Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Quotes!
Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. Buddha ♥
"Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, but falling in love with you was beyond my control." ♥
Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never met ♥ unknown
We call ourselves creators and we just copy. ♥ L.H.
Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"Dr. Martin Luther King
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds ♥ L.H & Z.M
What You think determines what you want, what you do determines what you get! :)
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~Buddha
Monday, September 13, 2010
Missing Him
Thought it would be easy togo 24 hours without communication...I was wrong. I can not stop thinking about him, he makes my day complete. Being away from him makes me want him more. Separation only makes us closer. The Love I have for him grows stronger when we are apart. My heart becomes heavy when we do not speak. Racing thoughts of memories we share consume me. I dream of him...Strong, Handsome, Intelligent, Charismatic, and Charming. He makes me laugh and puts a smile on my face that no one can imitate. How I miss seeing his face, his smile, the way he walks, his scent, his body...I miss everything. :(
Friday, September 10, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
No Longer
I just bought the CD Lauryn Hill Unplugged~ from AMAZON!! This album is my life story. From the repression I have felt all my life, from my foolish past, and deception that has corrupt my mind. Im ready to be free...Im going to save me from myself. No longer shall I sit inferior to those who skin is lighter, brighter or whiter than mine. No longer will I feel like an outcast from my family because I am ashamed of who I am and what they might disapprove of. I can admit I made some terrible mistakes in my past, but No Longer will I repress my feelings, no longer will I hold back. I have to set my mind free...REBEL...Love myself from the inside out. The Love I have to give is not material, the life that I live is not a fantasy. society has placed me in a box just to corrupt my true self Im giving myself the authority to climb out. No Longer will I fall for the deception that media portrays. Im through falsifying sin for truth. ill search and find truth by Conquering my demons by being truthful to myself. Living for man is No Longer my priority or an option, living for Jesus is. I know these words are controversial and have power behind them, I am not perfect but I will full-fill my purpose and this testimony by the time I leave this earth. :)
Vogue Italia's Black Barbie
Women's Rights:Women's Rights HomepageView Topics View PetitionsStart a Petition
Vogue Italia's Black Barbie: A Step Forward or a Step Back?
by Loryn Wilson August 04, 2009 07:32 AM (PT) Topics: Body Image, Media
Share
5
retweet
18304 Views
This month, Vogue Italia is doing another take on last year's successful Black Issue: a fashion spread featuring all Black Barbies.
from Jezebel:
Last year, Italian Vogue shook the fashion world with its "All Black issue, which sold out on many newsstands. This year, the July issue features Kristen McMenamy on the cover, but comes with a delightful supplement devoted to black Barbies.
It is Barbie's 50th birthday, after all, and Mattel does have those new black Barbies to promote. And while this supplement is not full-sized like a regular magazine (it's about 6 inches wide; 7.5 inches long) somehow the doll scale makes sense.
As a girl growing up with in Los Angeles, my mother always made sure to buy us Black dolls, especially Barbies. I even had a Black Ken doll! And while it was great to have a doll that looked like me, the reality was that it still sold me and other little girls dangerous ideas about what a woman's body should look like, and what was considered beautiful. In preparing to write this post, I spoke with a friend of mine who happens to be a Black dad with a young daughter. He told me that while he reluctantly buys his daughter Barbies because she loves them, he is concerned about what it teaches his little girl about having a positive self-image. As a result, he makes it his responsibility to teach his daughter about how special and beautiful she is as a black girl.
I loved Vogue Italia's Black Issue last year. I loved that it featured Tocarra, a voluptuous, curvy woman who was far from a size 2. And I like the concept of using all Black Barbies in a Vogue spread. But I have to wonder if it is actually a step backwards. Barbies themselves use the white female body as a the prototype for beauty. Even the new Black Barbies do not have the hips, ass and curves that myself and other Black women possess. It's great that Mattel has barbies of all shade, but what about all sizes? What taking into consideration that other races and ethnic groups have different ideas of what women's bodies actually look like? The fashion industry often creates fashions, ad campaigns, and yes, even Barbie photo spreads that leave Black female bodies out of the equation and therefore, out of the question when defining what a "perfect body" looks like and who is able to possess it.
So what does everyone else think? Is the Black Barbie issue of Vogue Italia actually progress? Or does it still perpetuate anxiety and even denial of the Black female body as one that is indeed normal and beautiful?
Friday, September 3, 2010
I love my booty
Love My Booty
by Loryn Wilson March 02, 2009 01:46 PM (PT) Topics: Body Image
Share
17
retweet
5976 Views
I began my love-hate relationship with my body when I was in the 5th grade.
I was the only Black girl in a all-White private school. I grew up in a Black neighborhood. At home, I was surrounded by beautiful Black women. But when I went to school, I felt completely alone.
Every day, I would compare my body to the White girls in my class. My breasts had developed sooner than some of the girls, but more importantly, my rear end was much bigger, even at ten years old. I remember feeling ashamed to the point where I wanted to be a White girl. White girls were skinny. White girls had blue eyes. White girls had small behinds. White girls were pretty.
One day, as I sat in the breakfast nook in my family's kitchen, I asked my mother, "Mommy, why am I fat?" She looked up from the stove in amazement. "Why do you say that?" She asked me. As tears began to stream down my face, I told her I was ashamed of my body. I told her all the white girls were skinny and I was not, and why couldn't I be skinny too?
She took a seat beside me and held my hand. My beautiful mother, with her almond shaped eyes and brown skin, told me that just because Black women were shaped differently didn't mean that we were any less beautiful. It didn't mean God loved us any less. "It just means that you are beautiful in your own special way," she said.
I can't say that learning to embrace my Black female body is easy. As a single Black woman living in DC, it is a daily struggle. The story of Saartjie Baartman, who was nicknamed the "Hottentot Venus," comes
to mind. In the 18th century, Saartjie was kidnapped by British imperialists and locked in a cage, paraded as a circus freak show because of the size of her read end. Her story is reincarnated every time I deal with street harassment, with men's unwanted touching on my ass and breasts in a nightclub, with inappropriate comments from White men about my body while in college.
My story is not that much different from many other Black women. We are often taught at a early age to be ashamed of our bodies. By the mainstream media, we are taught that the Black female body is overtly sexual and therefore something that should be shunned and covered up. By some rap artists, we are told to "back that ass up."
Embracing the Black female body starts at home. Black girls need to be taught how to love their own bodies, and the ways in which a man or woman who is interested in dating them should treat them. They need to learn the difference between admiration and harassment.
And it takes the courage to grow and to explore the depths of our beauty. I had to grow to a point where I loved my shape so much that I wanted to take care of it for myself. I had to finally say that yes, I
am beautiful, sexy, and fabulous. I began to take yoga, to dance, to wear that hot sweater dress with the hot stillettos one friday night. I looked in the mirror and admired my big butt, my thick hips and
thighs. But it first started by remembering my mother's words: we are beautiful in our own way.
I understand Lauren Hill and have dealt with this for 19 years!
In 2000, she dropped out of the public eye. She described this period of her life to Essence: "People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time… I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone's face when I really didn't like them or even know them well enough to like them."[4]
She also spoke about her emotional crisis, saying, "For two or three years I was away from all social interaction. It was a very introspective time because I had to confront my fears and master every demonic thought about inferiority, about insecurity or the fear of being black, young and gifted in this western culture."[4] She went on to say that she had to fight to retain her identity, and was forced "to deal with folks who weren't happy about that."[4]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
