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Is Black Not Beautiful

The media focus on white actresses for beauty and sex appeal

A few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly ran a story on the plight of the male black actor. Writer Neil Drumming examined how even though actors like Omar Epps, Taye Diggs and Sean Patrick Thomas are becoming more and more recognized as credible, professional actors, it is still a struggle for them to get non-stereotypical, mainstream roles. But it was a shock to see that Drumming failed to bring up the plight of the black actress.

They were not the focus of the piece but they were not mentioned in any fashion, which is unsettling: Today's black actors may have a hard time making a name for themselves in Hollywood, but black actresses have it worse. This isn't to say there hasn't been some advancement for an African-American actress or two. Angela Bassett or Alfre Woodard can always make the short list for a role that calls for a multidimensional black woman. And don't forget Halle Berry.

When Berry accepted the Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for her role in "Monster's Ball," she tearfully, memorably gave a shout-out to "every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened." It seems that the door has been opened -- for Berry. While Berry continues to attract roles and projects usually reserved for A-list, white actresses (such as her upcoming turn in the title role in "Catwoman" this summer), for other black actresses, it's still the same hustle.

Karen Dacons-Brock, associate professor of theater at N.C. Central University, believes that if we wait for the studios to change the situation for black actresses, we're going to be in it for the long haul.

"Entertainment is reactive," Dacons-Brock says. "The industry, to me, doesn't lead -- it follows. It's not going to be the one to change it." She says it's up to the audience to recognize the talented work of black actors and actresses in movies, so that Hollywood can finally wake up and do the same.

"There has to be a change in society," she says. "If the industry sees that black women and black men can be accepted in roles, then the industry will make a change."

What's become even more distressing than the situation in movies is the image of African-American actresses in the media overall. Once a white actress achieves a certain level of success, her attractiveness immediately becomes an asset -- even a priority. A white actress can go from being a professional actress to a starlet/supermodel with just one Vogue or Harper's Bazaar cover. With the exception of Berry and multitasking celebs like recording artists/occasional actresses Janet Jackson and Beyonce Knowles, many of today's black actresses are rarely seen as the figures of glamour and beauty that white actresses regularly represent.

Image and article taken from Mahogany Cafe

Colorless covers

You can browse in the magazine stands at your nearest Barnes & Noble and find Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie, Julia Stiles and Mischa Barton from "The O.C." gracing the covers, with the same actress appearing on two or three. But, if you want to find Gabrielle Union ("Bring It On") or Sanaa Lathan ("Love & Basketball") on a cover, you're going to have to see who's on the front of the latest Essence.

Perhaps the most blatant example of the absence of black beauty in Hollywood is Vanity Fair's big, recent "Hollywood Issue." Veteran actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Julianne Moore appeared on the gatefold cover along with such nubile newbies as Maggie Gyllenhaal and Alison Lohman, but not one black actress could be found. (Salma Hayek and Lucy Liu were there to represent their minorities, however.)

Black actresses aren't even considered mainstream objects of fantasy in popular culture. Contemporary cheesecake mags like Maxim, FHM and Stuff predominantly feature scantily clad young, white actresses you've never heard. But a scantily clad young, black actress -- who isn't Halle Berry -- rarely makes it on the cover of these periodicals. New black magazines like King and Smooth pick up the slack, featuring African-American actresses in seductive poses and skimpy clothing on their covers.

Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, one of the film critics of the "3 Black Chicks" Web site and co-author of "3 Black Chicks Review Flicks," was enraged about the Vanity Fair cover.

"Why don't [Americans] find black women attractive?" the Seattle-based Larsuel-Ulbricht asks during a recent interview. "Is it because they are never shown black women on the cover of Vanity Fair? Is it because, in movies, we are either oversexualized or undersexualized?

"I was talking to some other colleagues, and one of them was like, 'We don't need white people to validate us.' And I said, 'This is not about white validation. This is about me being slapped in my face, as a black woman, to look at a magazine and see that I'm not valued.' Vanity Fair is saying, 'Hey, you know what? Everybody but black people opens this magazine.' It's absolutely disgusting, and they need to stop that. Because they're just perpetuating stereotypes."

It goes back to movies, which pound in the belief that white women are the standard of beauty. As male moviegoers, we're supposed to salivate with perverse glee as the camera takes time out to cover every curve of pretty, young white things like Scarlett Johansson in "Lost in Translation," Elisha Cuthbert in "The Girl Next Door" or Michelle Trachtenberg in "Eurotrip." But I'm hard-pressed to think of a movie that recently pointed out how desirable a black woman can be. (There were a few moments in "Never Die Alone" where Reagan Gomez-Preston was seen as sexy, but I seriously want to forget I saw that movie.)

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