White Standards of Beauty and its Crippling Effect on Black Women

Abstract

This paper presents the crippling effect of the internalisation of white standards of beauty on black girls as depicted in Toni Morrison?s The Bluest Eye.? The issue might be as old as slavery but its impact on young girls in every part of the world is relevant even today. The urgency of Morrison?s message to every coloured woman that constant efforts to acquire false identities will only spoil her psyche can be clearly seen in her powerful portrayal of the traumatic life of Pecola, the protagonist of The Bluest Eye?. In the novel Morrison graphically narrates Pecola?s wistful wish for blue eyes and its tragic fulfilment. Morrison shows how racism has resulted in self denigration of the black folk. Morrison?s major concern is to enable her people to recover the oft mutilated or blotted out African American self.