I recently joined an online group dedicated to Black women’s fitness. I thought it would be fun. More importantly, I thought it would be a way to maintain motivation through connecting with other women who might share the same issues, such as hair, body type, and skin protection. As a black woman who exercises on a pretty regular basis and has a hard time finding other black women to work out with, I thought that this community was right for me. I started following their website and their twitter feed. I couldn't have been more was wrong.
My first inclination that this group was wrong for me was that their target audience was black women with processed hair. One of the hottest topics on the website is maintaining one’s hair. This is a considerable issue among black women who relax their hair because it is chemically straightened and the more you wash it the more likely it is to “go back” to its natural un-straightened state. I have worn my hair natural for 14 years. I have locks, so I do not worry about them too much. If I have just freshly twisted them I tie them up and get on with the business of working out. Also, there are so many natural hairstyles that are deemed acceptable at corporate jobs, there are few reasons to maintain a perm/relaxer these days. But still, I don’t bash women with relaxed hair, but I don’t like to spend a lot of personal time listening to them complain.
So, I ignored the hair issue because I am still interested in having a community, when I should have seen it as the canary in the coal mine. Then the other day on twitter, I saw them tweeting the following, “Feeling like you want to up chuck means that you worked hard.” Then she adds that her husband told her this little nugget of wisdom. Uh no. In my world, feeling like you need to puke means that you did not wait long enough after eating to work out. Then the woman tweeting on behalf of this group goes on to talk about using running as a way to preserve the sexy. As if the only good reason to workout is to maintain your sex-appeal. Um no. I think that working out to maintain your health, challenge your body, connect with your body and nature, or train for a marathon. I do not work out to be deemed acceptable within the size regime of US beauty standards. Why would I, no matter how much workout I will never be a part of those standards or that regime because it does not include black women, thin or not.
Why do black women need to get involved in the size movement? Because our bodies are considered not the ideal therefore, even when we are not “fat,” many of us cannot fit into the clothes at mainstream stores because of our hips, butts, and small waists. Or we cannot fit because we are voluptuous all over, large breasts and butts, hourglass style. Fashion designers need to accommodate women’s bodies, especially the bodies of women of color. For those of you who are very thin, and do not have a large butt or breasts, who think that you don’t have to worry about this issue because you fit into their standard of what a body should fit, you should join the movement in solidarity with other women. And because there will come a time when you will not fit because bodies are precarious rebellious creatures.
The US Regime of thinness says, that if you don’t fit into clothes sized 00-12 then something is wrong with you. It says: punish your body to get into those sizes. Don’t eat, and workout to the point of exhaustion, perfection is around the corner. To further encourage us to keep our eyes on "perfections," we are bombarded with images of women’s bodies sans cellulite, giggling thighs, arms, etc. And the only time we see non-photoshopped images in mainstream media is when a celebrity is showing us that they are indeed--that thin. Of course there is resistance, youtube and blogs are full of images of real human bodies that are unvarnished, but those places are outside of mainstream media.
Many of the mainstream media outlets do not have any real diversity. What they call diverse is a cafe-au-lait black and Latina women that are barely distinguishable from white women. And there are so few Asian women and Indigenous women it is really embarrassing. For the few that are on network television are relegated to second string jobs, while the white woman is the lead female anchor, who is seen as second string to the male anchor. For example, on The Today Show Meredith Veira is the anchor, a little known fact is that Viera is Portuguese, but today that is defacto white. I digress. The women of color, Natalie Morales, Anne Curry, and Tamron Hall, are all second string correspondents, while Viera is the anchor. Anne Curry has been on the show the longest and was doing the news portion when Katie Couric was still on the show. Was she promoted to anchor? No. Now, The Today Show's 9:00 hour the people of color are allowed to anchor, but that is not so on the main hour. There is a rumor that Viera will leave, I wonder if any of those women will be promoted or if they will find another white woman to be the "face" of the show.
Even when women of color meets the standards of skinniness, has European features, and demonstrates professionalism they are still passed over for jobs in mainstream media, be it fashion or a daytime talkshow. Check out the film below that follows a black fashion model trying to get booked during go-sees.
The Colour of Beauty: Elizabeth St. Phillip, 2010
Featuring Renee Thompson, Part 1
Part 2
This film highlights all that is bad in the fashion industry. The recent outbursts of John Galliano illustrate how this culture of exclusion is closely related to racialized religious oppression and marginalization. The idea that some bodies are in, and others are out, is the kind of binary thinking that leads to genocide. People are more than bodies. And People Matter.
The story isn't all bad. Some designers want to break with the old rules. I want to say thank you to Christian Siriano for casting mainly women of color in his winning runway show on Project Runway. He specifically said that he wanteH black girls because they are fierce. He did not rant and rave about their hips and butts. he wanted the best models and for him that meant brown skin. Now, some might argue that he was exoticising them, but I would have to disagree because he was admiring their beauty not exaggerating their differences. The history of exoticising in fashion is long and the practice is pretty overt. Here is a prime example:
The few times when women of color are the inspiration for something in fashion, the product is used to propel racist ideals. Example Rodarte's collection for Mac that was "inspired" by the city of Juarez. Colorlines writes:
The makeup company MAC released its new “Juarez” collection in collaboration with the high-fashion label Rodarte, with lipglosses named “del Norte,” bloodstreaked eyeshadows in a shade of “Bordertown” and a pale nail polish called “Factory.” The Rodarte designers said they were inspired by Juarez and the lines of women workers who’d make their way to factory jobs in the middle of the night. Sleepwalking, they called it. It was this collection that spawned their makeup line with MAC. (Read more of this article here.)
This line of makeup was appalling, especially when it is coming from one of the few manufacturers of makeup that is pigmented enough to show up on brown skin. Brown girls in the States know that Mac is a go-to brand because it actually shows up on our skin, unlike many department store brands, which does not have enough pigmentation to do anything, but leave our skin looking ashy. Bloggers took them down and eventually, Mac apologized and donated the proceeds to efforts to help Juarez.
The fight for more inclusivity in the fashion industry is a move against exclusionary thinking, which is the close cousin of racism and oppression.
