Note from BW of Brazil: Great to see here! Like we saw in a similar photo shoot posted here back in January, if black people want to recognize black beauty, they must do for self! The simple truth is that Brazilian society, like any other society that overvalues whiteness, will NEVER recognize the beauty and potential of its black population and the sooner people come to this conclusion, the sooner they will reject the desire and necessity of being accepted by the other side, focus on themselves and do for themselves for their own appreciation. This includes areas such as theater, literature and so many other areas of society. In closing we’ll state for the record, Brazil indeed has some of the world’s most beautiful women it’s just a shame that it chooses to highlight only those women who look as if their primary ancestry is European! Photos such as those below are one of the main reasons the BW of Brazil blog exists!
Free photographic project celebrates diversity and the uniqueness of black beauty
By Biah Percinoto
How many blacks do we see daily, occupying leadership roles in novelas (soap operas), movies, cartoons, series and advertisements? How many blacks do we see, daily, put in a position of beauty reference? We respond: few, actually very few. And when it happens in most cases, these characters present a history of ascension as well as controversy.
Although, beauty standards are culturally and historically constructed, and Brazil presents a population composed in its majority by blacks and browns, still today we live here in a dictatorship of the anorexic-Eurocentric beauty where being beautiful is being white, thin, and with features considered “thin and delicate”.
Looking to break this aesthetic hegemony and give media space to a minority whose beauty is undervalued by mainstream media, the journalism student Georgia Kiesel, 21, created the photographic project “Celebrando a Negritude” (Celebrating Blackness) – a Facebook page that brings together photos of black men and women, of different ages, sizes and styles, which aims to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of black beauty.
“I started my career in photography about a year ago. Once, watching a commercial, I noticed that although there was a small presence of black women in the media, the standards were always the same: tall, thin, fine features and more stripped and modern styles,” said the student to Catraca Livre (website).
“It was then that the inspiration for the project came. We invited ‘models’ that are actually ordinary people through Facebook. As most of them don’t have access or can’t afford a professional photo shoot, we give them the photos as presents and we use them on our page. We aim simply and purely the exaltation of black beauty in all its forms, styles, faces and sexes. It’s a way of re-affirming the identity of the black, showing the true diversity.”
572 ‘likes’, the page presents a rich variety of beauty and styles, and can also serve as a great reference of looks for those who like fashion. “The most rewarding part is that the more the project grows, the more volunteers we have, and they tell us their stories, how they used to hate their cabelos encaracolados (curly hair), or their ‘fuller’ bodies, or the problems of confidence rooted in daily and diverse prejudices. The project ended up really encouraging people to accept and love each other as they are,” she concludes.
With prospects of growth, the project now has the support of Rafaela Souza, the first model photographed by the page, and intends, in the near future, to add children.
Source: Catraca Livre
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