Standing in front of a 43 by 13-inch full-body mirror, Latinas often struggle with questions of self-doubt. “Am I curvy enough?” “Is my skin light enough?” “Do my wide hips make it impossible for me to look thin?”
A Latina woman’s most classic beauty standard is for her features to blend with those from Europe and Latin America. Her skin colour should be light with a noticeable tan; she should have large eyes that easily pop, plump lips, and an hourglass body shape.
But what we mujeres need to realize is that we don’t need to have curves like Sofia Vergara, creamy caramel skin like Thalia Sodi, or know how to dance up a storm like Shakira to be beautiful.
In 1959, Ruth Handler stunned the world with the “doll who could do it all”, Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Nicknamed Barbie, she was a peach-skinned playing doll with a clenched waist, long thin legs, and a small face with large blue eyes.
From 1968 onwards, however, more dolls came to be marketed as “friends” of Barbie. Those dolls happened to be from all around the world, which included women of African American, Latin American, and Asian descent. While this was an empowering act at the time, it also had a significant effect on international beauty standards.
These dolls did not reflect the various and beautiful body types of the cultures they represented, and Barbie remained in the spotlight as the focal point of the franchise. Rather than thinking they could achieve whatever they set their mind to like the “white” Barbie could, young women of colour had to settle for being her “friend”.
Finally, in 1980, Mattel released its first Latina doll going by the name of Barbie. Like the original Barbie, the Latina version could accomplish anything she focused on. After 21 years, Latinas could finally have the pleasure of being encouraged and knowing that it was beautiful to look like them.
Alicia Machado, a Venezuelan model and entertainer, earned the title of Miss Venezuela in 1995, and Miss Universe in 1996.
Three decades later, she became a political topic between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. After the presidential debate on September 26th, 2016, Clinton accused Trump of making an unacceptable statement about the former Miss Universe’s weight. “He called this woman Miss Piggy. Then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina.”
Initially, Trump denied the accusation, but the next morning, on Fox News, he made a fresh series of hurtful comments on Machado’s weight. “I know that person. That person was a Miss Universe person,” Trump told the morning show.
“And she was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst. She was impossible. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that, her attitude.”
Machado fell into a harsh state after that. Sharing her thoughts on the issue at hand, she told the campaign that the experience led to long-term eating disorders. “I wouldn’t eat, and I would still see myself as fat, because a powerful man had said so.”
Somewhere in between, Machado’s body was no longer perceived as voluptuous, but instead, heavy. A man who would soon become president of the United States influenced many people and beauty standards worldwide.
And yet, everybody is beautiful—no matter how curvy, thin, or different it is. What Donald Trump said that day affected Latinas of all different body types on multiple different levels.
Such behaviour and beauty standards not only shed negative energy upon Latin American women worldwide but also shape women’s mindsets in a way that does more harm than good, enforcing often unrealistic European ideals and telling Latinas that their natural body types and features aren’t beautiful.
It’s about time that we as a population learn that we don’t need to meet conventional beauty standards to be as such: beautiful.
Every human is perfectly imperfect—despite what magazines, the public, or social media may tell you.