Staff Editorial: Black Women More Confident?

BET wants Black girls to know that we rock, but according to Allure magazine, we already knew.

The results of a recent survey "What's Beautiful Now: The Allure American Beauty Survey," which polled 2,000 women about their perceptions of their beauty and body images, showed that three times as many Black women as white women rated themselves as ‘hot.' Allure then presented the results under the headline: "African-American Women Have Killer Confidence," which got the cyber-world talking.

In light of the history of non-existent and negative images that Black women have had to combat, to a certain extent, it is not surprising to learn that Black women rated our physical features positively. In that sense, concentrated efforts to reverse unflattering stereotypes to help us embrace the way that we look have paid off because many Black women now have no doubt that "[our] Black is beautiful."

Many more young women are being raised to value their history, as well as the hair, features, skin tone, and/or curves that come with it. That is both beautiful and necessary.

However, positive beauty image is not the automatic equivalent of confidence. Just because some Black women are proud to tell you how cute we are, it does not mean that we value our personal and intellectual self-worth. Equating having a positive body image to having "killer confidence" sells Black women just as short as the music videos that minimize us to hypersexual beings.

It may actually be our frequent appearances as physical objects and not our "killer confidence" that made so many Black women more likely to rate themselves as ‘hot.' That is not necessarily something to celebrate.

Many Black women already struggle to combat the stereotype of being the eye-rolling, hip-switching, loud-talking Tyler Perry character, and none of those factors translate to a possessing a greater degree of confidence in oneself any more than having a bigger butt does.

These traits are actually often used to mask a Black woman's lack of confidence. So, if Allure, or anyone else, is truly interested in assessing and addressing the confidence levels of Black women, confidence should first be separated from wounded pride or ego.

Stereotypes like those can make Black women who do not behave in that manner or have those features even less confident than the white woman who rated herself as ‘hot' because the white woman would fall within the stereotype for her group. The Black woman, on the other hand, would not be living up to the fictionalized standard of what it means to be a Black woman.

It is wonderful to know that Black women are accepting themselves for the beautiful, resilient, and remarkable women that we are. It cannot truly be viewed as an achievement; however, until we know that this confidence is true for all Black women—not just the current popular version of us—and that it can be applied to all aspects of our existence.

Our View: It's great that Black girls know that we rock, but it is important that we also know that the many reasons why have to do with much more than just our physical appearances.