Is there a Shortage of Black Female Role Models?

By: Otissia McKinnon

Growing up as little girls, we all had role models. You know, women we looked up to, women who we considered our superhero’s, women who for whatever reason we adored and dreamed that one day we could be great like them. For some little girls it was Vanessa Williams after she became the first black woman to win Miss America. For other girls it was Mae Carol Jemison, the first black woman in space.

Most recently, little black girls look up Michelle Obama, the first black woman to be first lady of the free world. Other girls have simpler hero’s like their mother’s who they see can make a miracle out of nothing, or their grandmother who raised them from birth or that one special big cousin who took them under their wing and made sure they knew right from wrong and turned out be the beautiful women they are today.

Whoever your role model was you picked her for a reason. There was something unique about her. She stood out amongst all the other women in your life because she accomplished something you considered to be amazing. She gave you a new hope to be better than what you had already planned in your head. She had a positive impact in your life and probably changed you for the better.

As you grew up you made your own important choices about your life but they were based on how you imagined yourself being in the future, how you imagined becoming that role model you once admired so badly. Little girls turned into teenage girls with thoughts and opinions and raging hormones. Those teenage girls have transformed into young women who are now successful black women accomplishing their dreams. Nurses, teachers, lawyers, congresswomen, ceo’s, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, the list could go on for miles.

The point is we as a generation turned out amazing right? Our morals, self-esteem, values, what we will and will not accept from anyone and how we define success is a tribute to the examples set before us. Now fast forward 15 years from now, will your daughter be able to have the same experience you had? Will your daughter be able to say she had a role model that made her want to value her body? Will she be able to say, she learned that the importance of an education, was vital to her success as a woman, especially a black woman? Who will be your daughters’ Michelle Obama when she looks towards black excellence?

In today society role models are called; “Bad bitches” ,“Instagram Models”, “Athlete Wives”, or maybe even “Side Chick of…..” ,not congresswoman or Supreme Court judge. Little black girls are not aspiring to be our future leaders or help change a generation, they’re contemplating at what age to get butt implants and face lifts.

Kim Kardashians and Black Chynas have become the face of role models for our daughters. Women can now make an entire based career on their looks. How big their butt is, how well their hair is styled, how many likes can a half naked picture on social media collect, because the number of like are now equal to your worth.

Sexual conquests are now popular also. Who you sleep with and his status and wealthy are now what defines us a women. Can you sleep with a pro basketball player and if you do by chance get pregnant with his child you have hit the jack pot! What man have you chorused into paying all of your bills so you don’t have to work? If you have to sleep with him to get them paid, well hey its part of the lifestyle, the job right?

Our daughters are living in a time in history where we as black women have never been so underappreciated and demeaned that it’s sicking. Black women are viewed as objects, and are represented as brainless bodies. We as the generation have to show little black girls that there is so much more out there to look up too.

Women are now starting to take a stand against what we are being represented as and refining black beauty as a culture. Recently, black women have taken to social media to speak out against how poorly we are being viewed and stood up for. The #melanin campaign has become one of the fastest growing black women empowerment movements, highlighting that no matter what shade of black you are your skin does not define your beauty, you define your beauty and how to choose to represent your beauty is up to you.

Beauty is not perfect and never will be. My Black Matters, My Black Is Beautiful, and I Am a Black Girl are just a few of the campaigns that highlight the importance of education, social and economic equality and how positive body and mental health are vital to our community.

With initiatives like these, we are starting to get more and more positive role models for our little girls to grow up with. There are women who are actively fighting for our little girls to become the best they can possibly be. Women who are tired of the stereotypes portrayed of black women. The only thing is they can’t do it alone. It’s up us a community to empower our future black girls and let them know they are so much more.

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