Mirror, mirror

In the short film “A Girl Like Me,” 18 year old Jennifer says “we don’t know what it is we should be” because they don’t see girls like themselves—or their future selves as Black women—reflected back at them by the media. “We’re busy searching for [an identity],” she says, “while everyone else is busy throwing ideas at us and telling us what we should be.” As a result, many Black girls strive towards the iconic White representation of beauty—thin, light skinned, soft hair and model-perfect.

Jennifer is right to feel alienated, and she’s certainly not alone. These idealized images set a standard to which, advertisers tell us, we should all aspire. Repeated often enough, the concepts solidify and take on lives of their own. They seem more “real” to us than real life ever did, and it’s easy to think no one is like you when you never see your situation reflected in commercials, magazines, or newspapers. But when the predominant representation is white and middle-class and physically stunning, that leaves a lot of us feeling that we’re in the minority.

This homogenization of culture too easily categorizes individuals—unique and terrifically different—into convenient categories, which in turn become easy-to-swallow stereotypes. It’s easier to accept that someone fits into this group or that, and “they” are just a little bit lacking what “we” are so fortunate to have. It’s hard to say, though, if it’s a vast conspiracy to maintain the hegemony of white men or just a convenient shortcut of society.

Fortunately, even the most commonly held or universal stereotypes can’t bear up against our inherent individuality. As much as we categorize and classify, everyone interprets things just a little differently from our own points of view. The same photo of a woman in a red dress appears powerful, sexy, slutty or even cocktail-ready, depending on our perspectives, experiences and countless other influences. As in any mirror, media images look different depending on who’s doing the looking.

So even though The Mirror is telling us we should want to be the fairest of them all, maybe…just maybe….we are learning that we don’t always have to listen.