Between Society and Self: The Socio-Cultural Construction of the Black Female Body and Beauty in South Africa

Ewa Glapka; Zukiswa Majali

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.10

Authors

Ewa Glapka University of the Free State, South Africa
Zukiswa Majali University of the Free State, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.10

Keywords:

Body, Discourse, Gender, Intersectionality, Positioning, Race/Ethnicity, Subjectivity

Abstract

Interested in the socio-cultural construction of the body and beauty, this study investigates the embodied experience of Black African women in South Africa. The Black female body has been problematically positioned in the discourses of beauty. In the dominant, Westernized imagery, the physical markers of blackness such as dark skin and kinky hair have been aesthetically devalued. In the African traditionalist discourses, these body features have been celebrated as beautiful and invoked as the signifiers of cultural pride. This, however, has also been considered as a form of cultural imperative that holds women accountable for how they embody their relationship with their race and ethnicity. Most recently, cultural critics notice the aesthetic revaluation of Black female beauty and ascribe it to the global popularity of the African-American hip-hop culture. In this study, we explore how the socio-cultural complexity of Black female beauty affects the ways in which individuals make sense of their bodies.

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Author Biographies

Ewa Glapka, University of the Free State, South Africa

Ewa Glapka was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, Department of Sociology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Zukiswa Majali, University of the Free State, South Africa

Zukiswa Majali obtained her Master’s degree in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, Department of Sociology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

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