regard I don’t have a problem with another race taking up some of the sterotype.
I guess the thing I’m trying to do is break away from the stereotypes and the fact that diversity is a positive thing, and look more into how black women are viewed. We don’t seem to be considered beautiful by mainstream audiences anymore. R&B videos are just one example. Looking at new TV shows, TV commercials, and printed ads, black women are rarely featured unless they’re running the show, or they’ll have light eyes, light skin, and curly hair. Ever noticed you rarely see a black woman in a commercial with regular relaxed hair unless it’s a black hair commercial itself?
I personally don’t have a problem with interracial dating but I do have a problem with women being okay with portraying themselves as out right hoes on TV, especially our black women. I think that the new generations of black females have lost the morals and values that our mothers and grandmothers instilled in us as young girls. A lot of black females want to “fit in” so they are willing to degrade themselves in videos, ignorant TV shows like “I love NY” etc. Now there is a surplus of non-black women jumping on this video band wagon for the “money” which is stupid. Tying into Shani’s point about the: TV commercials and relaxed or natural hair styles. I agree. The black woman has never been accepted as “beautiful” in high stream media, it actually stems all the way back to post slavery and that “light skin, long curly hair mentality that’s deeply infused in our community & society. For some black women I suppose that gaining negative attention is better than no attention at all. I think it’s a shame that the media is so far behind and little black girls & teens cannot see black women viewed globally as beautiful. So now a lot of black women have compromised, masked there natural inner and outer beauty with weave, plastic surgery etc. Back to diversity, I hope to see more of our gorgeous black women step outside the box and date outside of our race. We black women are so loyal to our black men who are constantly marrying outside there race, while us black women sit back waiting (single, unmarried, raising there children alone) on our black kings. What since does this make? We need to follow in there foot steps instead of waiting year after year on them. I think that once the black woman steps into her new arena of interracial dating, that you will immediately see our percentages of marriages increase.
I see where you’re coming from also Shani, and I agree with what Charlene was saying. I really don’t have much of a problem with these other nationalities taking over for the video vixen role in these music videos. I wouldn’t really come to the conclusion that black women aren’t considered beautiful in mainstream either. I think its the fact that sex and drama sell and if you aren’t one that is bringing one of them to television, then you won’t get much play. As for the commercials and ads, yeah there are much less darker skinned women than lighter skinned. I don’t think that says that black women are less beautiful though. Especially when its a kotex commercial or a cheesy online college commercial. There really isn’t much beauty in those commercials to me. I truly wonder how many darker skinned women are going for these types of roles. You never know, the majority may be only going for these reality tv shows instead of commercials. I’d love to know the statistics though.