White Means Beautiful: The Effects of White Beauty Standards on African American and African Communities

Emmanuelle Lajoie, McGill University

1. Introduction
White means beautiful. That is what a Ghanaian woman told the researcher when she asked her why she was regularly bleaching her skin (Pierre, 2008). Skin bleaching, eyelid surgery or nose reconstruction are all practices that demonstrate how white beauty standards have been aecting other racial groups. One main problem regarding white beauty standards is that they are often considered international, thus denying the fact that some racial groups have a greater chance than others to embody them (Balogun, 2012). Black people are the most likely to be excluded from the Eurocentric beauty standards (and thus perceived as ugly) since historically, these standards were established in order to devalue blackness and justify slavery (Keith, 2009). This exclusion from white beauty standards falls more heavily on Black women than Black men, since femininity has always been closely tied to beauty (Rocamora, 2011). Because of globalized cultures and communications, black communities in Africa that were infrequently exposed to these standards now encounter them on a daily basis (Glenn, 2009). The impact of white beauty standards on Black women are mediated by the environment they live in. For instance, African Americans constitute a visible minority in the United States, whereas in most African countries Black citizens constitute an overall majority. Furthermore, proportionally, there are more African Americans of lower socioeconomic status than Whites (Lin & Harris, 2008)

which cannot be measured within African countries where Blacks represent the majority of the population. In addition, in many African countries, the State and some important institutions that inuence beauty standards (such as beauty magazines or fashion industries) are no longer run by White colonizers. With this information in mind, the question remains: are Black American and African women similarly aected by Eurocentric beauty standards, despite the fact that they live in dierent racial and social contexts? In this paper, I will examine this question by rst doing a short literature review on the history of black beauty and will look at current research on the subject. I will then critically examine six black beauty blogs and report the quantitative and qualitative results. I will nish by discussing the ndings of the blogs in relation with the literature review.

2. Literature Review
The devaluation of black beauty is a long historical process that started at the time of slavery and colonization. In order to justify the enslavement of Blacks and other racial groups, Europeans established a racial hierarchy as well as colorism (Hunter, 1998). Racial hierarchy is an ideology developed around the idea that certain races are inherently superior to others (Wallis & Fleras, 2009). As expected, Whites put themselves at the top of the stratication while they placed Blacks at the bottom. Whites were said to be naturally civilized,

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intelligent and moral, while Blacks were animallike, dishonest and (sexually) depraved (Keith, 2009). In terms of physical appearances, phenotype and body features which were associated with Whites were presented as beautiful, in opposition with the black ugliness (Tate, 2007; Keith, 2009). For instance, the more voluptuous curves of Blacks and their bigger bottom were said to be similar to the one of baboons and monkeys (Solly, 1985). Blacks slaves that had white facial features or straight hair were also portrayed as superior and were given certain advantages over their more African-looking mates (Patton, 2006). Colorism complemented this racial hierarchy by advocating that people who had light skin were superior to people with darker skin (Lewis, 2011). Colonizers favoured light skinned Blacks by employing them as domestic workers or giving them the higher title of overseer (Keith, 2009). Light skinned Blacks were also more likely to become free slaves, which permitted them to start small businesses and over time acquire a higher economic status than dark skinned Blacks (Telles, 2009). In Africa, the patterns were very similar: during colonization, Europeans associated themselves with Blacks that had lighter skin or a similar morphology of Whites by oering them positions of power and special privileges. This stratication persisted over time (Lewis, 2011). However, in the United States around World War I, the importance of complexion seemed to decrease because of racial segregation which targeted all African Americans in same the manner (Telles, 2009). In reaction to the segregation, the Civil Rights Movement unied Blacks together regardless of their skin colour. The Black is Beautiful Movement also emerged from this period, promoting dark complexion, kinky hair and black facial and physical features. Even black beauty contests that were historically won by light, European looking Blacks started to choose dark African Americans with African features as their beauty queens (Craig, 2009). The Black is Beautiful movement left its mark since in the United States, Black women are more represented in the media than they were fty years ago (Sengupta, 2006). In addition, it was found that African American women actually had a greater self-esteem than White women (KelchOliver, 2011). African American women also regu-

larly rejected the thin beauty ideal and aspired to a beauty ideal that was more shapely and that had more curves (Kelch-Oliver, 2011). There are similar ndings in Africa where the traditional beauty idealizes women with curves, as being skinny is a synonym of being poor (Ribane, 2011). For example, in Nigeria, there are some beauty contests which promote the traditional African beauty and challenge the so-called international beauty standards (Balogun, 2012). This trend demonstrates that some women refuse to conform to a white skinny ideal and are a good sign of change within the black community. Nonetheless, many studies found dierent results: skin color, hairstyle, body type and facial features of women still need to satisfy the Eurocentric beauty standards in order to be considered beautiful (Lewis, 2011). In the media, even though Black women are now more represented, they need to correspond to the white ideal by being overwhelmingly light skinned tone, skinny, European-like models. Even some African American magazines promote these beauty standards (Brown White, 2005). In addition, advertising and fashion companies repetitively whiten the skin of Black women through the use of digital retouching (De Souza, 2008). In the United States, corporations sell billions of dollars of products to lighten African American skin tone (Glenn, 2009). In Africa, the selling of skin bleaching products has signicantly increased in the past decades (Pierre, 2008). Many of these products have been proven to be toxic and to cause health problems and were banned in several African countries, such as Nigeria or Zimbabwe (Pierre, 2008). Nonetheless, the illegal demand for these products is still substantial (De Souza, 2008). Skin bleaching is generally socially accepted in communities and even considered hygienic, as washing darker skin makes someone cleaner (Hecquet, 2006). Either in the black communities of United States or in Africa, there is still the common and open discourse that lighter skin blacks are more attractive and that they have better chances of getting married (Duke & Berry, 2012; Pierre, 2008 and Fokuo, 2009). Some studies also show that dark complexion is only valued and represented as beautiful when there is space for exotic beauty (Balogun, 2012). Hair is another dimension of beauty that Black women control to look more European. There is

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still a hierarchy between hair types, from having straight hair to very nappy hair (Robinson, 2011). The natural kinky hair that most Blacks have is considered to be inappropriate and bad hair, even though it is the hair that oers the most diverse hairstyle (Brown White, 2005; Robinson, 2011). In the United States, some studies reveal that many African American women believed that wearing natural hair was a political statement and that if a woman did it she must be ready to be subjected to societal reprisal (Brown White, 2005; Thompson, 2009). Some African American women even mention that they never saw their natural hair, because their mother straightened it at a young age (Brown White, 2005). To straighten their hair, many Blacks use relaxer hair products, which are extremely painful and highly toxic (Stilson, 2009). Another way to have straight hair is to buy weaves and extensions, but these are expensive for the average citizen (Stilson, 2009). Finally, the decision of heterosexual Black women to comply to white beauty standards is also shaped by the perceived preferences of men. In general, Black women believe that men prefer light skinned women with straight hair (Hunter, 1998). Several studies conrm this assumption: Black men appear to generally prefer Black women with such features (Robinson, 2011). In addition, some studies revealed that White, African American and African men found White women (and white features) more attractive than Black women (and black features) (Martin, 1964).

panies. Before jumping into the content analysis, here is a short historical background on blogging and the research conducted on beauty blogs.

3.1. The History of Blogs

Blogs emerged principally from 1997 to 1999 (Siles, 2012). During this period, blogs were usually a kind of website providing links to other websites with some practical comments (Perderson, 2010). In 2002 and 2003, the creation of blogs got simplied and the number of blogs exploded around the globe (Desilligny, 2010). As the blogosphere became more accessible, a blog became more commonly dened as an open diary, focusing more on personal opinions and everyday life rather than a place to get links (Perderson, 2010). Bloggers can become the star of their blogs and foster a sense of community between their readers (Tremayne, 2007). When a blog becomes very popular, it may also have multiple bloggers writing dierent pieces. Another key feature of a blog is that readers can leave comments (Tremayne, 2007; Hookway, 2008). Although bloggers have the power to remove them (Rocamora, 2011), remaining comments can give an insightful idea of a readers opinion on beauty standards. Unfortunately, a single study on beauty blogs was found and only a handful number on fashion blogs. This trend reinforces Rocamoras (2011) argument that academics considered fashion blogs to be at the bottom of the blogosphere hierarchy below political, economical or journalism-like blogs. Regardless of the small quantity of literature available, the few sources provided insightful information on women, beauty and blogs. Some researchers argued that women who creates a blog do so to rearm their identity (Rocamora, 2011). Since female identity is closely tied to appearance, blog, like a mirror, is an instrument to control and regulate female beauty (Rocamora, 2011). Another academic also concluded that even though some blogs were mostly part independent from the mainstream media, bloggers still did not challenge the idea that the most important characteristic of women were their appearances (Lynch, 2011). With this in mind, does it mean that Black bloggers will generally agree with white beauty standards? Is race a factor mediating the eect on femininity? And again, how does the racial

3. Method
I chose to analyze the eects of white beauty standards on Black women by looking at beauty blogs. Accessing the internet is becoming increasingly widespread and going on a blog is normally free of charge. Some academics argue that blogs are becoming the citizens voice, as anyone can start a blog and disagree with the mainstream media (Kline & Burstein, 2005; Tremayne, 2007). Black bloggers do not have to agree with white beauty standards and may challenge the mainstream view and promote a more traditional black beauty. Bloggers also do not automatically need large nancial investments to run their blog and thus do not necessarily deal with advertising com-

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3.2 context aect beauty blogging?

Blog Selection

3.2. Blog Selection

I selected three dierent blogs for the United States and Africa. Each chosen blog needed to have information on hair, skin care or makeup, and fashion in order to examine body type, hair, complexion, and facial features. Noted that the evaluation of facial features is mainly done by looking at the shape of the nose, the lips, and the eyes of the person. For instance, blogs specializing on hairstyle were systematically disregarded, since it would reduce the scope of the research that intends to look at the various aspects of beauty. The blogs from the United States needed to target Black women as their primary audience. The audience was considered to be black women if the blogger directly mentioned it, or if Blacks were predominant in pictures, or if makeup and hair tips were for Blacks. Beauty blogs that were suggested and described as black beauty blogs by popular African American magazines and blogs were also considered eligible. I tried to choose three blogs that varied in size, to know if advertising companies (sometimes present in big blogs) inuenced the beauty standards of the blog. I also chose blogs that were still airing and in which the blogger posted at least once a month. This is important because when a blogger stops blogging for a long time period, it becomes dicult and complicated to calculate the web trac of the blog. Web trac gives an idea of how popular a blog is by looking at the quantity of data received and sent by visitor on a website (Alexa, 2013). Because this method is imperfect, I used four different web trac search engines to cross analyze the results. The chosen search engines were Alexa Internet Inc. (2013), Adplanner (2013), Compete (2013), and Quantcast (2013). Alexa, also ranks websites by popularity and even classies them in dierent categories. I also noted if the blog had a Facebook page and the number of likes it had. To select black beauty blogs, I rst used the search engine Alexa. Unfortunately, there were no black beauty blogs in the top 500 websites of all categories presented. Since there was a list of the most popular African websites, I went through this list to nd black beauty blogs tting my criteria. Some black beauty magazines were found but

black beauty blogs were absent from the 345 websites listed. I did the same search in the beauty category, but again, no black beauty blogs were found within the 410 websites mentioned. I therefore used another method to pre-select the blogs: I picked blogs that were recommended on famous African American beauty magazines or websites. When the blog contained the required criteria, I entered it in the multiple search engines to know how inuential and big they were. The results of this analysis can be seen in appendix I at the end of this paper. It must be noted that the number are subjected to change as web trac information changes daily. The chosen African American beauty blogs were Fashion Bomb Daily, Afrobella, and The Glamazons. The Fashion Bomb Daily (Fashion Bomb Blog, 2013) was the highest ranked black beauty blog tting my standards, with a rank of 12 027 on Alexas website. The blog also had a Facebook page with 47 152 likes. Although the creator of the blog claims to focus on multicultural fashion, her blog features primarily Black models and Blacks readers, and has advertisements targeting Blacks. The blog was also designated best blog of the month by Black Enterprise black and recommended by the Black magazines Ebony, The Curvy Fashionista, and others. The blog was created by the (African American) journalist Claire Sulmers in 2006. Claire still writes many articles but she now has two other writers contributing to her blog. Afrobella (2013) is principally written by Patrice Grell Yursik, a native of Trinidad. Afrobella is ranked 67,838 on Alexa and has 21 235 likes on its Facebook page. Patrice created her blog in August 2006, for the celebration of natural hair and women of all shades. This blog was recommended by major Black magazines such as Essence, Ebony, the Curvy Fashionista and other websites (Afrobella, 2013). According to Black Enterprise website, Afrobella was also within the twenty best Black blogs of the United States in 2012 (Black Enterprise, 2013). In addition, Patrice partnered with MAC cosmetics in 2012 to launch a lipstick collection. She also has her own store and features Body Shop ads which demonstrates the notoriety she has acquired. The last American blog is the Glamazons Blog (2013). Ranked 128,707 on Alexa, it has the smaller number of 6 140 likes on its Facebook page. The Glamazons

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was recommended by The Curvy Fashionista, The Root and Vibe Vixen websites (Glamazons Blog, 2013). The Glamazons was created by Jessica C. Andrews and Andrea Arterbery, two women who moved to New York City to work in the fashion industry. After a few years, they both left their jobs and started the blog around 2008. Their blog is popular enough that they have two other occasional writers and a YouTube channel, although there are no commercial ads on their blog. For the African blogs, I decided to choose beauty blogs from a specic country, Nigeria. First, this country was colonized by Britain and therefore there is a signicant proportion of the population who understands, speaks, and writes English. This is important because I wanted to analyze blogs written in English to make the comparison easier between the African American and African blogs. Nigeria also has a large majority of Black citizens in contrast with the United States. In addition, Nigeria is a country economically on the rise which means that more people have money and thus are more likely to go on the internet than citizens of a country in crisis or extremely poor. According to the World Bank (2013), internet access in Nigeria is one of the highest of Sub-Saharan Africa with approximately 28.4 percentage. In addition, nearly half of the 166 million population of Nigeria lives in an urban area, where accessing internet is generally simpler. In absolute term, it also means that a large number of Nigerian women can access beauty blogs. Nollywood (the Nigerian movie industry) is also an important industry that can foster the proliferation of beauty blogs, since stars set fashion style and beauty ideal. All these reasons make Nigeria an ideal country to compare with the United States when looking at Black beauty blogs. To choose the beauty blogs in Nigeria, I also used the lists of Alexa. I looked at the top 500 most popular websites of Nigeria but there was not a single beauty blog in the list. I then searched through the recommendations of Nigerian online magazines and popular websites. I then compared the web trac of these blogs with the dierent search engines and veried that the blogs were still airing. The details results can be seen in appendix I. It must be noted that in absolute terms, there were signicantly less beauty blogs in Nigeria than in the United States. For this reason, the three

African blogs are more similar in size and in popularity than the American blogs. The chosen blogs were Stellas Addiction, Beauty in Lagos, and The Fashion Engineer. Stellas Addiction (Stella, 2013) was ranked 8 823 most visited website in Nigeria on Alexa and had 700 likes on its Facebook page. This blog was nominated best beauty blog according to judges vote of 2012 by the website Nigeria Blog Award. Numerous blogs such as The Third World Professional recommended the blog. It was created in 2010 by Stella, a business student who has a growing passion for makeup. The blog has a single advertisement. Beauty in Lagos (BeautyinLagos, 2013) was ranked 4 897 on Alexa and had 115 likes on Facebook. In 2012, this blog also won the title of best beauty blog according to the popular vote by the Nigeria Blog Award website. This award seems prestigious as many other blogs and websites refer to it. The creator, who does not revealed her identity, started the blog at the beginning of 2012 when she moved back to Lagos (Nigerias capital) after living in the United Kingdom for some time. The Fashion Engineer (Nytan-Runsewe, 2013) was ranked 7 572 on Alexa and had a total of 500 likes on Facebook. The blog was also nominated for best beauty blog-Nigerian Blog Awards in 2012. This blog was created on January 27, 2012 by Sayedero Enytan-Runsewe, an engineering student, makeup artist and shop owner. There are no commercial advertisements on Beauty in Lagos and The Fashion Engineer and only a very few on Stellas Addiction. Readers should also keep in mind that the American blogs had a substantial higher number of likes on their Facebook page and higher web trac than the Nigerian blogs. This suggests that even though these are popular and important blogs in Nigeria, there are still relatively small in comparison to the American ones. In addition, the Nigerian bloggers felt more personal and focus on their everyday life, while the African American bloggers were able to meet celebrities and have more sections in their blogs.

4. Positionality
As a White person (who, in addition, roughly ts the white beauty standards), I am conscious that I cannot feel alienated or perceived white beauty

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standards the same way Blacks feel. I also understand that my ideas about beauty have already been aected by the white standards and unconsciously aected my research. Despite the fact that I do not like the fashion and beauty industry, since they promote a very narrow denition of beauty, after looking at Black beauty blogs, I surprised myself several times thinking things such as: Oh gosh she has such a huge butt, thats not pretty! I realized how the white beauty ideal are embedded in me. I tried my best to stop stereotyping, but I do not want to pretend that my personal background did not aect the way I analysed the beauty blogs.

non Black pictures. Excluding her in a separate category since she skewed the data, 8 of the 28 celebrities (29%) were skinny or very skinny, 6 (21%) were skinny with curves and none were curvy. As expected, all the White celebrities had straight hair, light complexion and European facial features.

5.2. Black Featured: Body Type

Looking exclusively at pictures of Black women, African American blogs featured a high percentage of skinny and very skinny women: 33 of the 48 celebrities (69%) were skinny or very skinny whereas there were 10 of the 27 non celebrities (37%) that were skinny or very skinny. The results were a little bit dierent within the African blogs where women, celebrity or not, were predominantly skinny or very skinny: 35 of the 41 celebrities (85%) were skinny or very skinny while 23 of the 29 non celebrities (79%) were. Skinny women with curves were also represented at a higher percentage within the non celebrities than within celebrities. In this analysis, curves were dened as having a large bottom and a large breast. In the Black American blogs, 9 out of 48 celebrities (18%) were identied as skinny with curves, while 9 out of 27 non celebrities (33%) were skinny with curves. In the African blogs, the results were a little bit smaller: 5 out of 41 celebrities (12%) t in this category, while 17% of non celebrities were. Lastly, curvy women represented a small percentage of women featured in both African American and African blogs. In the African American blogs, 6 of the 48 celebrities (13%) were curvy, but the percentage is signicantly higher for non celebrities: 8 of the 27 non celebrities (30%) were considered curvy. The number of curvy women in African blogs is smaller: only one celebrity (2%) and one non celebrity (3%) were curvy. If we look the body type of women regardless of their notoriety, the African American blogs featured 43 women (57%) who were skinny and very skinny, 18 (24%) who were skinny with curves, and 14 (19%) who were curvy. In the African blogs, 58 (83%) were skinny or very skinny, 10 (14%) were skinny with curves, and 2 (3%) were curvy. In addition, the African American blogs in-

5. Findings
Within the African American blogs, there were a total of eight posts of The Fashion Bomb Daily, ten posts of Afrobella, and eight posts of The Glamazons that were analyzed. In regards to the African blogs, eight posts of Beauty in Lagos, eight posts of Stellas Addiction, and eight posts of The Fashion Engineer were analyzed. Overall, the analysis reveals that there was a frequent dierence between the representation of celebrities and non celebrities. The category of celebrities includes not only famous women but also fashion models, because although they are dierent occupations, both are references in term of beauty and looks. Non celebrities are dened as everyday women, usually readers who send their pictures to the blogs. It must also be noted that the numbers are not the same across categories since it was often impossible to evaluate the facial features and the body type of women. Furthermore, the abundant pictures of the bloggers themselves were not counting in the results as they would skew the results, but their importance will be analyzed in the discussion.

5.1. Non Blacks Featured in Blogs

African blogs only featured Black women and men and did not include White celebrities or White non celebrities. However, within the African American blogs, there was a total of 28 pictures of celebrities that were not Black, 14 featuring one particular celebrity, Kim Kardashian. This celebrity was skinny with curves and represented 50% of the

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5.3 cluded 4 comments expressing evident preference for skinny and very skinny body type, while only 1 such comment was found in the African blogs. No comments expressing preference for curves or curvy women were found in the African American or the African blogs.

Hair and Hairstyle

5.3. Hair and Hairstyle

In the African American blogs, there were 55 of the 88 celebrities (63%) who had straight hair, while this percentage increases to 69% when we look at non celebrities. The African American blogs also featured 33 of the 88 celebrities (38%) who had a natural hairstyle while 8 of the 26 non celebrities (31%) had this style. It is therefore not surprising to note that if we confounded the celebrity and non celebrity categories, there were 73 of the total 114 women (64%) who had straight hair and 41 (36%) who had a natural hairstyle. For their part, the African blogs featured 48 of the 64 celebrities (75%) with straight hair and 8 of non celebrities (27%) with straight hairstyle. The remaining 16 celebrities had a natural hairstyle which represents 25% of celebrities. However, African non celebrities wore an unexpected hairstyle that created a third hairstyle category: the head wrap. 11 of the 30 non celebrities (37%) adopted that particular hairstyle. Consequently, in the African blogs, when the celebrity and non celebrity categories were combined, there were 56 women (57%) who had straight hair, 27 (29%) who had a natural hairstyle and 11 (12%) who wore a traditional head wrap. Overall, in the African American blogs, there were also 6 comments expressing a preference for straight hairstyle, while there were 3 such comments in the African blogs previously mentioned. Conversely, in the African American blogs, there were 16 comments expressing a preference for natural hairstyle, while there were only 2 such comments in the African blogs.

blogs, 59 of the 71 celebrities (83%) had light or very light complexion. This percentage decreases substantially when we look at non celebrities: 6 out of the 23 women (26%) had a light or very light skin tone. Accordingly, 29 (33%) of the African American celebrities and 14 (54%) of the African American non celebrities had brown or dark skin. The results are contrastive in the African blogs: 12 of the 71 celebrities (17%) had brown or dark complexion while the percentage sharply climbs to 74% when we look at the representation of non celebrities. Overall, 71 of the 114 women (62%) featured in the Black American blogs had light or very light skin tone and 43 (38%) had brown or dark skin. In the African blogs, 65 of the 94 women (69%) portrayed had light or very light complexion and thus, the remaining 29 (31%) had brown or dark skin tone. In the African American blogs, there were 3 comments reecting a preference for light skin tone over darker skinned tone and no comment reecting the opposite preference. In the African blogs, there was a single comment showing a preference to light complexion and no such comment stating a preference for brown or dark skin tone.

5.5. Facial Features

In the African American blogs, 34 of the 91 celebrities (37%) had European facial features while 2 of the 18 non celebrities (11%) presented the same phenotype. In African blogs, the ndings were similar, although the sample size is much smaller: 4 out of the 10 celebrities (40%) and 1 of the 14 non celebrities (7%) featured in the blogs had facial features resembling the ones of Europeans. African American celebrities and non celebrities that had European and African facial features both were few: only 9 of the 91 American celebrities (10%) and 2 of the 18 non celebrities (11%) present mixed facial features. Comparably, the African blogs had 2 celebrities (20%) and 3 non celebrities (30%) who had mixed facial features. In the African American blogs, there were 48 celebrities (10%) and 2 non celebrities (11%) who had more African facial features. For its part, the African blogs featured 40% of celebrities and 71% of non celebrities with African facial features. Overall, the American blogs featured 36 women with white facial fea-

5.4. Complexion
In the African American blogs, there were 59 of the 88 celebrities (67%) who had a light or very light complexion, while the number of non celebrities with light skin tone was lower: 12 out of the 26 women (46%) had this complexion. In the African

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tures (33%) 11 women with mixed ones (10%) and 62 women with African facial features (57%). Differently, the African blogs featured 5 women with European features (21%), 5 women with mixed features (21%), and 14 women with African features (58%). There were no comments expressing a preference for European, mixed, or African features in either the African American or the African blogs.

6. Discussion
6.1. Body Types
It was found that in both African American and African blogs, being skinny as opposed to being curvy remains a crucial beauty standard that celebrities must meet. In the African American blogs, there were as much as 69% of celebrities who were either skinny or very skinny. For example, one of the most recurrent celebrities featured in the African American blogs was Rihanna, a very skinny woman without the traditional voluptuous curves of Black women. The fact that the majority of Black celebrity women were skinny or very skinny suggests that the Hollywood industry, and elite in general, are still dominated by white beauty standards and that people need to fulll these standards in order to enter this prestigious world. In addition, there were 4 comments, by bloggers and readers, expressing manifest preference for being skinny over being curvy. For example, in one post of Afrobella (2013), the blogger, Patrice, analyzes the album cover of the Jamaican singer Grace Jones. Jones looks exceptionally skinny and athletic on this image, but the blogger thinks that she looks incredibly beautiful. Without shame, Patrice explains that the image had been digitally retouched and provides the before pictures to show the transformation. The before pictures features a Jones notably less skinny and with a dierent body position. The author of the article comments that she admires the picture especially because the photo showed Jones in a posture that emphasized her gracefulness and her sleek skin. However, she does not question the fact that her idol has been made considerably skinnier, implying that this is irrelevant to mention. Another example which subtly pointed out the importance of looking skinny is presented in the

Fashion Bomb Daily (2013). In a post explaining how to wear the color black, two readers comment that they really like the color black, because it made them look slimmer. This preference by African American bloggers for skinny and very skinny body type without curves and the fact that they do not question the status quo regarding the ideal weight, reinforces Brown Whites (2005) and Lewis (2011) argument that Blacks themselves perpetuate the white beauty criteria. It is also in opposition with Klines and Bursteins (2005) idea that blogs could be the voices of ordinary people as opposed to the mainstream industry. Similarly, in the African blogs, skinny and very skinny celebrities represent the majority of pictures with a high percentage of 85. This is easily noticeable in one post of Stellas Addiction (2013), where the blogger presented the African fashion show Sleek and Jumia Fashion Hair. In this fashion show, the hostess and all models were very skinny and did not have curves. The importance of being skinny is also revealed in one bloggers comment and in the readers reactions of a post. In her post, Sayedero, the creator of The Fashion Engineer, mentioned that she has gained a lot of weight and that she now has a fat face. She then received several comments saying that she is beautiful and looks amazing, one comment even saying that she looks pretty, fat face or not. This comment on gaining weight clearly demonstrates that Sayedero has a very skinny beauty ideal, as she still looks skinny after she gained weight. The readers also appear to agree with her body type ideal since they do not question the fact that she thinks she has a big face, even though she still looks fairly skinny. Paradoxically, even though being skinny is presented as the norm within Black celebrities, African American blogs featured diversied body type for Black non celebrities. Only 37% of everyday women were skinny or very skinny, as much as 33% were skinny with curves, and 30% were curvy. In addition, one of the American bloggers was curvy and posted many pictures of herself in her blog. Thus, if these pictures had been included in the results, they would have skewed the results in favour of curvy women, meaning that looking at this blog greatly exposes the reader to images of curvy women. This dierence between Black celebrities and Black non celebrities body

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6.2 type somewhat reinforces Kelch-Olivers (2011) argument saying that Black women reject the thin white beauty ideal, but in regard to these blogs, distinction between famous and non famous people should be made. In this case, while reinforcing the norm for celebrities, the African American bloggers also challenged it by choosing to post pictures of women who do not have the ideal body type. Furthermore, most non Black celebrities featured in the African American blogs had the typical curves of Blacks. As many as 71% of non Black celebrities were skinny with curves, with one celebrity in particular being responsible for about 50% of skinny with curves photos. Nonetheless, it seems that when Black bloggers decided to include non Blacks in their blogs, they try to compensate their whiteness with Black features. However, curvy non Black women were nonexistent, suggesting that there are actually very few curvy non Black celebrities - or that - bloggers did not want to challenge that much white beauty standards by including them. Conversely, within the African blogs, there was only a small percentage of everyday women who were skinny with curves (17%) or curvy (3%). This disagrees with the ndings of Balogun (2012) and indicates that African blogs do indeed follow the white beauty standards.

Hair and Hairstyle

6.2. Hair and Hairstyle

In the United States, blogs had a higher number of pictures featuring women with straight hair than women with natural hair: 55 (63%) celebrities had straight hair in comparison with 32 (38%) who had natural hair. The results for non celebrities are very similar: 69% had straight hair and 31% had a natural hairstyle. In addition, the 28 White celebrities presented also had straight hair. Thus, it is clear that readers overwhelmingly see more picture of women with straight hair than those with curly or nappy hair. These results are particularly surprising concerning the Afrobella blog (2013). Although the blogger declared to have created the blog for the celebration of natural hair, she features numerous women with straight hair. Of course, if we include the photos of the blogger herself (she has natural hair) then these count towards women with natural hair and it means

that readers see natural hair more often on this blog. However, it also means that even though the blogger might prefer natural hair, she still encounters more pictures of women with straight hair. Moreover, the various types of natural hairstyles appear to have distinct value: there are many women with braids and with afros, and 3 women with dreads. In addition, wearing dreads seems to carry a signicance related to exotic looks. For instance, 1 of the 3 pictures featuring women with dreads was of a celebrity wearing tribal clothing while doing a musical performance. Since the artist did not kept the dreads after the show, the dreads seemed to be an accessory linked to the primitive and exotic world she created through her musical performance. These various observations corroborate Robinsons (2011) argument about the hierarchy between hair types. However, the comments of bloggers, and sometimes readers, did not demonstrate overall preference for straight hair. In fact, 16 comments were expressing a preference for natural hairstyle while only 6 expressed a preference for straight hair. Thus, even though there were more women (famous or not) with straight hair, women adopting natural hairstyle received, on average, more positive feedback than women who had straight hair. Furthermore, African American bloggers constantly spent more time describing the hairstyle of celebrity who had a natural hairstyle than celebrity who had straight hair. Bloggers also published several posts on how to take care of ones natural hair. In short, natural hairstyle appeared to be a rare, but well-regarded style. This position relative to hairstyle suggests that the Black is Beautiful movement marked the Black community with pride in wearing their hair naturally. Black bloggers and readers demonstrate their pride of natural hair by encouraging and complimenting women who wear this hairstyle. At the same time, during the Black is Beautiful period, wearing hair naturally was associated with making a political statement. Now that the movement is over, it seems that many Black women nd it dicult to carry this signicance on their shoulder. Some readers comments demonstrate this idea by saying things such as: I have to say that going [for a] natural [hairstyle] is not for everyone (Afrobella, 2013). Thus, Black women appear to be proud of

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6.3 women who maintain their natural hair, but are generally not ready to do it themselves. These ndings go in the same direction as Robinsons (2011) and Brown White (2005) research, which say that wearing natural hair is still associated with making a political statement. However, these two researchers also concluded that women were afraid of retaliation from other Blacks, but this paper suggests that Black women seem to be supportive of other women having natural hair. On the Nigerian blogs, the results were somewhat similar: 48 pictures (75%) featured celebrities had straight hair and 16 (25%) celebrities had natural hair. However, the hairstyle of non celebrities were more diversied: 8 of the 30 non celebrities (27%) had straight hair and 11 (37%) had natural hair. There were also 3 comments expressing a preference for straight hair and 2 expressing a preference for natural hair. The preference for straight hair, however, was admitted with a certain guilt, as this reader well illustrates: I just started taking care of my hair recently before then Id just hide it under weaves. I still hide it tho (hide just sounds sooo wrong..lool) ... (EnytanRunsewe, 2013). Thus, even though this reader, and another one, were ashamed to acknowledge it, they still preferred her extensions over her natural hair. Like in the African American blogs, Nigerian women could feel a certain pride in relation to their natural hair, but the price of it seems to be high and most women prefer to stay safe and have straight hair. This overall suggests that white beauty standards have successfully reach African women. However, the remaining 11 non celebrities (37%) wear an unexpected hairstyle that did not t the two previous hair categories: the gele. The gele is a type of head wrap that African men and women traditionally wear. Not only to look good, historically, the gele communicate personal and cultural knowledge and attitudes about the human experience (Arnoldi & Kreamer, 1995). Today, wearing a gele could mean dierent things in regard to hair standards. Unfortunately, the reasons why African women wear a gele were neither explained by the bloggers nor encountered in the literature. Two interpretations appear to be plausible. First, wearing a head wrap could be seen as a form of resistance to white hair standards, as head wrap is not a common hair accessory in

Complexion

the West and Whites do not have a strong history of wearing head wraps. As a result, the gele would be at the same time a way to demonstrate African pride and also a way to reject white hair standards. This interpretation would be similar to Baloguns (2012) ndings, since she suggests that some African beauty contests challenge white beauty standards and seek to promote traditional African beauty. However, wearing a head wrap could also be seen as a form of negotiation of the white standards: since we cannot see the womans hair, she could be hiding her natural hair. This idea that wearing a traditionalist accessory, a sign of nationalist pride, is done because it ts more the white beauty standards than wearing its hair natural is an interesting proposition that the previous literature did not investigate and which would be worth exploring in future research. Lastly, both African American and African blogs never mention hair relaxer products or wrote articles on how to take care of ones weaves or extensions. This seems surprising since both communities buy large amount of relaxer products every year (Stilson, 2009). This silence on hair straighten suggests a discomfort or a shame regarding this practice.

6.3. Complexion
In the African American blogs, the skin tone of non celebrities was distributed fairly equally: 12 of the 26 non celebrities (46%) had a light skinned tone while 14 (54%) had a more brown or dark skin tone. However, there were more celebrities (67%) with a light complexion in comparison with celebrities with brown or dark complexion (33%). Furthermore, there were 5 comments expressing a preference for a light complexion over a brown or dark one. For instance, in The Fashion Bomb Daily (2013), two readers explained that they start to use makeup only around their mid twenties, because putting makeup was more dicult for Black women with dark complexion. The readers also said that they wish they had a lighter skin to avoid this problem. In short, a light skin tone was perceived as an advantage over having a dark complexion. Nonetheless, the most striking observation was probably that African American bloggers did not question or talk about the use of whitening products even when it would have

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6.4 been very pertinent to do so. For instance, in one of Afrobellas post (2013), Patrice describes the accessibility of makeup for Black women throughout the dierent decades. In this article, there are many old advertisements of skin bleaching products displayed, but the author barely mentions this practice, much less condemning it. Like straightening their hair, making their skin look lighter appears to be a hidden practice that Blacks do not talk about, even though, as previously said, it is widely spread (Glenn, 2009). The preference for lighter skin conrms the earlier ndings of Pierre (2008) and Duke & Berry (2012) and suggesting that white skin standards do indeed aect African American women. However, unlike Pierres (2008) and Duke & Berrys (2012) ndings, it appears that light complexion preference is not an openly discussed subject. In the Nigerian blogs, the percentage of light skinned celebrities was even higher with 83% of light skin celebrities and only 27% of brown or dark skin celebrities. This trend suggests that the Nollywood and fashion industry where the celebrities come from are inuenced by white beauty standards. It also implies that, unlike Balogun (2012) suggested, darker complexion of fashion models or other type of famous people was not perceived as an exotic commodity, but simply has a less valuable skin tone. Dierently from the celebrities, only 26% of non celebrities had a light skinned tone, whereas 74% had a dark or brown complexion. While African bloggers did not present more light skin tone non celebrities than brown or dark skin tone non celebrities, one comment in the Beauty in Lagos blog implied an overall preference for light skin tone. In her post, the blogger does a review of a particular brand of sunscreen. This post seemed irrelevant until the blogger explained what are the myths regarding sunscreen that would prevent people from using it. One of the listed myth is that sunscreen makes you dark or darker (BeautyinLagos, 2013), implying that having a dark complexion is negative. In addition, there were no article about skin bleaching or skin whitening products, even though, as already mentioned, African countries are important consumers of skin bleaching products (Pierre, 2008). Like in the African American blogs, avoiding to talk about this subject makes a blogger complicit of the pref-

Facial Features

erence for white skin. Thus, even though there was not an open discussion about the fact that lighter skin was ideal, as Fokuo (2009) suggested, the preference for lighter complexion still remain.

6.4. Facial Features

In contrast to the other subsections, the facial features of Black women featured in blogs did not appear to correspond predominantly to white beauty criteria. In the African American blogs, 37% of celebrities had European facial features. Although this percentage is not insignicant, it is relatively low in comparison with the other beauty characteristics (body type, hair, or complexion) which, for celebrities, had white features between 63% to 69% of the time. Because of this relatively low percentage for white facial features, one might expect that women with mixed facial features would be numerous, but this was not the case: only 10% of celebrities had both European and African features, while 53% of celebrities had African facial features. On the same line, as many as 78% of African American non celebrities had African facial features. There was also not a single comment implying a preference for white facial features, although there were also no comments expressing a preference for mixed or African features. Thus, unlike what Patrice Sims (2012) would predict, this paper does not suggest a preference for mixed facial features over African ones. In regards to celebrities, it can be hypothesized that Black women are allowed to have Black facial features, since they fulll the other white beauty criteria. For non celebrities, it was already noted that American bloggers sometimes challenge the white beauty standards by including pictures of Black women who had curvy body type. It appears that there are also more lenient toward non celebrities in regards to facial features. The numbers are a little bit dierent in the African blogs where African celebrities were slightly more likely than African American celebrities to have European or mixed facial features: about 40% of celebrities had white facial features, 20% had mixed features and the remaining 40% had African facial features. The numbers are different when we look at African non celebrities. Only 7% of non celebrities had European facial

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features and 71% had African features. This difference conrms that having white or mixed facial features is important in Nigeria to get into the celebrities and modeling world, but that most of the population do not have these facial traits. It must also be recognized that in both the United States and Nigeria, facial features are something that women can only alter at the expensive and dangerous price of surgery. Thus, most Black women might accept (or tolerate) their African facial features and try to compensate this Africaness through other beauty facets, such as body type of hairstyle, which are more easily transformed.

7. Limitations

There are a number of limitations to this research. First of all, this study only examined three African American and three African beauty blogs, which is a fairly small number in comparison to the size of the blogosphere. In addition, only between eight and ten posts were examined within each of the blogs, which means that the generalizations could be drastically altered if at a higher number had been examined. There was also more information on body type and hairstyle than complexion and References facial features. Future research could focus on each theme separately to ensure more detail and a more [1] Afrobella. (2013). Afrobella: All Shades of Beautiful. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from complete analysis. As previously mentioned, the http://www.afrobella.com/ size of the African American and African blogs vary substantially. The fact that the Nigerian [2] Alexa Internet Inc. (2013). Discover Success. blogs were more personal and open to a smaller Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www. audience might also aect the results. alexa.com/

African American bloggers expressed a preference for body type and complexion that were in accordance with white beauty standards. However, in contradiction with the white beauty standards, the Black American blogs also vividly support women who wear natural hair. For their parts, African blogs expressed a preference for light skin tone, even when it featured many dark non celebrity women. Thus as a whole, it seems that both Black Americans and Africans bloggers are still favouring white beauty standards, even though they give certain room to other types of beauty. For this reason, this paper disagrees with Klines and Bursteins (2005) research that suggests that blogs are more likely to have a true voice than mainstream media. Despite their dierent racial context, Black American and African women appear to face (and follow) the same white beauty ideal. Future research could look at whether Black men (African American or African) and women of other racial groups deal with white beauty standards. Future research could also analyze ourishing media tools such as Facebook pages or twitter accounts of celebrities to understand how they perpetuate white beauty standards.

8. Conclusion

Overall, in regard to the celebrities, this research conrms Brown Whites (2005) and Lewis (2011) [4] Arnoldi, M. J. & Kreamer, C. M. (1995). Crowning Achievements: African Arts of research, since body type, hairstyle, and complexDressing the Head. African Arts, 28(1), 22ion portrayed in the African American and African 98. blogs follow the white beauty standards. However, the results of non celebrities do not follow a clear [5] Balogun, O. M. (2012). Cultural and Cospattern: African American non celebrities follow mopolitan: Idealized Femininity and Embodwhite beauty standards in term of hairstyle, but ied Nationalism in Nigerian Beauty Pageants. not in term of body type and facial features, while Gender & Society, 26(3), 357-381. African non celebrities meet the standards in regards to body type, but not in terms of hairstyle, [6] BeautyinLagos. (2013). Beauty in Lagos: A complexion and facial features. Nonetheless, the Ladys Guide to All Things Girly in the City

[3] Alexa Internet Inc. (2013). Discover Success. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www. alexa.com/help/traffic-learn-more

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References of Lagos. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from [18] Glamazons Blog. (2013). Glamazons: Life, http://www.beautyinlagos.com/ Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fabulous. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http:// [7] Black Enterprise. (2013). Black Blogglamazonsblog.com/ ger Month. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www.blackenterprise.com/ [19] Glenn, E. N. (2009). Consuming Lightness: blackbloggermonth/ Segmented Markets and Global Capital in the Skin- Whitening Trade. In E. N. Glenn (Ed.), [8] Brown White, S. (2005). Releasing the PurShades of Dierence: Why Skin Color Matters. suit of Bouncin and Behavin Hair: Natural California: Stanford University Press. Hair as an Afrocentric Feminist Aesthetic for Beauty. International Journal of Media & Cul- [20] Google, Inc. (2013). Google Display Nettural Politics, 1(3), 295-308. work Ad Planner. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, [9] Compete, Inc. (2013). Optimize your Digital Marketing. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www.compete.com/us/ from https://www.google.com/adplanner/ #siteSearch

[21] Hecquet, V. (2006). Ces Noirs qui se blanchissent la peau. Cahiers dtudes Africaines, [10] Craig, M. L. (2009). The Color of an Ideal 46(183), 124. Negro Beauty Queen: Miss Bronze 1961-1968. In E. N. Glenn (Ed.), Shades of Dierence: Why Skin Color Matters. California: Stanford [22] Hookway, N. (2008). Entering the Blogosphere: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in University Press. Social Research. Qualitative Research Qualitative Research, 8(1), 91-113. [11] Deseilligny, O. (2010). Le blog intime au croisement des genres de lcriture de soi. In C. Couleau-Maixent & P. Hellgouarch (Eds.), [23] Hunter, M. L. (1998). Colorstruck: Skin Color Stratication in the Lives of African AmeriLes blogs: critures dun nouveau genre? Paris: can Women. Sociological Inquiry Sociological LHarmattan. Inquiry, 68(4), 517-535. [12] De Souza, M. M. (2008). The Concept of Skin Bleaching in Africa and its Devastating Health [24] Keith. (2009). A Colorstruck World: The Effect of Skin Tone and Womens Self-Esteem Implications. Clinics in Dermatology, 26(1), and Level of Achievement. In E. N. Glenn 27-29. (Ed.), Shades of Dierence: Why Skin Color [13] Duke, B. & Berry, D. C. (Writers). (2012). Matters. Stanford, California: Stanford UniDark Girls. versity Press. [14] Essence Communication Inc. (2013). Essence. [25] Kelch-Oliver, K., & Ancis, J. R. (2011). Black Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www. Womens Body Image: An Analysis of Cultureessence.com/ Specic Inuences. Women & Therapy, 34(4), 345-358. [15] Enytan-Runsewe, Sayedero. (2013). The Fashion Engineer. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from [26] Kline, D., & Burstein, D. (2005). Blog! How http://thefashionengineer.com/ the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture. New York: CDS [16] Fashion Bomb Blog. (2013). Fashion Bomb Books. Daily. Retrieved from April 2nd, 2013, from http://fashionbombdaily.com/ [27] Lewis, K. M., Robkin, N., Gaska, K., & Njoki, [17] Fokuo, J. K. (2009). The Lighter Side of MarL. C. (2011). Investigating Motivations for riage: Skin Bleaching in Post-Colonial Ghana. Womens Skin Bleaching in Tanzania. PsycholAfrican & Asian Studies, 8(1/2), 125-146. ogy of Women Quarterly, 35(1), 29-37.

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References [28] Lin, A. C. & Harris, D. R. (2008). The Colors [39] Rocamora, A. (2011). Blogs personnels de of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities mode: identit, ralit et sociabilit dans la culPersist. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. ture des apparences. Sociologie et socits, 43(1), 19-44. [29] Makkar, J. K., & Strube, M. J. (1995). Black Womens Self-Perceptions of Attractiveness [40] Rocamora, A. & Bartlett, D. (2009). Blogs de mode: Les nouveaux espaces du discours Following Exposure to White Versus Black de mode. Socits, 2(104), 105-114. Beauty Standards: The Moderating Role of Racial Identity and Self-Esteem. Journal of [41] Sengupta, R. (2006). Reading RepresentaApplied Social Pyschology, 25(17), 1547-1566. tions of Black, East Asian, and White Women in Magazines for Adolescent Girls. Sex Roles [30] Lynch, M. (2011). Blogging for Beauty? 55(11), 799-808. A Critical Analysis of Operation Beautiful. Womens Studies International Forum, 34(6), [42] Siles, I. (2012). The Rise of Blogging: Artic582-592. ulation as a Dynamic of Technological Stabilization. New Media & Society, 14(5), 781-797. [31] Martin, J. G. (1964). Racial Ethnocentrism and Judgment of Beauty. Journal of Social [43] Solly, S., Moojen, G., & Lindfors, B. (1985). Courting the Hottentot Venus. Africa: RivPsychology, 63(1), 59-63. ista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dellIstituto italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, [32] Patton, T. O. (2006). Hey Girl, Am I More 40(1), 133-148. Than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, [44] Stella. (2013). Stellas Addiction. Reand Hair. NWSA Journal, 18(2), 24-51. trieved April 2nd, 2013, from http://www. stellasaddiction.com/ [33] Patrice Sims, J. (2012). Beautiful Stereotypes: The Relationship Between Physical Attrac- [45] Stilson, J. (Writer). (2009). Good Hair. In tiveness and Mixed Race Identity. Identities: Chris Rock Production & HBO Films (ProGlobal Studies in Culture and Power, 19(1), ducer). 61-80. [46] Telles, E. (2009). The Social Consequences [34] Pedersen, S. (2010). Why Blog?: Motivations of Skin Color in Brazil. In E. N. Glenn (Ed.), for Blogging. Oxford: Chandos Publishing. Shades of Dierence: Why Skin Color Matters. California: Stanford University Press. [35] Pierre, J. (2008). I Like Your Colour! Skin Bleaching and Geographies of Race in Urban [47] The World Bank Group. (2013). Internet Users (per 100 people). Retrieved April 2nd, Ghana. Feminist Review, 90(1), 9-29. 2013, from http://data.worldbank.org/ indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2?cid=GPD_44 [36] Quantcast Corporation. (2013). Quantcast. Retrieved April 2nd, 2013, from https://www. [48] Thompson, C. (2009). Black Women, Beauty, quantcast.com/ and Hair as a Matter of Being. Womens Studies, 38(1), 831-856. [37] Ribane, N. (2011). African Standards of Beauty. In L. Willis (Ed.), The Culture of [49] Tremayne, M. (2007). Blogging, Citizenship, Beauty. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. and the Future of Media. New York: Routledge. [38] Robinson, C. L. (2011). Hair as Race: Why Good Hair May be Bad for Black Females. [50] Wallis, M., & Fleras, A. (2009). The Politics Howard Journal of Communications, 22(4), of Race in Canada. Oxford: Oxford University 358-376. Press.

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A. Blog Selection
A.1. Research for American blogs
Table 1 shows the data gathered for American blogs. *Data found on February 4, 2013 and is subject to change. A dash (-) signies that the information could not be found on the search engine

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Website

Alexa (Rank in the US) 12 027 Region: 200K 15 280 per day

Adplanner

http://www. fashionbombdaily.com

Compete Unique visitor (per month) 108 943

Quantcast

Recommended by...

http://www.afrobella. com

67,838 Region: (64% visi- 50K tors from 1-10K the US)

20k 12 861 US Rank: 115 449

http://glamazonsblog. com

128,707

24K

7 501

# of people visiting 6,852 >1000% 1 039.61 325 502 US rank -

Facebook Problems? page? If yes, the number of likes -Ebony Maga- Yes None zine 47 152 likes -The Curvy Fashionista -The Root -The Curvy Yes None 21 235 likes Fashionista -Essence -The Root -The Lipstick Alley -The Curvy Yes None Fashionista 6 140 likes -The Root -Vibe Vixen -The Curvy Yes Not enough 8 026 likes Fashionista on beauty A.1

2 667

6 440 US Rank: 203 068 1 056

557 78 rank in us: fewer than 2000 -The Curvy Fashionista -The Curvy Fashionista -

Yes 1 035 likes Yes 6 411 likes

No section on fashion Doesnt t the criteria

1 251 -

http://www. 102,806 thefashionablehousewife. com http://shakeyourbeauty. 230,674 com http://www. 198,371 scandalousbeautyonline. com http:// 807,406 thatblackgirlsite.com http://www. 674,078 brownbombshellbeauty. com -

-The Curvy Fashionista -The Curvy Fashionista

Yes 350 likes No

None, smaller Not a blog

Research for American blogs

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Table 1: Data gathered for American blogs

A.2

Research for African blogs

A.2. Research for African blogs

Table 2 shows the data gathered for African blogs. Quantast was not used for African blogs since this search engine primarily looks at American websites. *Data found on February 4, 2013 and is subject to change. A dash (-) signies that the information could not be found on the search engine

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Website

Alexa (rank in Nigeria)

Adplanner

http://www. beautyinlagos.com

Compete (per month, visitor counted once) Yes 115 likes -Nigerian Blog Award website (won a title) None

Facebook page? Recommended If yes, the num- by... ber of likes

Problems?

Stellas Addiction

http:// thefashionengineer.com Global: 7 699,871 377 (87% from N) 35 466 1- 10K per day Yes 314 likes Yes 325 likes

8 823 (77% visitor from Nigeria) 4 897 (74% from Nigeria) 7,572 195 Yes 700 likes Yes 500 likes -

None

None

http://www.pwettybambi. com

http://naijapose.com

-Nigerian Blog Award website (won a title) -Nominated by the Nigerian Award website -Nominated by the Nigerian Award website -

Mainly about make-up More like an online magazine -Naija Pose -Nigerian Blog Award website.

http://www.360nobs.com

A.2

http://sarahofili. wordpress.com

104 (#70 10K - 100K in Lagos) 6,475,517 (worldwide)

Yes 27 614 Yes 1 051 followers

Online magazine Stop airing at the beginning of 2012, therefore web trafc have more chances to be inaccurate
Table 2: Data gathered for African blogs

Research for African blogs

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B. Quantitative Results
-Note that the pictures of the bloggers themselves were not count. -Note that the numbers are not the same across the tables since often it was sometimes impossible to see the body type (close-up pictures) or the facial features (a picture from far).

B.1. Body types of non Black featured in blogs

Body type Non Black women Skinny/very skinny Skinny with curves Particular celebrity (skinny with curves) Curvy Total # of celebrities African American blogs 8 - 29% 6 - 21% 14 - 50% 0 - 0% 28 African blogs 0 0

0 0

B.2. Body type of Black featured in blogs

Type of people Skinny/ very skinny Celebrities/models Non celebrities Total # of skinny/very skinny Celebrities/models Non celebrities Total # of skinny with curves Celebrities/models Non celebrities Total # of curvy Total # of celebrities Total # of non celebrities Total # of women Preference for skinny Preference for skinny with curves Preference for curvy African American blogs 33 - 69% 10 - 37% 43 - 57% 9 - 18% 9 - 33% 18 - 24% 6 - 13% 8 - 30% 14 - 19% 48 27 75 4 0 0 African blogs 35 - 85% 23 - 79% 58 - 84% 5 - 12% 5 - 17% 10 - 14% 1 - 2% 1 - 3% 2 - 3% 41 29 70 1 0 0

Skinny with curves

Curvy

Comments

B.3. Hair
*Straight hair is dened as hair that looks straight because of relaxer products or because it is a weaves or extensions. Straight hair with curls done with a iron are also included since Black women cannot naturally have this hair type.

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B.4 Type of people Straight hair* Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total # of natural hair Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total # of traditional hairstyle Total # of celebrities Total # of non celebrities Total # of women Preference for straight hair Preference for natural hair African American blogs 55 - 63% 18 - 69% 73 - 64% 33 - 38% 8 - 31% 41 - 36% 0 0 0 88 26 114 6 16 African blogs 48 - 75% 8 - 27% 56 - 57% 16 - 25% 11 - 37% 27 - 29% 0 11 - 37% 11 - 12% 64 30 94 3 2

Complexion

Natural hair

Traditional hairstyle (gele )

Comments

B.4. Complexion
Type of people Light Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total of light Celebrities/models Non celebrities Total of brown/dark Total number of celebrities Total number of non celebrities Total number of women Preference for light skin Preference for Brown/dark skin African-American blogs 59 - 67% 12 - 46% 71 - 62% 29 - 33% 14 - 54% 43 - 38% 88 26 114 3 0 African blogs 59 - 83% 6 - 26% 65 - 69% 12 - 17% 17 - 74% 29 - 31% 71 23 94 1 0

Brown/dark

Comments

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B.5

Facial Features

B.5. Facial Features

Type of people European features Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total of European features Celebrities/models African-American blogs 34 - 37% 2 - 11% 36 - 33% 9 - 10% African blogs 4 - 40% 1 - 7% 5 - 21% 2 - 20%

Mixed (African/European) features

African features

Comments

Non-celebrities Total # of mixed features Celebrities/models Non-celebrities Total of African features Total # of celebrities Total # of non celebrities Total # of women Preference for European features Preference for African features Preference for mixed features

2 - 20% 11 - 10% 48 - 53% 14 - 78% 62 - 57% 91 18 109 0

3 - 30% 5 - 21% 4 - 40% 10 - 71% 14 - 58% 10 14 24

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