Black Woman: I Represent Me
For me, being a woman means one thing; PRIDE. Having pride in who you are and what you do, but as a Woman of Color, having pride can sometimes be the hardest task. Society can make it seem like Women of Color are the worst things to be, especially media and television.
Take the HBO series Girls for example; critics love to rave about this show, calling it an “accurate portrayal of female youth”. Well I beg to different. That show in no way, shape, or form represents me as a young African-American woman. Those experiences aren’t mine to own because White women will never know what it’s like to live a Women of Color’s life. The struggles aren’t the same, the sex isn’t the same, heck - our hair isn’t even the same!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning Girls for not being “black enough”, but that show just doesn’t represent me as a woman. Woman are diverse, they come in all sizes, backgrounds, and shades. And all those chicks are white!
All I’m asking is for more shows that (positively) portray Women of Color. How do you go from having television shows like Moesha, The Parkers, Girlfriends, Sister Sister, The Proud Family and Living Single to having shows like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars? Even the shows with minority main characters - they are still the minority:
- Scandal with Kerry Washington
- Deception with Meagan Good
- Elementary with Lucy Liu
- And The Mindy Project with Mindy Kaling
And they all seem to be working for the government in some way, which again, doesn’t represent me. Now look guys, I don’t want to sound like the angry bitter Black woman who is never satisfied, but I know we can do better than this.
I mean there are a lot of shows with a predominately colored casts, but they’re either on BET, made by Tyler Perry, or some reality TV show on VH1 with women calling one other out of their names and throwing glasses of wine into each other’s faces. And I take part in none of that ratchetness. I’m not married, I’m not a church goer, my ex was not some trifling ass rapper that spent more time smutting it out than actually making music, and I don’t drink that much wine… I’m just saying.
If you don’t agree with me there are no hard feelings, my opinion will always be mine. I just hope you’ve at least noticed how little Women of Color are positively exposed in media, if at all. I mean, will it always just be Oprah and Beyonce?
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