Danysha Reyes
Professor Kappes
ENG 302
03-05-18
The Beauty Standard: Whitewashing the Black Aesthetic
In Aphra Behn’s 17th century novel, Oroonoko, Behn emphasizes European beauty standards in the male protagonist Oroonoko’s characteristics. Another object that also ignores the black aesthetic is “Bound Man” from the New York Public Library’s Digital Collection on Slavery, a wooden sculpture of a man with accentuated and exaggerated African features. Both novella and object depict the theme of discrediting, re-imagining, and rewriting the black experience. The theme incorporated into the text and highlighted across the sculpture blend seamlessly; the promotion of assimilation and whitewashing has been rampant for centuries.
The sculpture “Bound Man” is carved from wood and depicts a black man bound to a wall. He is naked in an upright position, back arched, knees bent, and tied by a rope at his ankles, wrist, and neck. His limbs are scrawny and his stomach is bloated. This statue perpetuates negative stereotypes of blacks as his facial features are exaggerated and unflattering. His nose is carved broad and flat; his lips are carved wide and plump. The artist intentionally made the sculpture unattractive to exhibit some of the physiological and mental effects of slavery due to physical and psychological confinement. This carving is made to depict Africans during slavery and to declare black is far from beautiful.
Similarly, Behn condescendingly discredits the beauty of black people in her novel Oroonoko. Initially, it appears as though Behn praises blacks due to her infatuation with Oroonoko. She describes:
His Face was not of that brown rusty Black which most of that Nation are, but of perfect Ebony, or polished Jett… His Nose was rising and Roman , instead of African and flat. His Mouth was the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turn’d Lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes… there could be nothing in Nature more beautiful, agreeable and handsome. (13)
According to the narrative, Oroonoko is undoubtedly aesthetically appealing. However, this can only be attributed to the European features he possesses. This is stressed furthermore through the character development of Oroonoko’s love interest, Imoinda. Behn describes her as, “… Female to the noble Male; the beautiful Black Venus, to our young Mars; as charming in her Person as he, and of delicate Vertues” (14). By accrediting Oroonoko and Imoinda for their beauty when it is evident that the color of their skin is the only black attribute they possess, Behn tells her audience that black people can be beautiful if they obtain European physical characteristics. Therefore, we are left to assume that the white aesthetic is the only beautiful one. Oroonoko and Imoinda are whitewashed to convey this political objective.
In the end, Oroonoko is beat to a plup by his oppressors. His beauty is stolen; his body dismembered. At this moment in the novella, Behn does not fail to remind her audience that Oroonoko is black. She states, “He came up to Parham, and forcibly took Caesar, and had him carried to the same Post where he was Whip’d; and causing him to be ty’d to it, and a great Fire made before him, he told him, he shou’d Dye like a Dog, as he was” (64). Despite his aesthetic Oroonoko is no different than “Bound Man”. Oroonoko’s life is easier than the average slave’s. Behn states, “[Oroonoko] suffered only the Name of a Slave and nothing of the Toil and Labor of one” (42). Racism is embedded in more than physical characteristics. Due to the color of his skin, Oroonoko, faces the same fate as every slave of that time if not worse. Yet, the author whitewashes him to make him more attractive to a white audience. As a result, the white standard for beauty is perpetuated.
White washing and the promotion of assimilation was prominent in the 17th century and still affects society today. The effects of Eurocentric beauty standards are devastating. Black women in particular suffer tremendously. According to Susan L. Bryant in her article, “The Beauty Ideal: The Effects of European Standards of Beauty on Black Women” for a Columbia Social Work Review, “A review of the research indicates that European standards of beauty can have damaging effects on the life trajectories of black women, especially those with dark skin, primarily in the form of internalized self hatred” (80). These effects have real world consequences. Bryant states, “Black women who do not meet the established standards of European beauty are more likely to be unemployed than those who have more of the preferred European physical characteristics” (84). Oroonoko and “Bound Man” as well as many other artifacts contribute to modern day racism. White washing black characters in literature brainwashes. As white supremacy evolves, internalized self hatred amongst black people develops. To deem African traits as undesirable as seen in “Bound Man” is to hinder African descendants from success.
Aphra Behn’s novel Oroonoko and “Bound Man” from the New York Public Library’s Digital Collection on Slavery are a clear example of the relation between objects and text that concertedly transmit a political aim. “Bound Man” connotes black people with ugliness; Oroonoko insinuates that only white is beautiful. As a result of white washing, assimilation and negative connotations of blacks seen throughout the 1700s, people are suffering centuries later.
Works Cited
• Behn, Aphra, Catherine Gallagher, and Simon Stern. Oroonoko. , 2000. Print.
• Bryant, Susan L. “The Beauty Ideal: The Effects of European Standards of Beauty on Black Women ” Columbia Social Work Review, vol. 4, 2013, 80-84.
Bound Man:
