No matter how you feel about Oprah, you would have to agree that her success as minority(in every sense of the word) has been phenomenal. As she closes out 25 years of having the highest rated talk show in the history of television. I’ve started to wonder, without her where would the presence of positive minority women in the media be found. Granted, we do have a very well spoken, well educated, and beautiful first lady, but even she has very little presence in the media when it comes to being anything other than being a fashionista. Oprah unlike our first lady has been a constant on TV for a quarter of a century. Not sense Phylicia Rashad’s character (Clair Huxtable) have minority women been represented so well in the media. No African American woman before her had ever been give given such a mainstream platform. None had ever spoken with such elegance, subverting racial barriers while all the while managing her family and a successful career. Although Clair Huxtable is a fictional character, both her and Oprah have had a profound effect on how minority women are perceived in the media.
For the past few years shows have come and gone on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX; and rarely if ever have I ever seen an African American, Asian, or Hispanic woman play the lead role, or be the leading man’s love interest. Currently Grey’s Anatomy is the closest we’ve come to this kind of media presence in years. No matter how you feel about the show you have to admit they have one of the most diverse cast in television today. Usually minority women are almost always play the role of sidekick or the funny friend. This has been the case for years since shows like the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel-air, A Different World, and Living Single went off the air in the 90’s. Now we’re told sub consciously that being an African American, Asian, or Hispanic woman is only useful when your funny or when you have no visible flaws and a skin tone that our all white audiences recognize as acceptable. I mean we’d hate to offend anyone, or make someone uncomfortable. Television is suppose to be our ex scape, our fantasy. The problem is, is that we’ve started to allow that fantasy to influence our reality. This is precisely the reason why the article on CNN.com by LZ Grandersonhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/19/granderson.black.women/index.html so profoundly struck me. Although we hate to admit it, how we think is very much influenced by what we see in the media today. We are a visually stimulated culture, we like television, movies, and magazines; we’re obsessed with pretty people, who wear pretty things, and have cute pets. We like instant gratification and we don’t like like things that make us uncomfortable or remind us of our flaws. So what happens to a woman’s self-esteem when she never sees anyone like herself positively portrayed in the media? She starts to doubt. She thinks she must not be beautiful, funny, or smart, so she is incited to do something to make herself like all the other women that are what the world recognizes as beautiful. So black women have taken to bleaching their skin, dying their hair, or adding lengthy extensions, and Asian women have taken to going under the knife to get their eye lids widened, and many of the same issues plague Hispanic, Caucasian, and women of every ethnicity everywhere. I’m not thin enough, my breast aren’t big enough, I must stay young, my eyelashes aren’t long enough, my skin isn’t the right color or tone, I must be perfect.
As strong as I may seem for years I have questioned my beauty. As much as I hate to admit it sometimes I fail to find my identity and beauty in Christ and have sought to find it elsewhere. To be told you’re beautiful is a wonderful, freeing, reassuring thing. The media fails to do this with any kind of consistency that will last. But Jesus does this continuously, constantly, and veraciously . The creator himself has indeed made us beautiful. We are his creation, so we could never be anything less than beautiful. Now whether we are a good stewards of the beauty that God has given us is another topic, but beautiful is what we are and daughters of the most high King is who we are. Nothing in this world can ever change that. Our identities must be bound up with Christ; found in God alone. This kind of reassurance and confidence will never be found in the media. We are victorious because Christ has made us that way, we are beautiful because God created us to be so; apart from what we may look like or feel like in the present moment. We are successful because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Philippians 4:13. As women lets be faithful to remind each other where our true beauty comes from. Continuously reminding one another of how God views us.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. Isaiah 62:3-4
For the past few years shows have come and gone on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX; and rarely if ever have I ever seen an African American, Asian, or Hispanic woman play the lead role, or be the leading man’s love interest. Currently Grey’s Anatomy is the closest we’ve come to this kind of media presence in years. No matter how you feel about the show you have to admit they have one of the most diverse cast in television today. Usually minority women are almost always play the role of sidekick or the funny friend. This has been the case for years since shows like the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel-air, A Different World, and Living Single went off the air in the 90’s. Now we’re told sub consciously that being an African American, Asian, or Hispanic woman is only useful when your funny or when you have no visible flaws and a skin tone that our all white audiences recognize as acceptable. I mean we’d hate to offend anyone, or make someone uncomfortable. Television is suppose to be our ex scape, our fantasy. The problem is, is that we’ve started to allow that fantasy to influence our reality. This is precisely the reason why the article on CNN.com by LZ Grandersonhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/19/granderson.black.women/index.html so profoundly struck me. Although we hate to admit it, how we think is very much influenced by what we see in the media today. We are a visually stimulated culture, we like television, movies, and magazines; we’re obsessed with pretty people, who wear pretty things, and have cute pets. We like instant gratification and we don’t like like things that make us uncomfortable or remind us of our flaws. So what happens to a woman’s self-esteem when she never sees anyone like herself positively portrayed in the media? She starts to doubt. She thinks she must not be beautiful, funny, or smart, so she is incited to do something to make herself like all the other women that are what the world recognizes as beautiful. So black women have taken to bleaching their skin, dying their hair, or adding lengthy extensions, and Asian women have taken to going under the knife to get their eye lids widened, and many of the same issues plague Hispanic, Caucasian, and women of every ethnicity everywhere. I’m not thin enough, my breast aren’t big enough, I must stay young, my eyelashes aren’t long enough, my skin isn’t the right color or tone, I must be perfect.
As strong as I may seem for years I have questioned my beauty. As much as I hate to admit it sometimes I fail to find my identity and beauty in Christ and have sought to find it elsewhere. To be told you’re beautiful is a wonderful, freeing, reassuring thing. The media fails to do this with any kind of consistency that will last. But Jesus does this continuously, constantly, and veraciously . The creator himself has indeed made us beautiful. We are his creation, so we could never be anything less than beautiful. Now whether we are a good stewards of the beauty that God has given us is another topic, but beautiful is what we are and daughters of the most high King is who we are. Nothing in this world can ever change that. Our identities must be bound up with Christ; found in God alone. This kind of reassurance and confidence will never be found in the media. We are victorious because Christ has made us that way, we are beautiful because God created us to be so; apart from what we may look like or feel like in the present moment. We are successful because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Philippians 4:13. As women lets be faithful to remind each other where our true beauty comes from. Continuously reminding one another of how God views us.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. Isaiah 62:3-4
