Beyond the Barbie doll image: Beauty ideals and practices among African American and Puerto Rican women.

Abstract

Weight researchers and feminist scholars have documented the impact of beauty ideals on Western European women. Little, however, is known about beauty ideals for women of color and how these ideals may shape these women's self-concepts and their life opportunities. This study explores beauty ideals for African American and Puerto Rican women and how individual women negotiate between Western European beauty ideals and their own racial/ethnic beauty ideals in their daily beauty practices. It also addresses the role of physical appearance on romantic and employment opportunities in the U.S. This qualitative study is based on forty-six in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twenty-four African American women and twenty-two Puerto Rican women. Seven women in each racial/ethnic group were lower class. Social class was defined by level of education (those with less than a college degree were defined as lower class). All study participants had to be at least eighteen years old. This study contributes to gender construction literature by examining gender enactment empirically and focusing on a population that is normally understudied. By focusing on African American and Puerto Rican women's beauty ideals and practices this study shows that gender and race/ethnicity are not natural traits but, largely, socially constructed categories that require an incredible amount of work to be maintained.