Social history of black beauty

By drawing parallels between Brazil and the United States, História social da beleza negra (The Social History of Black Beauty) links racism and the beauty industry, highlighting the social roots of this subtle concept of black female subjectivity and what is considered beautiful.

In this book, historian and Black feminist theorist Giovana Xavier explores the emergence of a cosmetics industry targeting Black women in the United States at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century, a period of aggressive normalization of whiteness as a universal standard of beauty, the popularization of eugenics, and the dissemination of values associated with the idea of white supremacy.

It was an infamous era, marked by Jim Crow racial segregation, the usurpation of Black voting rights, and lynchings. In this context, products for skin lightening, hair straightening, and "better complexion" or "improved appearance" proliferated.

However, she cautions against simplistic approaches, warning against the temptation to reduce care policies to the desire to whiten. It's difficult to judge harshly in retrospect people who lived in dangerous situations, who sought respectability amid hostility and violence. Furthermore, images and narratives appear riddled with ambiguities and uncertain meanings. Even within the quest for respect through skin lightening, pride in being oneself sometimes emerged.

The story continues to unfold, whitening skin becomes a threat to health, and it's argued that character is more important than skin color. The Black beauty industry thrives, catering to dreams and expectations of all kinds, becoming a means of flaunting the beauty of the Black body and the infinite aesthetic possibilities of gorgeous hair.

With extreme sensitivity and intelligence, in the company of "wonder women of the race" such as Anne Turnbo Malone, Madame CJ Walker and Anitta Patti Brown, Giovana presents an image of the creation of what is beautiful in all its contradictions, its strength, its desire, its racism and its resistance.

The Social History of Black Beauty features introductory texts by historian Sidney Chalhoub (Harcard/Unicamp) and Luiza Brasil, a journalist and researcher who founded the Mequetrefismos platform. It is richly illustrated with rare images that reconstruct the social history of Black beauty.

"By analyzing the texts and images of countless advertisements, Giovana perceives the connection between the desire to perfect black skin, lightening it and ridding it of supposed imperfections, and the hope of progress or social mobility." - Sidney Chalhoub, professor at Unicamp and in the History Department at Harvard University.