Dark Girls

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Dark Girl
Human beings vary physically in some noticeable ways. The most conspicuous disparity is skin tone (Barkan 92). The social learning theory asserts that people discriminated on are in compliance with the culture they grew up in (Barkan 100). For that reason, The Dark Girl already knows that she falls short of the social expectations of normal, good or beautiful in a universal culture where whiteness governs. There is also the issue where people from the same community make them feel unworthy and excluded. From the documentary, one of the girls says “I don’t like to be called black because I’m not black” (OnCueNetwork, “Dark Girls”). It is clear that the dark girl struggles to feel into society. Another example is when a young girl says, “I took the color of my father, and I used to hate him because of it” ( HYPERLINK “https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCyLLrtQqYKCcbTjBRgey-w” OnCueNetwork, “Dark Girls’), which is an indication that the Dark girl has been permanently marked as different. Another lady confesses that “I remember telling my mum to add bleach in the water so I can be lighter” (OnCueNetwork, “Dark Girls”), which shows that from a young age they were made to believe having dark skin was not good enough.

The media has portrayed beauty as having a fairer skin and how a person is not termed as beautiful if they have dark skin. For this reason, there are many Dark girls who have turned to find products to make their skins lighter.

What they seem to forget is that there are health issues associated with the products they use. In contrast, White women are also involved in the colorism issue because they feel that they have to prove their culture as a society. They feel that they are either not light enough to what society deems desirable and end up tanning their skin which is also harmful. I feel that the dark girl and white girl both have been made desperate by social expectations.
The African proverb asserts that the hunter will always be the superior party and the lion inferior. The scapegoat theory claims that when individuals have problems, they tend to blame them on the rest of the world (Barkan 100). This is the same with the dark girl, as she has allowed society have certain perspective towards what is termed as beautiful until there comes a stronger party that says otherwise. This means that she will continue to be treated differently and without a voice. Colorism in the film focuses on the woman since the focus is on beauty and the way it affects a woman’s psyche. A girl knows how it feels like when she is not considered as beautiful.

Works Cited
Barkan, Steven E. Social Problems: Continuity and Change. , 2013. Print.
OnCueNetwork. “Dark Girl-Trailer.” YouTube, uploaded by OnCueNetwork, 12 Sept. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rnCRh9zM6U