American Beauty 2
A tall thin singer/model poses for the cover of a magazine. Her hair is long and flowing. Her eyes are a mixture of hazel and green; her almond skin accentuates her petite nose and perfectly shaped lips. Her name is Vanessa Williams and as a former Miss America, she is a role model for young African-American's. Her almond skin is the ideal shade, it's not dark enough to be black, but it is dark enough to be exotic. Her hazel-green eyes are light, unlike the dark brown eyes of most African-Americans. Her long flowing hair is a feature most African-American women would die for. Vanessa has all the features that many African-American women want, and so she is considered the idea of beauty. An African-American's idea of beauty is to not have any features that are African-American. You are seen as beautiful in America if you are an "American Beauty". An "American Beauty" is usually blonde, with blue eyes and pale skin. Women all over the United States covet every detail of her existence. Especially African Americans. A woman sits in a bar and watches as handsome men pick-up her friends. Her friends, of course all have toffee colored skin. Her skin is the color of dark chocolate. She sits alone as her friends
Dark eyes are also undesirable on an African-American person. The lighter an African Americans eyes are, the prettier they seem to be. A woman with almost black eyes will be over looked if there is a woman with hazel eyes in the room. Vanessa Williams's eyes are not dark brown instead they are a hazel-green. Super model Tyra Banks has light brown eyes. In the novel The Bluest Eye, a young girl wishes for blue eyes. Her eye are a dark brown, but she may think that since all the famous, beautiful woman have blue eyes, maybe blue eyes will help her become happy and care free, like the famous women seem. Today the same problem seems to exist, although it is easy to remedy. Contacts can be purchased to make eyes a desired color. "...You have really pretty eyes - for what you paid for them" a woman, assumingly said to Carolyn Edgar, an African American with naturally light eyes. Since people know that contacts can be purchased to make eyes a desired color, it is mainstream to assume everyone wears them. The lighter your eyes are, the prettier you eyes are perceived to be. A woman's hair is seen as her crowning glory. The "American Beauty's" hair is long, blonde and flowing. An African-Americans hair is not like that. It is rare for an African American to have naturally blonde hair. The hair is tightly curled, or kinky as it is sometime called. Usually it is not very long either. The "kinks" in the hair cause it not to feel it's softest potential. If an African American woman wants ideal hair, she will have to go through a life-long and expensive process. The process does not always work. First she will put caustic chemicals in her hair to straighten it. The chemicals consist of lye among other things. Gloves are usually worn to protect the hands as the mixture is placed on the hair. Scalp burns are not uncommon when the procedure is done. Many times, the procedure has caused a persons hair to fall out, as a result of scalp burns and the other chemicals. Many times the chemicals cause the hair to break. After the hair breaks, they get extensions on their hair, to make it longer. If they don't want extensions they get their hair braided so it can grow back. After the hair grows back the process starts again. If a woman wants her hair to be blonde, and she is African American she first has to damage her hair enough so that much of the natural color and texture is gone, then bleach it. After bleaching it, she can dye it the blonde she wants. Gloves are also worn for the dying process, because the chemicals used to dye hair are al
Some common words found in the essay are:
African American, Bluest Eye, American Beauty, African Americans, Miss America, Vanessa Williams, , Beloved Thandie, Mirror America, Beauty Today's, african american, blue eyes, light eyes, light skin, american beauty, idea beauty, hair light, seen beautiful, hair light eyes, dark brown, bluest eye, black blue mirror, novel bluest eye, african-american seen beautiful, edgar black blue,
Approximate Word count = 1741
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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