I have always been a fan of the underground “love your body” campaign but it seems so hard to do when you’re a black woman. You’re automatically classified in the “she loves her butt” campaign, especially if you have the curves to support what they’re saying, which has always been a personal problem. When Nelly first came out with his “Apple Bottom” jeans, I was really happy that they had begun making jeans for women who are a little curvier on the bottom. I went out to the mall and went into “Against all odds” and tried on a pair of Apple Bottoms. I was disappointed because it over emphasized the behind more than it did accommodate my curviness. As I soon realized, the goal of these jeans was to do just that, over emphasize the glorified “butt.” One of my favorite performers of all time is Beyoncé because I believe she is the ultimate performer, but I must say every now and then I question if she really needs to be “bootylicious” in all her songs. Somehow along with other black female performers, she believes she needs to do as many butt shakes as she can in order for people to like a song. I, particularly, am tired of this and don’t think it’s necessary. Not because I don’t appreciate curvy bodies, but because I think that the mentality behind it is distorted.
It makes me sad that I can’t think of one black female artist who hasn’t over the course of their career been overly sexualized except for people like India Arie. Just look at the array of pictures below. It really is the total distortion of the black female.
How about this surprising picture with Serena Williams as she poses nude in the ESPN magazine. It’s not enough that they highlighted her butt enough during her tennis matches. I’m particularly upset because of this image though because it just seems like a way to put her back in place because she has so many successes. It seems totally unnecessary and for me she just went from hero to complete zero.