Body Image and The Black Woman

Hi reader’s I have been M.I.A for a while but I’m back now.

Today I saw a newspaper article about a 20 year old woman from London who died from buttock injections she received in the USA (full story here). At first the questions raised from this story is why someone would risk their life just to have a large butt? What was she thinking doing such a dangerous procedure? I was thinking to myself that there is more to it than having  a larger butt
 for aesthetic purposes. There is a much deeper psychological explanation behind it.

As a 21 year old black female, growing up I was a very skinny girl, my size did not bother me until my teenage years. I’ve had comments made to me such as “omg you are so skinny”, “Do you even eat?” and numerously I’ve been called “anorexic”. These words used to hurt me and as a result I had very low self-esteem.  Many of my friends were bigger than me and in the black community being thick is seen as a favorable size for a black female to be and I did not 'fit' that. Even once I had an Asian friend say to me “you are skinny for a black girl”.  I felt that I needed to conform to the image of what a black girl’s body should look like so ate large amounts of junk food to gain weight but that did not work. As a result my lifestyle was becoming more unhealthy.

The media constantly talks about pressures on white women to be skinny but you never hear of the pressure on black girls to be thick. In recent years there has been the whole “Video Vixen” phenomenon in hip hop video’s and in song lyrics (i.e  Sir Mixalot – Baby got back). This body type consists of large breasts, small waist, large butt/hips and thick thighs. The media embraces this hourglass body type (i.e Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian) and it appears that many black males prefer females that look this way. Many women of African descent are known for having large buttocks therefore it is expected of every black female to automatically have that asset but people fail to realize that this is not true. Society have unrealistic expectations of how a women’s body should look like but the majority of women do not look like these models and as a result are left with low self confidence and self esteem.

Buffy The Body famous for her Assets

 I’m going to be honest ,there was a time I used to aspire to have the ‘video vixen body’ and there are many black females that still do. Many feel succumbed to the pressures to conform to this image. However, many of these vixens we see on T.V and in Magazines have had surgical procedures such as breast implants, liposuction, butt implants etc in order to obtain the so called “perfect body” that we see.  Many women who cannot afford the surgery will undergo cheaper, dangerous and potentially fatal procedures.  For example there are some women who are consuming pills which are used to fatten chickens in order to gain weight. The pressures stem from the media, men, our communities and society that is why a high number of black women risk their lives to achieve these desired looks.


There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a better looking body whether your overweight and need to lose weight, or under weight and need to gain, or tone up certain areas, yes exercise is important and also having a healthy body. Women come in all shapes and sizes tall, short, fat, skinny and we should embrace our bodies, this took me a long time to do. We shouldn’t allow external factors to stop us from loving our bodies. The images we see in the media are fake and are highly photoshopped. We should stop aspiring to have unrealistic bodies but instead aspire to have healthy bodies. Real women have imperfections such as stretch marks, cellulite, area’s of fat etc it is NORMAL and no one is perfect. Real women aren't perfect and perfect women aren't real.

Ki Toy Johnson

Written by Dinah