A Woman’s Worth
I am quite tired of folk talking about the way Naturi Naughton looks. She has more talent in her pinky finger than most of us. Why aren’t we talking about that?
RAPper/actor/producer 50 Cent sparked a thunderclap from the fans of someone who technically works for him when he posted a photograph Goro from Mortal Kombat on Instagram:
You know, reader, this would have been cute, except he was talking about a very talented Black female actress who has helped make the series he produces, Power, a smashing success both through streaming services and traditional viewing.
It broke my heart equally to see a Black man on world wide social media trashing a brown skinned Black woman for all the world to see — as if our looks and bodies are not under enough scrutiny. We certainly didn’t need one of our own condoning our supposed ugliness and masculinized features. These are long-held stereotypes that are passed down to us from scientific racism, and to perpetuate it from the mouth (keyboard, rather) of a Black man…I can’t finish this. I am just that angry. It’s one thing to be bullied at work. It’s quite another when the bully is your boss, a worldwide media mogul, and a perpetually immature adolescent who had already been slammed for making similar comments! Then, he comes back for another dose? Deactivitating his Instagram account was such a small price to pay for the crimes against womanity that he ALWAYS seems to commit (anyone remember the sex tape thing and that lengthy court battle?).
Why am I the angry Black woman today? Women are almost NEVER judged by our talent, drive, and abilities. All too often, we are judged by our looks, weight, style choices, makeup, and ability to smile through the pain. The things that help men get characterized as “strong,” get us characterized as “bitch.” Whereas a man has the cute word, “stubborn,” applied to him when he is behaving like an obstinate jackass, women are called “divisive.” And we even had a word for a man whose wife cheats, “cuckold,” but there was never such word for the broken-hearted wife of a philandering husband.
The photograph above is of Naturi Naughton, the woman 50 Cent compared to an uber-masculine cartoon character. The comparison was bad enough, but to do it to someone so talented and who works very hard at her craft should make ALL WOMEN angry. Naturi Naughton is one third of the platinum-plus R&B group from the late 90s and early 2000s, 3LW. She is a singer, songwriter, and actress. This is a grown woman who handles her business.
As a Black woman, there is a nagging thought in the back of my mind. I don’t want to vocalize this thought, let alone write it out for the world to see. But it literally won’t leave me alone, so here goes: Could the disparaging comments about Naughton’s looks be based upon skin color? I mean, Naughton is not what America thinks of as “beautiful” for a Black woman. She is of a darker hue and her lips are full. While I think she is drop-dead gorgeous, there are those — Black and white- who are still trapped within the nets of colorism. Anyone woman who is not light skinned with “ sharp” features are criticized by Black and white America.
I ask this because this not the first attack on Naughton’s look and rumors of continued chromatism in America. First, there was the break-up with 3LW, and it was ugly. I never did understand why the young ladies broke up, but there was always a rumor that Naturi was asked to leave because she was obviously the darkest member of the group.
Now, I cannot confirm or deny any of these rumors. They were just hearsay at the time, but given America’s long repulsion of darker skinned women in Hollywood, I was not surprised and am still not surprised that such rumors would circulate. However, neither Naughton nor the other two group members said anything about skin color as a source of the breakup.
Second, it is no secret that Lil Kim HATED Naughton as a choice to play her in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, released in 2009. Lil Kim wanted someone else to play her…someone lighter skinned. Now, we can all hate Lil Kim for her disrespect of Naturi, or we can see her behavior for what it is: Lil Kim is a victim of mental/emotional abuse and colorism, also. On more than one occasion, Lil Kim has confessed that she was in a series of abusive relationships in which she was told that she was not good enough: she was not pretty enough, not sexy enough, not whatever enough. So, what does pretty look like in the Black community? Light skinned, “sharp” (European)features, a small waist line, and an ample behind. And that is what Lil Kim has done to herself.
Now, ultimately, I am a literature professor to the heart. When I look at Lil Kim, I don’t see the butt of a joke. I see the sad, sad ending of Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye (1979). Even though Pecola grew up in an all-Black neighborhood, she was unloved at home,a member of a dysfunctional family, a victim of incest, a teased child at school, and a scorned member of the community. The only way Pecola felt that she could be loved was to be beautiful. And for Pecola, being beautiful meant having blue eyes and long blonde hair. Look at Lil Kim. She has blue eyes and long blonde hair. For me, she is the embodiment of Pecola Breedlove’s pain, and there’s nothing funny about that. Lil Kim may be the butt of many a joke, but being a living Pecola just is not funny.
As for Naturi, though I think she is drop-dead gorgeous, I should hope that we all mature a little and learn how to judge a woman by her merits, talent, and drive and not our very, very warped ideals of beauty and femininity. Naughton and all of us are something the Lord made. He knows how wide or narrow our noses should be, how tightly or loosely our hairs should curl or coil (He numbered the hairs on our head, after all), how full our lips should be, and even how light or dark we should be. And if that is good enough for the Almighty, it’s certainly going to be good enough for man and womankind. I don’t believe that we all have to be the same color with the same features the same genitalia and the same sexual preferences in order to receive equal treatment and respect as human beings. What we all need is a lot more emotional maturity and perhaps a trip or 12 back to Sunday school. And yes, that goes for those who wield powerful multi-media, million dollar empires.
This is not coming from my professor’s diary, but from a place of anger. Yes, today, I am an angry Black woman, and I don’t particularly care how anyone feels about that. I’m a human and entitled to my emotions. If you like that, clap back (press the hands). If you don’t like, don’t clap back, but you are free to leave me an equally angry comment if you like.
