5 posts tagged “black is beautiful”
This sort of story always depresses me, and I had sort of hoped that we (as a species) had evolved past this sort of thing since the days when Malcolm X “conked” his hair with homemade concoctions...
Going under the scalpel and the bleach creams in Mumbai
Sitting in a midtown cafe in Mumbai, there are about a dozen gorgeous women all around me. Some are clearly young, aspiring models and actresses hoping to get noticed by the right casting director. This is the heart of Bollywood after all. Others are older, with perhaps a few too many collagen injections. They, too, are beautiful and they have money to burn.
This is part of the life and look of the new middle class in South Asia's cultural capital, where beauty is big business. Over the past decade, with the rise of real wealth among India's middle and upper classes, there has come a boom in the demand for cosmetic surgeries and procedures.
And the most popular procedures might surprise you: Overwhelmingly, Indian women are getting "work" done that makes them look more like white women. Skin bleaching, nose jobs and liposuction are by far the most popular requests.
From CBC News
Granted I’m just a white guy living in a predominantly white country, and I can’t begin to understand the sort of pressure and propaganda which bears down on men and women of colour, but what I find so beautiful about the human race is the variety of shapes and skin tones... from alabaster pale red-heads to dark-skinned brunettes, and every gradation in between... from button to broad and aquiline noses... as an artist (cough, cough) I find it’s the variation that keeps things interesting. As the song says, if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other. Certainly I would, anyway. In the comic book that I’ve written, I’ve made some fairly specific requests regarding facial features, because the one thing I can’t stand about typical Manga/Anime character designs is the non-existent noses. Eyebrows too... I’ve got a thing for thick eyebrows... but that’s beside the point. It just pains me to see how far removed the mainstream conception of “Beauty” is from natural beauty... which is a crying shame, since it requires so much expense, self-loathing and personal discomfort to maintain this horrideous homogeneity. Gah!
I don't generally enjoy watching sports, because I don't really understand the rules, and don't care enough to learn. Even something as seemingly simple as Tennis is still a mystery to me. Women's tennis, on the other hand, has a very obvious appeal as far as spectator sports go. But for me, it isnt just about the tight outfits and the grunting... I really dig the aggression and the drama of it. Beach volleyball might float some men's boats, but it's not combative enough for my liking. There are few joys in life comparable to watching Williams (S) pound across a court, at the top of her game. It's also worth noting that both Williams sisters display a sense of humour on court, or a sense of fun at least, even under the most stressful of circumstances, which marks them out as worth watching.
I can't say I'm a dedicated fan or anything, but when Wimbledon comes around, I do tend to take an active interest. One of the most annoying things about watching tennis, for me at least, is the bit where the crowd shout out bland encouragement... and I think my objection comes down to a basic sense of decorum, since the audience address the players by their first names as if they knew them. I know that makes me seem rather stuffy, but it does make me cringe. I also take exception to the fact that the vast majority will cheer on the petite blonde players (who get all the tabloid love too), and exclude less dainty players like Amèlie Mauresmo and Williams (S). Do these crowds just have no manners? I dont know... but it's always fun to watch Williams (S)'s face, while the crowd call out her opponent's name. Bless her.
At one point there were some fan-art drawings of Miss Williams (S) on my website, but I was never very happy with them. A proper artist would be able to balance her muscularity with her femininity, but I could never get the knack of it... which only made me admire her more, for some reason. Her beauty defied the artist's attempt to capture it! Not that I'm really an artist. Sigh. I know some men will dismiss women as "butch" if they happen to have the slightest muscle tone, but I just can't get with that sort of thinking... as if "real women" should keep their bones moving with pretty pink ribbons alone, and wait for fluttering birdies to do all of their heavy lifting for them! Muscles are just part of the human body, and no more masculine than any other... as is body hair, of course, but that's a harder sell, and a much longer conversation.
Having enjoyed Wright's turn as Nikki, the block's resident badass in the rather blah chicks-in-prison flick Civil Brand, it was good to go back to the original Blade, and see what she could do with a decent script and story. Here she plays a human haematologist, drawn into the crossfire when a rather crispy corpse is delivered to the hospital where she works, only to get up and start biting people! OMG! Sadly, she's one of his first snacks, and it's only Blade's timely flashback to his ill-fated mother's face that prevents him from dusting her there and then. Soon she's up to speed on the situation, vis-a-vis vampires, and standing shoulder to shoulder with her saviour. She's a SideChick of the best possible kind... strong, smart, and self-reliant... with qualities and/or skills to offer that the hero doesn't possess. She invents a whole new weapon to add to Blade's arsenal, and arguably saves the day/world on two separate occasions. Somehow, she even manages to look cute while climbing out of a zombie-infested cellar! In any fair and decent world, she would have had her own spin-off series... fighting the "suckfaces" with science, as well as solid punches.
Back when I first watched Ally McBeal, as a teen, I was a big fan of The Wacky... the wackier that show got, the more I laughed and loved it. Watching the show again recently, I realised that I was more interested in the human stories, and the characters... in the one episode where Carson's character Renee is allowed a serious bask in the spotlight, she reveals a far more interesting and complex backstory than is really hinted at by her usual fleeting appearances as Ally's down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is flatmate. Her main function, throughout the series was to bring some much needed grit to proceedings, but as the audience (me included) grew hungrier for The Wacky, her character was marginalised more and more... eventually disappearing completely, with no real on-screen explanation. There are hints on various sites regarding Carson's off-screen troubles, which certainly may have hastened her departure from the cast, but that's not really any of my business. I can only comment on what I see on-screen, and what I see is a priceless performance. Carson owns every scene she's in, dominating the whiny yuppies around her with strength, sass and sex-appeal to spare! As if that wasn't enough, she can sing too! Her kickboxing scenes suggest that she could even have started a neat side-line in action-adventure flicks, but sadly, it was not to be...
For anyone who hasn't seen The Arena (1973), let me quote from the back of the case: "Female gladiators fight to the death! Inspired by the story of Spartacus, follow the adventures of a bevy of slave girls who, upon finding themselves thrust into the gladiator ring, mount a vicious rebellion to fight their way to freedom." The rebels are led by Pam Grier (playing Mamawi, a Nubian dancer) and Margaret Markov (playing Bodicia of Britannia, apparently), back together again to re-bottle the lightning they unleashed in Black Mama, White Mama! Never heard of it? Well then, this film probably isn't for you. This is the sort of B-Movie exploitation fare that Tarantino grew up on, and frankly it's a little hard to sit through, unless you have a predilection for cheesy dialogue and somewhat wooden acting. I'm not sure if that's the cast's fault, or if it's a side-effect of the restrictive resources... it must have taken a fair bit of cash and rehearsal time to stage the fight scenes, and since that (along with the comely cast) was what people would be paying to see, there wouldn't have been much point worrying about nuance or depth of character. There are still a few pretty good jokes in there, among the awfully creaky ones, and a lot more going on plot-wise than you might expect... but it's no Gladiator, obviously. Grier, however, makes the whole ride a lot smoother, and it's really no surprise that she has had such a long and successful career. She was one of the first real action heroines, and a true icon for lovers of brassy and sassy cinematic ball-busters... or, to quote one of her posters, "she's brown sugar and spice, but if you don't treat her nice... she'll put you on ice!" Can you dig it?
