Th Bluest Eye

Tamika Todd

English 1102

Mrs. Johnson

December 11, 2009

The Bluest Eye Controversy: Cultural Beauty, Racism and The Medias Negative Impact on The Black Woman’s Self Image

Toni Morrison’s novel, “The Bluest Eye”, is controversial because it brings to light several serious issues. These issues deal with the black woman and the negative impact that the white cultural idea of beauty, racism, and the media have on her self-image and self-esteem. The effect is negative because it causes black women to view themselves as ugly, unlovable, and rejected. This view of self can cause a variety of negative feelings. These negative feelings can surface in a variety of ways. The feelings manifest themselves by black women trying to change their appearance. There are many roots to this issue from the psyche of a black woman to the world she lives in.

First, we must take a look into the psyche of a black woman, what she believes about herself and what she is told about herself. Most black women feel that to be pretty or to be loved they must look a certain way. The white cultural idea of beauty is that you must have long straight hair, light skin smaller noses, and blue eyes all things that are considered beautiful and loved. They are barraged with an onslaught of advertisements for hair straightners and skin bleaching creams to make their skin lighter. They receive reprimands from their mothers to stay out of the sun for fear of becoming darker. In the poem by Patricia Smith, “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (for Those of You Who Aren’t) she writes:

“First of all, it’s being 9 years old and feeling like you’re not finished, like your edges are wild, like there’s something, everything, wrong, it’s dropping food coloring in your eyes to make them blue and suffering their burn in silence. It’s popping a bleached white mophead over the kinks of your hair and primping in front of the mirrors that deny your reflection…..”(Smith).

This excerpt vividly...