Racist Beauty Standards

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

The concept of physical beauty and desire to conform to a prescribed definition of what is considered beautiful can destroy a person's life. In Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, many characters are obsessed with attaining the idealist definition of what is considered beautiful. The characters of Geraldine, Pauline, and Pecola all believe that physical perfection leads to acceptance; however, it is the same belief that causes their personal downfalls and prevents them from recognizing their own inner beauty.

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, is a story about the life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is growing up during post World War I. She prays for the bluest eyes, which will “make her beautiful” and in turn make her accepted by her family and peers. The major issue in the book, the idea of ugliness, was the belief that “blackness” was not valuable or beautiful. This view, handed down to them at birth, was a cultural hindrance to the black race.

The desire to feel beautiful has never been more in demand, yet so impossible to achieve. In the book “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, tells the story of two black families that live during the mid-1900’s. Even though slavery is a thing of the past, discrimination and racism are still a big issue at this time. Through the whole book, characters struggle to feel beautiful and battle the curse of being ugly because of their skin color. Throughout the book Pecola feels ugly and does not like who she is because of her back skin. She believes the only thing that can ever make her beautiful is if she got blue eyes. Frieda, Pecola, Claudia, and other black characters have been taught that the key to being beautiful is by having white skin. So by being black, this makes them automatically ugly. In the final chapter of the book, the need to feel beautiful drives Pecola so crazy that she imagines that she has blue eyes. She thinks that people don’t want to look at her because they are jealous of her beauty, but the truth is they don’t look at her because she is pregnant. From the time these black girls are little, the belief that beauty comes from the color of their skin has been hammered into their mind. Mrs. Breedlove and Geraldine are also affected by the standards of beauty and the impossible goal to look and be accepted by white people. Throughout “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison uses the motif of beauty to portray its negative effect on characters.

Racist ideology is institutionalized when how people’s interactions reflects on an understanding that they share the same beliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, their economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all.

Throughout history, beauty standards have been enforced on females. They are taught what the ideal beauty is by the media and current culture of that time. Society creates certain expectations that require women to look a certain way to be beautiful and if not they are considered ugly. They change their appearances in order to conform to the established beauty standard and often lose a part of their identity in the process. In Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, she captures the struggle young girls and women face to meet the expectations that popular culture has on the ideal beauty in the early 1940s.

In the novels, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison and The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, the two authors portray masculine traits through their primary female characters to symbolize a disconnection from society. Morrison portrays Claudia and Pecola as characters that many people can relate to. In the novel, Pecola is criticized for many points that are entirely not her fault such as her looks, her unwanted pregnancy, and the unfeminine way she acts. These criticisms eventually drive Pecola to the point of insanity, where she becomes obsessed with the thought of having idyllic blue eyes although she still possesses “ugly” brown eyes. Claudia is the youngest and exhibits many masculine traits that are viewed negatively among the female figures in her life, making her feel like an outcast. This idea of never being perfect enough is a prominent one throughout the novel and is especially relatable to the modern day female in society due to the immense beauty market that constantly exploits women’s insecurity. Morrison and O’brien show this trope of insecurity through masculine traits in women and how this manifests an “unconventional” personality.

Pecola’s quest for blue eyes is a direct representation for her search for comfort and love. Pecola is fascinated by Shirley Temple. The narrator, Claudia MacTeer, talks about Pecola saying “We knew she was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face” (Morrison, 1970, p.23). This is when it becomes evident to the reader that Pecola is obsessed with Shirley Temple. To Pecola, Shirley Temple is the perfect girl and she wants to be like her.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrision deals with the struggle of colored women in the 1930 's dealing with the ideals of beauty. The standard of beauty can be described as a community standard that if the women of this story do not live up too, they will be deemed ugly. This standard of beauty can be perpetuated through the treatment of certain characters based on how they look. There are three main symbols that the book and author convey. The first is the standard of beauty. The second is the concept of self-image that is warped to fit white standard of beauty, instead of cultivating a woman 's individuality. Self-image describes how a person perceives themselves through their own actions and internalized emotions. Many things can contribute to a person 's self-image such as, how they are treated by others, how their parents treat them, and how do they treat themselves through life experiences. The third concept of self worth and it is related to self-image. Self-worth is an understanding of personal satisfaction with who you are and the choices you make. For example, as we are first introduced to Pecola. We find that she moves into the Macteer 's house hold because her father is in jail for setting her house on fire. As she lives in this house hold, she falls in love with Shirley temple. This was the standard of beauty for young girls at the time. Pecola love to drink milk out of her Shirley Temple mug. I believe that Morrison added this detail to the story to symbolize her

Pecola Breedlove is young black girl who believes she is ugly and longs for blue eyes. She believes the blue eyes that she adores on Shirley Temple are central to attaining beauty which will bring love and joy to her life. She believes this beauty and love will end the incessant fighting between

Alongside its umbrageous depiction of African American female identity and its shrewd criticism of the internalized racism cultivated by American cultural definitions of beauty, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been inspiring a propagation of literature written by African American women about their experience as women of color. Inspired by a conversation Morrison had with one of her students who wished for blue eyes, the novel portrays the subconscious demolition of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who searches for love and acceptance in a world that underrates people of her own race. Pecola hopelessly longs to possess the traditional American standards of feminine beauty—white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes—as presented to her by the popular icons of the white culture. The Bluest Eye is portrayed as a powerful expression of Toni Morrison’s ethnic cultural feminism, impotence, and loss of positive self-image represented by Pecola who feels that blackness has condemned her to ugliness and scorn. The purpose of this paper will further demonstrate how the Bluest Eye makes a withering attack on the dissimulation of white standards of beauty on black women and the creation of cultural debauchery, from a feminist perspective.

Pecola believes that her skin is too dark and also that her skin color is not acceptable by others. In order for Pecola to be love she feels she must get blue eyes, like Shirley Temple. Shirley Temple was a young actress who everyone adored, she also had blue eyes. Pecola believes the only way to have a better scope out on life is to change the lens that she is looking out of which is to have blue eyes. In order for a child to grow up and function properly he or she must have loving and stable parents. Pecola was not feeling loved at home from her dad and most of all her mother. Mrs. Breedlove didn’t give her innocent, fragile- hearted daughter the most important essential that a child needs, which is love. More and more she neglected her house, her children, her man-they were like the afterthoughts one has just before sleep (Morrison 127). Pecola was mentally and physically abuse because she had to watch her parents fight, become intimate with each other and even become raped by her own

For decades there has been an ongoing discussion on society’s standards of beauty and what makes someone beautiful. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye she challenges white standards of beauty. Just like today, the society in Loraine, Ohio establishes a standard of beauty, and this beauty is defined as being as close to white as possible, having blonde hair, blue eyes, and a “Jack and Jill” family. Most of the characters in The Bluest Eye attempt to conform to society’s standards (complicating this idea) and believe if they can achieve at least one of the aspects of beauty their life will be better and they will be treated in higher regards. Through the female characters of Pecola, Claudia, Maureen, Geraldine, and Rosemary it is prevalent that there is a spectrum of beauty and the person who is closest to this standard, white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, is considered pretty and is respected by society, while a person who is not close to this standard is considered ugly and is treated poorly by society. By ascribing to society’s expectations of beauty, Geraldine extends the role of white supremacy and undermines her own self-worth.

She drinks several quarts of milk at the home of her friends Claudia and Frieda McTeer just to use their Shirley Temple mug and glaze at young Temple’s blue eyes. One day Pecola is raped by her father, when the child the she conceives dies, Pecola goes mad. She comes to believe that she has the bluest eyes of anyone.