White women behaving like white women. Lets take a “View

[Cheeraz]

After watching the clips from the view, Barbara Walters behavior comes as no surprise.

Barbara and her older female co-hostess were brought up in a time where they were told, by this society, that they had to be Barbie dolls. Thus, creating a self-hating body image complex that has made its way into the minds of young and old women alike, regardless of ethnicity today. Her and her co-hostesses behaviors are perfect examples of racial and ethnic degrading. They are displaying their right to belittle other women for not choosing to subscribe to their mental conditioning on beauty and body image. Thinking, how dare their (in regards to this postBlack women) self-esteem be so high! So what do they do with this thought in mind? They attack. Barbara and her crews behavior are most dangerous because of the viewing audience they have. Media is powerful and those women are full aware of that power. Their actions are sending the message that, when women of color come to their show, coincidentally, Black women that they are objects to poked, probed and inspected. Subjected to treatment reminiscent of auction block examinations and once again, without question, expected to not object to such behavior or suffer more ridicule from the perpetrators. Yet in the case of the, View, being a nationally broadcast show, possible, ridicule from society at large. So the victim is victimized repeatedly and with nowhere to turn, in the case of being on the View. It is truly a scapegoat reply, to even allude to wanting to see if someones hair was real or being amazed at how our (Black women) hair gets that way. Their actions were and are forms of physical sarcasm on top of culturally insensitive.

White women on a large scale will not be able to relate to the type of degrading that Black women receive on a daily bases, even more so nowadays, because their beauty and body image, enhanced or not, is the standard in this society. Every culture has their standards on what is beautiful. Yet, we live in a society, where White women, being the favored beauty and body image standard attempt to exercise their power. Which comes out, in the case of the View as public ridicule and disrespectful behavior. In conclusion, Barbara Walters behavior is not an Oh my God moment for me. Yet, an open view (pun intended) of a White womans attempt to chip away at an ethnic womans self-esteem. Sadly, in the case of Black women and other ethic women, the chipping away has and is taking its toll on the once strong love we had for our own unique beauty and body image. This is a result of our societies media structure, our men and women within our own ethnicities pushing us further into an area of homogenized beauty and body image standard, that attacks us, as ethnic women.

Trust, this situation is bigger than the issue regarding Monique. This is about behaviors that are taken too far than excused because the person "deserved" it or they set themselves up.

"We're treating a lot more black, Hispanic and Asian women with eating disorders," says psychologist Ann Kearney-Cooke, director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute and author of Change Your Mind, Change Your Body. In her nearly 25 years of experience, minority patients were a rarity until about a decade ago. "They're buying into values of the upwardly mobile, and that means an ultra-thin ideal."

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY