Thats not real to me!

The glittery shear makeup, the pale pink blush, the L’Oreal, Revlon and Clairol hair products fill teen magazines and these products supposedly are for “every girl.” These “must haves” will make a girl glow, light up her eyes, make hair soft and shiny. So you go to the grocery store and fill your basket with some of these products and upon applying the makeup, alas, you look ashy. Unexpected results, but maybe Revlon’s riveting shampoo will “give your hair that rich, moisture filled look you want.” Maybe not…your hair is officially fried and as dry as a bone. What’s a young African American to do with this dilemma? Or maybe she has to soon realize that the ads, the lifestyles presented, the makeup products along with the hair formulas, are not for “every girl” but for the white teenager.

Lisa Duke and her article entitled “Get Real! Cultural Relevance and Resistance to the Mediated Feminine Ideal” highlights some of these inconsistencies African American teens face when presented with teen magazines such as “seventeen” that talk about how the literature is for “every girl” when really the truth is it’s only for white teen girls. As the girls went through the magazines, they raised some of the same sentiments I’ve felt over the years. Can John Frieda really be my hairstylist? Probably not, not only would his products burn my hair, but I’d probably have to have a deep conditioner afterward after all the sulphates fry my luscious locks. None of the products advertised seem to be for African American hair. Even “Carols Daughter,” a top product for African American children and adults and whose products have been featured on the Oprah show seem absent from pages that supposedly can apply to “every girl.”

Not only are the products that are esteemed to have the “powerful punch” not ones that African American girls can use, it seems the lifestyles and scripts aren’t ones the average middle class African American can identify with either. They just aren’t real.

All girls are “presumed to have identical interests and an equal need and desire for such.” At one point in the article Duke asks, “If teen magazines imply any girl can be beautiful and socially successful with their help, what does the relative absence of black girls say?” This said after the girls in the study noticed just how absent black girls were in the teen magazines they were looking through. To me, it clearly shows the mentality of the 1950’s and 60’s when black girls/ women weren’t deemed to possess any real type of beauty. Nothing seemed inherently beautiful within them. This is what the absence of products, representation and cultural relevant scripts seems to be saying. It’s no wonder that studies show black girls rating themselves higher when it comes to their self esteem, which I truly believe.

When it comes to the 5 stage process of racial identity of preencounter, encounter, immersion/emersion, internalization, and integrative awareness, I think I identify with the internalization stage when a girls racial identity becomes “solidified and blended with her personal identity.” I’ve reached that point where I don’t have to be embarrassed or feel bad that I wear braids with extensions at times and at times I wear a fro, I can’t wear shear lipstick or gloss because it won’t show or will make my lips look ashy and that I put oils in my hair every other day. Teen magazines really need to step it up a little not just concerning diversity but product representation as well.