Is it generally accepted that Beyonce has lightened her appearance?
Man, skin tone is a fraught issue.
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Lil Kim's New Bleached Hair and Light Skin
- Thread starter LittleBoots
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Is it generally accepted that Beyonce has lightened her appearance?
Man, skin tone is a fraught issue.
flintstryker
Banned
One of the thing I can never understand about bleaching as I have seen taken place in my home country is that I have never seen a person who did it that looked better after, yet people keep doing it
CadetMahoney
Member
Exactly, putting everything on the shoulders of the individual.
I think it depends on the country where the bleaching is taking place.
You have places like Jamaica, and it looks horrible for the most part. You keep the wide nose, and the light skin just looks awkward. Its kind of like with TI's wife tiny. Nobody is checking for her and she light bright because the nose makes it look weird. I've seen it pulled of rather effectively with East(Horn) Africans though. In fact with many, you can't even tell there was any lightening. Its usually done with a consistent hydroquinone regimen.
Samurai G0SU
Member
where are the before and after pics of lil kim? i didnt see it in the OP, well i seen the After pics, but not the before lol.
Pantaghana
Member
You are saying that people should stop having empathy? What?
People here care because this is self destructive.
Via Purifico
Banned
Mammoth Jones
Member
Extremely self destructive.. Only having one standard of Eurocentric beauty is destructive to other communities.
I don't expect everyone to give a shit but folks shouldnt act shocked we'd like to ensure we don't get caught in that web of self loathing and striving to unrealistically change our phenotype just to be accepted by society.
Maybe society should stop being so fucking bigoted.
Shit, that's still a fluffed up promo. Let's get real:
To people saying "If this makes her happy, we shouldn't complain", this is basically the mental equivalent of putting a band-aid on a stab wound. Sure it might stop some of the bleeding, but the underlying issue issue is not being treated. In Kim's (and many other non-white women) case, the issue is having the media and society for just about all of time stating that white features and whiteness in general are the best features to have and being told that other features are ugly. People are going to internalize that.
toastyToast
Member
People feeling the need to do this is incredibly fucked up. I've got relatives who look like fucking ghosts nowadays. This isn't cool at all and the people who think it is aren't fully grasping the motivation. Deep down Kim knows she isn't white but I'd be damned if she doesn't think what she is now is better than what she was before and you all see what she looks like.
What isn't apparent to some of you in this thread at first glance is the pressure of US beauty standards/what is seen as beautiful in the United States, and how it affects black women growing up in the United States. Example, many black women in the United States straighten their hair/alter the appearance of their hair in order to make their hair follow US beauty standards for what is considered "Good Hair" vs allowing their hair to grow naturally since it is different from what is acceptable. Not only are many of these processes not good for their hair, but they spend thousands of hours and dollars doing it, just so they can feel more beautiful than they do with their natural hair.
And this is just one small example. Even on GAF we have topics like "Black women less physically attractive than other women." or online dating topics where studies show black women the least desirable for the average man, or as some GAFer's put it "I don't like dating black women, it's just my preference". These are all just small tastes of how hard it is for a black woman to grow up in the United States and be seen as beautiful when society is constantly telling them they need to look more like white women, whether it's a top 50 beautiful women list where only one black person is on it at number 48, or the guy that says "You're pretty for a black girl" as if it's a compliment.
In the case of Lil Kim, many of us are thinking about examples like above as the reason why Lil Kim felt she had to alter her physical appearance to be more beautiful. Yes, if we think in a "vacuum" as one poster put it, we should be happy that Lil Kim is happy with her new look. But life doesn't work in a vacuum, and different situations have different context and history that shouldn't be ignored. While bullying/making fun of Lil Kim isn't necessary, we also shouldn't necessarily be "supportive" when these pressures in US society may be the root cause and instead speak more about these problems.
DontBeThatGuy
Member
I look at this Nigerian singer, Dencia, and see how she looked before and now after and it's mind-boggling the lengths some people will go to alter their appearance.
--I CAN MAKE YOU ONE
Samurai G0SU
Member
1996
Holy Moly!!! What a difference......
Angelus Errare
Banned
Read her interviews, she's not happy.
R10Neymarfan
Member
You forgot how mixed black women are represented as black women. And how they skew things too. Even the natural hair community has insecurity issues with many natural black women trying to get their hair will nice.curls and trying to get it to hang down
Post-racial society and all that.
UnemployedVillain
Member
I think some people in this thread, specifically the ones who said things like "Just let her do what she wants", "It's her body. Who are we to judge" and variants of that are so...for a lack of a better word "desperate" to be all accepting, that they don't even want to acknowledge when someone is doing something damaging to their physical or mental health. It's like you guys would see someone with an eating disorder or drug habit and instead just brush it off as nothing because it's their choice.
That doesn't help anyone. Maybe it helps you, because you get to conveniently ignore difficult issues under the guise of being accepting and non-judgmental, but I don't think it helps the individual or the discussion.
This isn't me saying to get into everyone's business, but let's acknowledge when someone is doing something damaging and the reasons for it. Especially when they themselves have on numerous occasions mentioned why
That doesn't help anyone. Maybe it helps you, because you get to conveniently ignore difficult issues under the guise of being accepting and non-judgmental, but I don't think it helps the individual or the discussion.
This isn't me saying to get into everyone's business, but let's acknowledge when someone is doing something damaging and the reasons for it. Especially when they themselves have on numerous occasions mentioned why
Good thing Nicky Minaj wasn't around when she was dark skin. The color change is on par with Lil Kim.
Rihanna did as well, just not drastically. And when you get a list of most beautiful women list and 99% of them are light skin or biracial women, well that leave a message that loud and clear.
And sadly, dark men are mostly seen with lighter women as well.
Rihanna did as well, just not drastically. And when you get a list of most beautiful women list and 99% of them are light skin or biracial women, well that leave a message that loud and clear.
And sadly, dark men are mostly seen with lighter women as well.
Mammoth Jones
Member
People really need to watch Good Hair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So
Yup. Very apparent in advertising. Dark skinned Black man, super light skinned wife.
Case in point. Also, you're wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So
Yup. Very apparent in advertising. Dark skinned Black man, super light skinned wife.
Case in point. Also, you're wrong.
Nah
Indelible
Member
I strongly disagree, she looks completely fake and manufactured.
adamantypants
Member
She looks like my ex girlfriends Korean mom
but it is
What about her current appearance is a marked improvement over her natural look? What features do you think are better?
Same. I came in expecting new, stylish shots of the dear leader.
UnemployedVillain
Member
NOPE
Damn I almost cried..... Okay I'm crying that poem was beautiful.
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