Despite the efforts of modern society to encourage women to self-determine and define their own beauty, what is beautiful always seems to be decided by society as whole and most women therefore end up ascribing to the "agreed upon" ideals of beauty..
Black women, who have to rely on this society's consensus of beauty..as contrived by the media, are portrayed here as "most beautiful" when they look like Lupita(who looks like a black woman) and "most influential" when they look like Beyonce(who looks like a white woman). So what is the message here that is implicitly sold to black women then?
Now I know some might wonder why I am discussing this in a Somali forum, and some might even argue that the Somali social paradigm for beauty is self-contained, with its own identity..within the scope of the western societies we live in. But if you look back at the Somali standard of beauty through somali gabey, songs and literature, where a beautiful young girl is described as full in weight, xaad(hairy arms/legs) and cabaadhya(lines on the neck), this ideal woman, in many respect, is a far cry from the present day somali girl's views on beauty. So what is our somali beauty standard in the diaspora?
I must be the BEST looking woman around by Somali standards then, ticked all the boxes 
