No Butts About It

Greetings luvs,

Today I finally found what I had been searching for. I have dedicated great time, effort and energy into acquiring this item and now that I have it in my possession I will cherish it for quite some time. What is this item you might ask? Blue jean shorts. That's right; I have been on a quest to obtain shorts that not only were flattering but fit well. Although many women have difficulty shopping for clothing I would like to bring to the forefront a difficulty that I believe has been stereotyped among African American women without empathy, sympathy or even an attempt to understand my plight. That of which I speak is of a larger postirier. Yes this is a post about Black American women and big butts. Do not let the subject matter defer you though. This is an attempt to delve into the historical as well as social explanations behind the fascination with this obscure body part.

Through my research on Black beauty standards, I have noticed that the body of the African woman has often been seen as an entity that was not that individuals own to regulate. Instead the female African body was either a source of pleasure, amusement or a commodity, with these categories often overlapping. The use of evolution and eugenics as explanations for the differences in the physical characteristics between races, allowed for the perception of Africans as lesser developed humans to flourish. This perception contributed to the use of Africans as slaves and workers. The affect on African women upon being brought to America was that of them being considered as only slightly above animals and therefore as slaves, were property. The owners of this said property believed themselves to be able to do as they pleased with their slaves. The transported African woman, who then became the American slave and would eventually become known as the ancestor of many African American women, was often subject to explicit sexual harassment, assault, and rape. The bodies of these women were often viewed as over sexualized because of perceptions of propriety and morality which coincided with the dress. In this case, the difference or lack of dress of the African tribes from the European standpoint meant that that they were sexual creatures because civilized moral individuals knew that they were to clothe and cover themselves, women especially. Therefore, African women or American female slaves’ bodies were obviously built for pleasure because they were on display. There of course could be no other explanation right??? (This is of course is very sarcastic.)

Where do large behinds fit into all of this you may ask? Well, focusing on one of the many Africans which were displayed for the entertainment and amusement of the Europeans. One of the most famous being that of Sarah Barttmann otherwise known as the Huttontot Venus. I will not give her entire story here because my purpose is to incite your curiosity and perhaps influence you to begin to seek the origins of the world in which we find our selves today. What I will say is that the Huttentot Venus was paraded amongst the Europeans as an example of the physical bodies of the African women. Large breasted with an equally large prudent backside Sarah Barttmann became the template upon which Black women were automatically contained. The difference in the physical bodies of Black and White women were exaggerated as further means to provide evidence as to the lower status of Black women. As the Black beauty standard progressed through over time this physical dimension has been modified but never fully rebuffed. Black American women in today’s society live within a world of contradiction. On the one hand, the general society upholds a standard of beauty which excludes the natural physical characteristics of many Black women entirely, namely of which is being thin and of a small hourglass or boyish shape. While on the other hand, often in the Black community, a woman without curves or hips can be ridiculed and those who have can be highly perused or also ridiculed. A double edged sword, yes. Those with slight hips can be teased for being "shaped like a white girl" while those who have much hips or large rears can be harassed because the protrudence of which is viewed as a display of sexuality.

These of course are gross generalizations but I believe that they relay my point well. The influence placed on this certain physical aspect of the Black woman is socially constructed and yet although it was created by a society outside of itself, prevails. Being that Black women are not included in the definition of beauty or in the general definition of ideal consumer, products particularly clothing are not made to accommodate this very physical characteristic that Black women are stereotyped as containing. Yes, all of this to explain why I have such a hard time finding clothing that fits my particular shape. Lol and yes I do feel that this is worthy of discussing. I am a consumer and my needs are not being met. Options include tailoring, settling, attempting to by from clothing lines which do cater to larger hips then waist measurements or perhaps the most appealing out of all the options, I should create a line of clothing of my own :).

As a Black woman I truly felt that I am only able to speak on behalf of my experience as a Black woman with this particular issue. I do know and acknowledge though that this issue does not pertain only to Black women and that it is an issue that affects all pear or hour glass shaped women no matter race. The unique circumstances of the Black beauty standard though make this subject particularly taxing for Black American women. So yes today, I found some shorts and although the quest was long and hard I will continue to hunt and fight for mass produced clothing that actually fits my frame. Continue the fight ladies! Have you had any encounters with issues with shopping for your body shape or with the Black beauty standard? Feel free to comment!

Blessed be dears,
Rose

The Thick and Thin

Greetings Loves,

The summer of 2010 I was enrolled in a required 1 hour gym class. The class was pretty basic we did walking, jogging, and step aerobics. I of course dreaded having to take this class and in fact had procrastinated until the last year of my undergraduate career to enroll in the course. Why would I dread taking a fitness class you might wonder? Well, perhaps it was the fact that I was ridiculously out of shape. Working out? What was that? That was for skinny white girls who were afraid of gaining a pound or for the frighteningly fitness conscious female sports participants who honestly always scared me with their gusto towards working out and ugh, sweating. No, though it was not my being out of shape that made me not want to attend this course. No, what caused me to postpone the inevitable was an unwillingness to want to face reality. The reality that would undoubtedly stare me in the face if I enrolled in a gym class. This reality in fact struck me in the face on the first day of class. The students filed in and there in the middle of the floor was a scale. Yes a scale. Now, I am not afraid of the scale in fact I had even been known to use one during my high school fitness craze. It was the years and pounds in between that time and five years later that smacked me in the face and welcomed me to the land of reality.

Super old pic but you get the drift

250 pounds. Yupp at 5'6, I weighed in at 250 pounds. Now I have never been "thin." I believe the last time I was truly at a low weight was when I was around 2 or 3 and my older sister was stealing the food off of my highchair before I could eat it, IE before I learned to open the refrigerator on my own. At the age of 23 though I was officially obese. And yes I was one of those women whose weight had not greatly affected my life at all other then limiting the places that I could shop. I had boyfriends...it was undergrad, I had lots of boyfriends lol. I had an active social life, I was involved on campus and I knew I looked good. I had high explicit as well as implicit self esteem. I mean do you know the symbol for potassium on the periodic table? I do it's a K which happens to also be the initial of my first name. Orienting one's self to objects, subjects and symbols that are associated with one's self are indicators often used to measure implicit self esteem. Back to the topic at hand, being that heavy did not make me sad or depressed. I am an African American woman, I wasn't fat I was thick.

Yea, I was thick alright and horribly out of shape and heavy. So I decided to do something about it. Over the next two years I joined a gym, changed my eating habits and as of today have lost 75 pounds. Yes, I was able to easily and simply sum that up in one sentence but it was anything but easy. I spent tons of sweat and time trying to figure out how my body worked. What foods I could eat and what foods I needed as well as what kind of exercises my body reacted best to. Being a pear shaped woman, my hips are larger then my chest; I liked to focus on my lower body because this contained the majority of my weight. I sweated my way through various workouts and eventually was able to arrive and my current weight of 175. I am sharing all of this because first, I have an intense interest in African/Black American women and beauty standards. Interestingly enough where as for white women, weight is often synonymous with beauty the same does not ring true for African American women. Well, as long as you weight is in the right places. The one conclusion that I have come to from my weight loss journey is that nothing has really changed about me other then some numbers :).

I am also working on getting to 150 by the beginning of the Fall 2012 semester! I have about three months left and 25 pounds to go I will be chronicling my progress from now til then. Let me know if you are currently working on your health/fitness and how the journey and change of lifestyle has been for you!

Blessed be,
Rose

Musings on Medusa Part II

Hello luvs,

As you may recall the last post left off with Medusa and her possible African origins. As an Black American (or African American depending upon what year of the census I am filling out), I am always intrigued and searching for the Black feminine everywhere. Now according to Ovid and others, they deem that the rivalry between Athena and Medusa was due to Medusa making claims to be more beautiful then Athena. Now, if just examining the surface I could understand how that claim could anger any woman especially a Goddess. Yet, Medusa has been argued to not be an orginal myth created in Greece but actually to have been found much earlier in several different African countries such as Lybia and Eygpt.

In the African depictions of Medusa she was an aspect of the Greek Athena, her feminine side. The African Medusa was worshipped as a symbol of the sacredness of the feminine. Her beauty, grace, charm, as well as ability to be able to protect those who worshipped her made her the quintessential essence of woman. African depictions of Medusa show her with dreads that often resemble the snakes that we see upon her head in later Greek illustrations. Depending on your source and the particular part of the world, Medusa was viewed as the Mother of all who could create, destroy and transform, the link between Earth, heaven and the underworld, the forces of nature particularly those associated with the serpent, or the knower of all wisom. The concensus though appears that Medusa was not just a vain Gorgon but was herself a divine being.

The Eurocentric and patriarchal decent of the Greece matched that of Medusa. Taken from her divine pedestal, Medusa was stripped of her femininity and beauty by the asexual Athena. Along one viewpoint, Athena was sprung from Zeus already whole and mature after Zeus swalled Medusa's Gorgon sister Athene to gain her wisdom. Athena then is forever linked to Medusa.

Reading these different renditions of the Medusa and Athena story immediately made a connection with me. Studying beauty standards, I linked the beauty and femininity associated with African and early early European descriptions of Medusa being stripped away by the European male Greek authorities. I could not help but correlate this tale to that of what happened with African women as they were taken from Africa and transported to the New America. Where as in Africa, thier clothing styles and behaviors were that which were per thier culture, when the European explorers "dis-covered" Africa the women were not recognized in thier beauty or femininity. Instead they were either hypersexualized or asexualized and unfortunately it appears that Black women today may have accepted this either/or simplicity. What I am then proposing is that Black women take back the Medusa image as well as thier sexuality and femininity. I will present further musings and illustrative posts on such topics as behavior, body, being, and autonomy in the upcoming "Embracing Medusa" series.

Blessed be,
Rose

BlogWatch

Greetings loves,

BlogWatch will consists of posts highlighting blogs that I think are fun, interesting, or at the very least entertaining. To kick of the monthly BlogWatch I choose a delightful, lighthearted blog by KD a sista in her late 20's who lends her insights on day to day life as well as entertainment. Check her out!!

Mzkdheart's Blog


Blessed Be,
Rose

Musings on Medusa

One look and men would turn to stone, serpants for hair and a demeanor that was believed to be anything but feminine. This is the description of Medusa that I grew up with and that I'm sure you all may recall yourselves. One day though while reading a book on the unawknowledged female priestesses of ancient times, I came across a section dedicated to Medusa. Confused as to why she would be included in a text on priestesses I plunged into the work. To say I was surprised would be an understatement and lead me to begin to examine the framework in which I considered many of my previous thoughts on Black women, beauty, and the Eurocentric patriarchal hegemony in which I find myself.

Noted from Greek Mythology.com, Medusa was not always a hideous creature. She was the daughter of Phorkys and Keto who were themselves the children of the Great Mother Gaia and Okeanos or what we would call Earth and Ocean. This in itself provides insight into her divine heritage. Medusa was a Gorgon along with her two other sisters among which she was the only mortal and extremely beautiful. Now this is where things begin to conflict. One version of Medusa's story maintains that Medusa lived very far north where there was little sun exposure and because she wanted to see the sun she asked Athena for permission. Athena denies her and Medusa claims that it is because Athena is jealous of her beauty. To punish Medusa for that slight Athena made Medusa hideous where her gaze would turn men to stone and her hair was made of serpents. Another tale laments that Medusa and Poseidon coupled in a sacred temple for Athena and that this was reason that Athena took Medusa's beauty as well as had her slain by Theseus.

The most compelling though of Medusa legends are those that orginate in Africa. Medusa and Africa? I know, I know. I too was like, what does a Greek myth have to do with Africa? Well we shall cover that in tomorrows post.

Blessed Be,
Rose

Where Do We Go From Here...

Hello luvs,

For those of you who are part of the real world the commencement of summer vacation may not mean much to you other then the fact that there are now children without places to go for eight hours out of the day anymore. Summer though for me has always been and remains a time for renewal and the implementation of plans and transformation that were contemplated in the Winter, planted in the Spring and now are beginning to grow vibrantly.

These plans consist of a emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual and basically holistic transformation of my concept of myself as well as the world around me. Who am I in relation to the self and to the outside world? The past semester has pushed forth this journey towards growth and discovery and now it appears that I have no choice but to take this journey where ever it may lead me.

Therefore, this post will be the starting point of my contemplations, revelations, and hopefully manisfestations of this journey. I hope that you will stay with me as I proceed and perhaps even take a journey to self knowledge of your own. Let me know if you have felt the awakening of your feminine self and how your journey went.

Blessed Be,
Rose

In the Beginning...

Greetings and salutations!

Welcome to my blog. This is my second attempt at creating a blog and actually maintaining it. So hopefully I will have better luck being dilligent this time. Be prepared for the musings and Insights of a wild black rose from love, beauty, gender, creation, sprituality and everything in between. You do not have to agree with my opinions but I encourage all to take what you can use and leave the rest!


Blessed be!
Rose