Not all 'women of color' embrace Afrocentric features
How Dr. Julian De Silva's idea of beautiful taught me a lesson about a Guatemalan woman's idea of beauty too
When the photo gallery link popped up on a Google Sheet queue, I looked at the headline curiously. The post was about the world’s most desirable face, according to a plastic surgeon in London named Dr. Julian De Silva.
According to him, these are the features of a beautiful woman.
Nose: Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Elizabeth Middleton
Eyes: Keira Knightley
Eyebrows: Jennifer Lopez
Lips: Penelope Cruz
Cheeks: Angelina Jolie
Skin: Reese Witherspoon
Forehead: Miley Cyrus
Chin: Selena Gomez
Jaw line: Cher
I raised an eyebrow at the lack of Black women in this 2016 rundown. I proofread the gallery, per usual, and then I sent an email to the managing editor, asking if it was OK for me to write an op-ed for a separate publication about my reaction to this “beautiful face.” The Guatemalan-American woman was confused and asked me what was wrong with the list.
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I told her she may feel like the list was fair, considering J-Lo and Selena made it onto the list. Like the editor, these were dark-haired, slim and brown-eyed Latinas. But there was a notable lack of melanin and Afrocentric features that I would consider beautiful. And I thought another publication geared toward Black Millennials would understand where I was coming from. (The readership for my then-employer’s publication largely looked like Bernie Bros and Swifties.) She asked me if she could read it after I pitched it, assuming the other publication accepted my article. I told her, “Sure!”
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And I wrote my article, which was accepted and published before the end of the month. When the editor read my op-ed, she complimented what I’d written and reminded me — more like defending her willingness to promote this study — that she wasn’t saying De Silva’s rundown was the most beautiful women; the writing team was just “reporting” on it. I said nothing. I knew when I applied to work for this online news publication that I wasn’t stepping into the doors of “Essence” magazine.
Tell me you think Black women’s features are ugly — without telling me
I could mildly shrug off De Silva’s most favorited features. He’d used the top requests of 1,000 of his female patients. If the women above were the go-to, then I can’t argue with grass being green. That is his truth.
However, when another writer asked if he could create a gallery of beautiful women for the entertainment section, I sighed. I knew this guy (who looked like a mix between Angus Cloud and Mack Miller) was a hip hop aficionado and the first person to introduce me to Rhapsody’s music, but I was expecting De Silva Round Two.
When I reviewed the gallery, my eyes widened at the number of Black women staring back at me, including women who weren’t super popular at the time. I smiled wide but kept quiet. Before I could click publish though, the Guatemalan editor loudly complained to her second-in-command — a blonde-haired white woman — about how “weird” this writer’s picks were. For whatever reason, she really had an issue with Angela Simmons making it onto this photo gallery instead of Kim Kardashian and decided to loudly announce this across the newsroom.
I swirled in my seat, watching this back and forth between the two, noticing the blonde editor didn’t have a whole lot to say. In fact, the blonde looked more interested in whatever else she was working on. But the Guatemalan editor had many, many, many opinions and hinted that he should “add more women” to the list.
He nodded his head and named a few more non-white women. My eyebrows raised and I fought back a smile, looking at the Latina lady’s face. She made eye contact with me, and I wondered how she was going to defend asking him to not add these women — all while trying to convince me that the De Silva gallery was “reporting.” Because when she insisted he should “add more women,” she and I both knew the kind of women she wanted to see.