Disappointed that @GraziaUK edited out & smoothed my hair to fit a more Eurocentric notion of what beautiful hair looks like. #dtmh pic.twitter.com/10UUScS7Xo
— Lupita Nyong'o (@Lupita_Nyongo) November 10, 2017
She has a solid pointHer point,to me,ends with whining about the cropping. She has severally and I dare say mostly, spotted short hair,so whatever the magazine depicted was not entirely strange. In fact had she not whined, nobody would have picked anything strange with the photo. She is in her element.
Nappy hair on women is unpopular in the West. It’s rare to see that. Personally I wish more black women would be okay with it. Is it because of racism? Hard to say. But the idea that one can force a beauty standard is really out there. Ultimately everyone has their standard and some features of whatever standard you have will be more common in some racial group than in another.But choosing to put a flat Asian woman on your cover and then "endowing" her in secret is totally something else. I mean, the magazine didn't have to use Lupita if they thought she didn't represent the beauty standards their audience appreciates.
It’s not anti-Asian racism that an African man prefers certain areas of a woman to be endowed with ample flesh for instance. You cannot suddenly start asking that society to embrace women with flatter rears on their magazines the same way the would a Corazon Kwamboka type.
Nappy hair on women is unpopular in the West. It’s rare to see that. Personally I wish more black women would be okay with it. Is it because of racism? Hard to say. But the idea that one can force a beauty standard is really out there. Ultimately everyone has their standard and some features of whatever standard you have will be more common in some racial group than in another.But choosing to put a flat Asian woman on your cover and then "endowing" her in secret is totally something else. I mean, the magazine didn't have to use Lupita if they thought she didn't represent the beauty standards their audience appreciates.
It’s not anti-Asian racism that an African man prefers certain areas of a woman to be endowed with ample flesh for instance. You cannot suddenly start asking that society to embrace women with flatter rears on their magazines the same way the would a Corazon Kwamboka type.
I think Lupita's complaint is that they chopped off her long African hair in all its visibly kinky, non-straight glory and even flattened it on top of her head to get rid of the kinky rise. I don't think a woman with straight hair has ever had it all chopped off like that. She wonders if the magazine was uncomfortable showing unrelaxed (non-chemicalized) coily African hair. She's right to complain, IMHO coz they didn't retouch her, they got rid of her hair entirely like it wasn't ok. Also, careful about assuming that short hair is always natural. Women use all kinds of texturizers and such on that kind of short hair quite often. The long hair in the magazine shot is definitely not chemicalized. You can tell from the curls and also how it doesn't lie flat at the top of her head, it's her natural hair, just long.
I get how you see that, Termi. What I think is meant by the Eurocentric comment is a larger context than is apparent from the pics, the stuff I was talking about with my anecdote. Puffy dos are seen as untidy/unkempt so your option is to straighten your hair and when that becomes cumbersome the compromise is to cut it and keep it short. The puffy in-your-face fro or ponytails are deemed unacceptable to some extent. That's what she's referring to, that they seem to have done the usual thing of deeming her puff untidy/unkempt and simply getting rid of it for a 'neater' look (It's almost like they are saying no hair is better than African hair). I agree, the shorter look seems more African than a ponytail especially to an African jamaa but I think Lupita was deliberately defying the silent pressure to straighten longer African hair so that seeing her puff unceremoniously chopped off was like seeing that old Eurocentric bias against kinky/curly puffy hair reinforced that has African/black women feeling they are not neat or professional unless they chemically alter their long hair to make it straighter.I think Lupita's complaint is that they chopped off her long African hair in all its visibly kinky, non-straight glory and even flattened it on top of her head to get rid of the kinky rise. I don't think a woman with straight hair has ever had it all chopped off like that. She wonders if the magazine was uncomfortable showing unrelaxed (non-chemicalized) coily African hair. She's right to complain, IMHO coz they didn't retouch her, they got rid of her hair entirely like it wasn't ok. Also, careful about assuming that short hair is always natural. Women use all kinds of texturizers and such on that kind of short hair quite often. The long hair in the magazine shot is definitely not chemicalized. You can tell from the curls and also how it doesn't lie flat at the top of her head, it's her natural hair, just long.
Ok. Whatever their intentions to my untrained eye, I see a more African looking result. Not less. If her complaint is she wanted that ponytail included, then I see the point. But to suggest it makes her more African looking? I am not on board. In fact her natural hair is kinky, not curly.
On a different note,
I hate (yes hate) watching any of these negroes just because of the great extents they go to cook they hair.While Nyongo is on a Negro-hair-is-ok campaign, they use their stage to tell us that's shiet. I'll listen but not watch. The hair distracts.
(https://s18.postimg.org/5joe8cc5l/images-4.jpg)
(https://s18.postimg.org/u06k2tkm1/images-5.jpg)
(https://s18.postimg.org/tnf5wna21/sqv_VR5_RKAI_UUAo_Y0_ux3_ETRMyj0_4j_Jr_HTlu_Ea_Jj_LVYc5a_OO22_BFM3_V2a1_OBq_w.jpg)
Joseph Matco
Chris Oyakhilome
Maurice Oloo
Ministers of the gospel
It certainly is not white but it is too shiny and Arab-esque for my liking. For me it’s either clean shave, dreadlocks, or combed, not treated with IED ingredients.On a different note,
I hate (yes hate) watching any of these negroes just because of the great extents they go to cook they hair.While Nyongo is on a Negro-hair-is-ok campaign, they use their stage to tell us that's shiet. I'll listen but not watch. The hair distracts.
Joseph Matco
Chris Oyakhilome
Maurice Oloo
Ministers of the gospel
That is still Negro hair. It's just one of the things you can do with it. A hairstyle. I have never seen a white man with hair like that.
It certainly is not white but it is too shiny and Arab-esque for my liking. For me it’s either clean shave, dreadlocks, or combed, not treated with IED ingredients.On a different note,
I hate (yes hate) watching any of these negroes just because of the great extents they go to cook they hair.While Nyongo is on a Negro-hair-is-ok campaign, they use their stage to tell us that's shiet. I'll listen but not watch. The hair distracts.
Joseph Matco
Chris Oyakhilome
Maurice Oloo
Ministers of the gospel
That is still Negro hair. It's just one of the things you can do with it. A hairstyle. I have never seen a white man with hair like that.
Again. That’s me
Lupita looks like her dad..how much money did she make on her debut movie..at this rate she may have to get a jobLupita is doing much better than most black actresses in Hollywood actually. She has lots of endorsement deals and is now shooting for a major blockbuster called black panther. Her "Queen of Katwe" did badly at the box office and her role in Star wars wasn't a visible one but she's doing ok. Black actors and especially actresses struggle to land roles in Holly wood. Will Smith and Denzel are flukes. All the others including even kina Eddie Murphy tend to do well by crafting movies for themselves. They don't easily become mainstream and get the best roles handed to them like Will and Denzel. I don't expect Lupita will get very many roles but she's doing ok all things considered. I read somewhere she has like 5 million dollars to her name which is something! :)
Cmon Termi, Lupita isn't saying that at all. She's saying "Dont change my look to fit your notion of beauty". That's totally different. Everyone is free to like what they like but also to have the look they have chosen for themselves.
Lol! Terminator, don't you agree that black is beautiful? Ama living in bazungu country since the nineties has changed everything for you? Why shouldn't the magazine embrace that? Surely that is a good thing?....