The Bluest Eye 2- Stereotypes

On Tuesday, my and every other discussion of Toni Morrison’s, The Bluest Eye, focused in some way on racism toward blacks and body image problems toward females. In my mind, at least while I wrote my DB, I separated the two issues into separate ideas. The writing in relation to women focuses mainly on beauty while the writing in relation to black people focuses more on discrimination. As we discussed different forms of discrimination in class, however, I realized that these two things cannot be separated because they are both basically the same problem. I have always learned about racism and discrimination, and been taught to view people of different races as equals. Discrimination against people of different races still exist today—but at least that racism is acknowledged as a problem. Similar to the boy that recognized and did not ignore Pauline’s deformed foot, it is comforting to know that an issue is at least being addressed. What’s scarier to me is the hidden and unacknowledged aspects of discrimination… particularly against females in my case. It physically gave me goose bumps when we decided in class that a black man would definitely be more acceptable than a white female as President. In that decision I saw how all of American society still perpetuates ingrained social stereotypes. I would first like to state that I am not a feminist. Nevertheless, feminism and struggles for female equality are not a new thing, and they are not considered as big of an issue as racism. Cancer becomes lethal by growing secretly. Similarly, discrimination becomes dangerous as it is secretly perpetuated by its roots—stereotypes.
((Pointing fingers is not the way))
Jessica points out that “it is bullshit for blacks to blame another race for not having the opportunity to have a decent life.” So too did Will state in class that it makes no sense to blame males for all the past and present oppression of women. I argued that D’Souza points fingers too readily in his arguments against liberals. Indeed, no one should blame a group of people for certain discriminations because the psychology of a group is too complicated to pin point one cause.
((An all-girls school both highlights and dispels female stereotypes))
I think that many people, and especially men, in America think that there is no longer bias against women. Having attended an all-girls high school and spent much time at the all-boys brother school next door I can tell you from personal experience that this is not true. The student body president, NHS president, and many other girls who took charge of my school were, in my opinion, much better leaders than my guy friends. I know that most of the boys also probably thought that the female leaders at my school could never be as strong leaders as the male leaders at the boys’ school. And, these opinions come from males that I consider to be open-minded and non-chauvinistic. These involuntary beliefs in the inferiority of women as leaders, even in many job situations, come from both males and females.


They stem from social stereotypes and the idea of gender. I think that as a result of biology, women naturally have more nurturing instincts while men naturally have more aggressiveness in everyday choices (and this statement is probably a stereotype on my part). But most views of women or men come from our idea of what it means to be a male or female. Society tells girls that it is okay to cry and express emotion just as it tells boys to be macho and suck it up. Girls are told to be dainty and gentle while boys are told to act tough and forceful. In reality, it is natural for boys and girls to both express emotion and act however they want. My freshman year of high school, I noticed these set roles more as I was surrounded by so much estrogen. The teachers specifically counteracted many societal gender roles, however, through assignments and guest speakers.

The very fact that the boys and girls of our class both focused on beauty and body image also highlights how stereotypes are trivialized to beauty and body image. Body image and self-esteem are extremely important, but they come from deeper labels given to both men and women.

Most of the time I do not even notice such labels, but sometimes I feel the sting when I have to wonder if I will be taken seriously because of my feminine appearance. It is difficult to see the stereotypes and the subsequent discrimination until you are actually stereotyped. By being stereotyped—in any case, not just for gender—one becomes an outsider and can see the dynamics of the larger group more clearly. The three prostitutes in The Bluest Eye, for example, had an outside perspective and saw a different side of married women: “although not their colleagues, so to speak, [the wives] nevertheless deceived their husbands [. . .] ‘Sugar-Coated Whores’ they called them” (Morrison 56).


Like many of us said, the media and fiction capitalize on stereotypes for entertainment and ease of understanding. I think that it is natural and important part of communication to make generalizations and comparisons. Professor Bump points out that “even fictional black families are stereotyped” (Bump 212). In the end, however, these stereotypes for understanding sake create a paradox. They never tell the whole story. After all, “stereotypes are simplistic” (Bump 212).

The Bluest Eye

((Women sexualized in Media: this is the main advertisement on Abercombie.com. Clothes do not even appear in the picture.))
Despite reminders to “not judge a book by its cover,” appearance changes the way people treat others. Instantly people make both conscious and subconscious associations with a certain appearance whether it is clothing style, hair cut, skin color, or body type. After all, if appearance never mattered then it would not be necessary to dress up for special occasions or for times that first impressions are important such as an interview. Logan discusses one example of an American beauty norm (blond hair and blue-eyes), but unnatural and computer enhanced images of all hair colors of woman run rampant throughout American media. In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Pecola is told she is ugly from “every billboard, every movie, [and] every glance”(Morrison 38). While not so extreme, even today women are degraded as sex objects in just about every add in magazines and billboards. I did not believe that this was true until I worked on a project about images of women in the media a few years ago. Even ads that one would not expect to be sexualized, like a car or shoe ad, contain scantily clothed women with hidden phallic symbols. Pecola experiences not only such “bodily stigmas of ugliness and feminitity” but also “the tribal stigma of being an African American” (Bump 192). Throughout the novel, it seems that many of her problems stem from self-esteem issues caused by wanting to conform to the images of a white person. At the end of the story, she asks Elihue Whitcomb for blue eyes one last time. And in the end he writes to God “I did what You did not, could not, would not do: I looked at that ugly little black girl, and I loved her” (Morrison 182). Thus we find that the need to fit in and to shape our appearances to the societal norm really amount to a desire for real love.
((Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: one cannot reach self-actualization without meeting basic needs))
The issue of love coincides with both issues of racism and judging by appearances. The black women in 1941 assumed that their husbands would eventually leave them, and they wonder how to “get somebody to love you”(Morrison 32). If a person has never been exposed to love based upon compassion and caring, then one may take this approach to force someone’s love. The main issue for the black individuals, however, was the danger in getting too attached. The culture of the novel takes loving with detachment to the extreme. In discussing children, for instance, one finds that the “cat will always know that he is her affection” (Morrison 86). Fear of separation and emptiness compels people to suppress love and emotions in order to protect themselves emotionally. Cholly also fears attachment, in a more twisted way, when he has “fears that [Darlene] would not like him, and fear that she would” (Morrison 45). Similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I think that if the basic needs such as food, shelter, and decent work are not met, then one cannot love with compassion or use the sympathetic imagination. Indeed, Pecola struggles to use her sympathetic imagination to care about a doll and she can “not generate any enthusiasm at the prospect of being a mother”(Morrison 20).

((Meringue Pie has no emotion and dehumanizes Maureen))
Without love, or with too much detached love, it is easy to dehumanize individuals and continue prejudices and racism. I know someone, for example, that always nicknames people she does not like. Just as Freida changes Maureen Peal’s name to “Meringue Pie,” I notice that when my friend uses nicknames such as “sleezy” and “lamp boy,” it is much easier to insult the nicknamed person and forget about his or her humanity.

Furthermore, being born into institutionalized racism creates a backward society. The characters throughout the Bluest Eye, for example, often express hatred toward those that they care about rather than the people that are hurting them. They express anger at themselves and at the world, probably a result of pity and fear. If we perpetuate ignorant stereotypes, then we continue prejudices. It is society that must be feared, then. As Morrison asserts, “the Thing to fear was the Thing that made [Maureen Peal] beautiful, and not us” (Morrison 74).