Lil’ Kim’s Lighter, Whiter Skin Is a Sad Indictment of RacismPosted in Articles, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Women on 2019-07-14 01:20Z by Steven |
Lil’ Kim’s Lighter, Whiter Skin Is a Sad Indictment of Racism
The Daily Beast
2016-04-26
Handout; Instagram
Why has Lil’ Kim seemingly lightened her skin? Because of the absurd, but very present, social advantage for black people that comes with having lighter skin.
There was a time when Lil’ Kim represented a brand of unapologetic self-love for black women. The kind that announced that we are sexual beings without shame or fear. She reflected what it might look like to be at once a woman, black, and sexually free. Visually, her body was a site for pleasure, most importantly her own.
Sonically, her lyrics offered us permission to explore our own bodies and our own pleasure. Lil’ Kim was our champion.
I’m not sure what she’s now championing. In a series of pictures she posted on Instagram, she is virtually unrecognizable.
While we have debated whether other celebrities like Beyoncé and Rihanna have actually lightened their skin or if the magazines that featured their images had photoshopped their complexions, with Kim, there surely can be little question.
It looks as though she has lightened her once black-girl-brown complexion to one that’s not so brown at all. Her hair is longer, straighter, blonder. Her once round nose now thin. Even her eyes sit differently on her face. She’s changed, in ways that words can’t even begin to capture. And it hurts…
Read the entire article here.